Slice of Life -- Overheard Last Week

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

We were taking a restroom break after the whole-school Town Hall meeting on Friday. Most of the class stood quietly in the hall, waiting for their friends to finish up and I asked if anyone knew what time it was. One boy looked at his watch and said, "11:11."

"Ooh!" I said. "Everyone close your eyes and make a wish!" When we opened our eyes, I exclaimed, "I wasted my wish! I should have wished for (insert name here) to have a successful surgery without pain!" (She had a blocked tear duct and a painful-looking swelling under her eye that wasn't responding to medication.)

On my right, (insert name here) chimed up brightly, "It's okay! That's what I wished for!"

On my left, (insert name here) asked, "What did you wish for, Ms. Hahn?"

"I wished for the rest of the school year to be as wonderful as these first three days," I replied.

And he said, "That's what I wished for, too!"

Joy.

Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for hosting Slice of Life on Tuesdays.

Questions for a Joyful, Kind and Reflective Classroom

·    

Over the summer I read a post by a teacher who asked her students in the morning class meeting what he/she was most looking forward to that day. I loved that question and the stage it set for each day in a classroom. I decided we'd use that in our morning meetings this school year.  As I continued to plan over the summer, I started to think about how all of our workshops have share times that could connect in some way. I wondered if we could connect learning across content with reflective questions that set the stage for joyful learning as well as reflection. With the help of Gretchen, our new literacy coach, I came up with a list of 10 questions to focus our conversations.  

I I wasn't sure how it would go but I created a sign for each question and posted the 10 questions in our meeting area. Before I even mentioned the question, kids were talking around them. They had noticed the questions and started thinking about them. So it has been easy to use these for general conversations and the kids have been amazing in the ways they are thinking about themselves in our classroom.  We use them throughout the day when we are gathered together for conversations.

I I have the questions posted and I plan to give them a copy of the questions on a single sheet for their notebooks.  These questions were a great way to kick off our school year and to help kids begin to think about what our year will be like. 

    What are you most looking forward to today as a   learner?

·         What do you have to celebrate today?

·         What did you learn about yourself as a learner today?

·         How were you kind today?

·        How did you get through something challenging today?

·        What do you understand today that you didn’t   understand before today?

·        What are you excited to share with someone today?

·        What did someone do to help you today?

·        How were you brave as a learner today?

·        How did your thinking change today?

Poetry Friday -- Joy

Joy

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

A Dragon-Fly with beauteous wing

Is hov’ring o’er a silv’ry spring;

I watch its motions with delight,

Now dark its colours seem, now bright;

Chameleon-like appear, now blue,

Now red, and now of greenish hue.

Would it would come still nearer me,

That I its tints might better see

It hovers, flutters, resting ne’er!

But hush! it settles on the mead.

I have it safe now, I declare!

And when its form I closely view,

’Tis of a sad and dingy blue

Such, Joy-Dissector, is thy case indeed.

Live, love, and let it go...

Libby has the roundup today at A Year of Literacy Coaching.