IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

On Monday, November 12 the Block A students took part in a mini-workshop that focused on classroom environment. Mr. Nunn, Ms. Fogler and Bob Price led the workshop and it was highly successful! We formed groups and completed brain mapping activities to express our thoughts and questions toward the idea of environment as the third teacher. We also engaged in a “field trip” to the PreSchool room! Ms. Fogler wanted to show off the work her students had been doing with food coloring, water and plastic bottles. We were invited to explore the provocation they had set up in the hallway. Our class later found out that the PreSchoolers spend most of their time investigating how the bottles full of water respond to sunlight, but most of us found it more interesting to smell and shake them. How intellectual of us, right?
After the field trip we hiked back down to our classroom to play around with the idea of furniture as a part of the environment. Mr. Price arranged the chairs in many different ways and asked us to really think about what each set up allowed in terms of classroom communication and openness. From there we concluded our workshop by asking any lingering questions and discussing how we might implement this into our practicum classrooms.

Written by: Rachel Head, Mollie Bates and Margaret Hurt

Day 2 of chickens went great! The children helped so much and we got two more eggs from the chickens. The children have really been excited to take care of them. To see their empathy towards them has been beautiful. I look forward to seeing the last two groups go!

Today I noticed Miss Jeffrey conferencing with Shaniyia during Story Workshop. She had a dry erase board and was working with Shaniyia on listening to all of the sounds in the words (especially vowels) she is saying before writing them down. It was a beautiful lesson on differentiated instruction and vowel work. At that moment, I thought of how proud I was to have an opportunity to mentor such a wonderful teacher in training!

One of the many wonderful things about our school is that as teachers we are constantly reflecting and trying to better our practices.  This week Mrs. Grotjan and I rearranged our normal studio times so that I would have the opportunity to observe in other classrooms around the school.  The children went to the studio today for two hours instead of their usual one hour slot on Monday or Tuesday.  In the studio they were studying the illustrations from the books written by the authors that we are studying in Story Workshop.  In Mrs. Grotjan’s second classroom space, the students were given free exploration time. The students explored many materials including musical instruments and light tables.  The children were able to do something different today while I was able to learn from the other great teachers and children in our building!

The other day, at the end of math workshop, one of our friends was upset that they had not been able to get the correct answer for one of our division problems the first time they tried to solve it. She figured it out in a couple of minutes but was still frustrated by the process.

Instead of doing a normal sharing about our problems solving strategies at the end of math workshop that day, I decided to lead a community circle discussion about learning instead. I shared with the class that I remember being in first grade and thinking that learning how to read was really hard. I didn’t feel confident in my reading, so instead, I would just have other friends read to me. I told the kids that sometimes I felt mad or sad or frustrated when I was learning how to read, because it was hard for me. Then I shared how, in second grade, after lots and lots of practicing, I was suddenly able to read and I never stopped.

I then invited each child in our class to share a time (past or present) when they were trying to learn how to do something new and it was challenging for them. Many kids shared things that were hard for them to learn. They were very honest as they talked about their feelings. I was very proud of them!

I could tell it was good for every child to see that they were not the only one who felt challenged by learning something new. Together, we talked about strategies we could use when we were learning something and feeling frustrated. Kids said that they could…

1) Keep trying and practicing. They said they shouldn’t give up.

2) ask a friend for help.

3) Take lessons

A couple months ago a went to a class at my gym that I had never been to before. I was quickly reminded, even as an adult, how hard it can be to learn something new for the first time. It can be frustrating and even embarrassing to feel like you’re the only one who doesn’t know how to do something.

What a great reminder to remember what learning can look like for our kids. In the coming weeks, and throughout the rest of the year, I intend to have more opportunities to come together as a class and celebrate our EFFORTS towards learning. Really, that is so much of what learning is all about!

We started something new in morning meeting this week: sharing stories!  Each day, during morning meeting we have a sharing time.  In the past, the kids have had a chance to bring in items from home and talk about them.  While this has been successful I gave the kids a challenge on Monday.  Could we still share, but not have any physical items in our hands?  Could we share stories from our life?  The kids were so excited about this!  We have had so many stories over the past few days.  I feel like these stories are really helping build our community.  The kids are so engaged in listening to the others and finding out about what is happening outside of school.  They are genuinely concerned and have a lot of questions to ask.  It is great to see the kids so involved in “outside school” life!  I have to say that this is turning into one of my favorite parts of the day 🙂