Partner Turn and Talk in Classroom Lessons

I use partner turn and talk as well as Think-Pair-Share at least once in all my lessons.  We received a whole series of professional development on the value of student-to-student discourse increasing student engagement and learning.  It is very important to establish clear expectations for how you expect students to act when talking to their partner.  When I discuss this with students in lower grades I always mention that when they are talking they are not touching their partner if they are sitting on the floor. All our teachers use these strategies, but not all do as good a job about practicing the procedures.  Depending on the purpose of the discussion you do not always need everyone to share out to the big group. Sometimes the sharing our serves as ongoing assessment if the students are learning the key concepts of the lesson, but other times you just want them to share their thoughts with a partner.

Is it a big deal or a little deal?

This book and CD from YouthLight is one of the favorite new resources I purchased at the VSCA Conference in the fall of 2014.  I taught a lesson to each of our 6 second grade classes using the interactive book, song, and posters in December.  We used to teach the DeBug Problem Solving steps to all kindergarten student and review them in grade 1.  That helped because most of the students had learned that they have to solve small problems themselves.  I like this because it does not emphasize tattling, but rather teaches specific strategies for various types of "little deals." The interactive book worked well on the class Smartboards and it is colorful and has motion which holds the students attention. At the end of the lesson I had them draw and label a "little deal" and a "big deal." For the "little deal" they had to use an appropriate strategy from the lesson.  The teachers love the strategy "I'm in charge of me!"  The CD also comes with a printable poster set.  I gave each classroom teacher a poster after the lesson to refer back to when students forget that they are in charge of l\"little deals." This is definitely worth the purchase price.

Grief Resources

There really are not that many good resources to help families dealing with the death a of a parent.  Most of the books that are out are old.  This is one that I would recommend even though it was published in 2001.

New Year - Unfortunately Another Crisis

Before school this morning I was asked to speak with a parent who shared that their spouse had passed suddenly last night.  We have experienced an unusual amount of death at our school in recent years including parents and siblings.  It always goes through my mind that the child experiencing this type of loss will "never be the same." I have a mental checklist that I run through the first day we as a school respond to this loss.  First we need a point of contact with the family and be sure we are only sharing what they want shared.  Generally our experience is the children who have experienced a tragic loss come to school every day until the services and return the next day.  I work with the teacher(s) on how to manage the child who is grieving and the class being told.  We generally tell the class that we want them to be caring, quiet, friends and to treat the child just like they were treated before the death.  Obviously this message is modified depending on the age level.  Many of our teachers are very young and have no prior experience with a death of someone who is not old.  I also remind myself that I have to practice self-care when managing this type of crisis on top of an already full schedule. I am going to go do some yoga and meditate now so I can be fully present tomorrow.

Friendship Theme for Classroom Lessons

Otoshi's Two, Hemingway's Bad Apple, and Fox's The Girls Q & A are all newer books on friendship that I am incorporating into lessons this month at various grade levels.  I am using these in addition to some of my favorites like Brown's How to be a Friend and Cook's Making Friends Is an Art. At kindergarten I use My Friend by Gomi.  After I read the book they all complete the sentence I learned ___ from my friend ____ and draw an illustration.   They all meet the new ASCA Mindset and Behavior Standard "Create positive and supportive relationships with other students."

Using Twitter Chat for online book discussion

I mentioned before that this year our staff/parent book selection is "Growing up social: Raising relationsl kids in a screen-driven world" by Chapman and Pellicane.  To promote discussion as we are reading the book we assigned a hashtag and we are planning a Twitter Chat 2 weeks before our evening Book Discussion. In the past we have tried both Blackboard and our web page to discuss books.  I will let you know if using this social media tool works. 

New ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors for Student Success: What about the Competencies?

ASCA has archived a second webinar on the ASCA Mindsets, focusing mainly on the competencies.  I encourage everyone to watch it.  The competencies are in a "bank" and ASCA or any member can add to the existing bank.  We need measurable competencies to evaluate the effectiveness of components of our programs. The initial competencies that have been released align with Common Core. We are not a Common Core state so I find myself rewriting them for my lesson and session plans.  I'd love to hear what your experience with the new Mindsets has been...