Syllabus Project-Week 3

Robert Burns, To A Mouse, is often quoted: The best laid schemes o'mice an' men/Gang aft a-gley. This is so fitting for this week. We did not have school Tuesday or Wednesday due to a huge storm. Most of the city lost power including many of the schools in my district. I lost power for one day and internet for another day. It was a blessing and a curse to my week. Blessing in that I was able to catch up on some much needed rest but curse in that it interrupted my flow. This is not a good interruption given we are also coming up on two weeks of four day weeks. I thought my reflection of this past week was going to be about all of what I was excited about happening. Now my sharing is about how do you adjust for the unexpected. This is probably a better post after all.

Original Plan

Monday started the process of students experiencing some of the rituals and routines now that schedules would not be changed as much. The first two weeks of school includes a lot of movement and enrollment of students. Given this constant change, I use it as an opportunity for students to experience different settings with temporary seating assignments. I change the classroom desks into two configurations so that students can experience possible classroom layouts they want to recommend. This week is the last configuration change until the students vote on the final classroom layout. See the three different configurations below.

This is also the first week students start to experience some of the set procedures of the class. There are only a few non-negotiables and even within these procedures, they have some voice and choice. The set procedures are:

• You must be in the room before the bell rings to not be considered tardy. This is how students earn the minimum hero point allotment that is a school wide implementation.
• Grab devices (iPad/Chromebook and Graphing Calculator) that matches their assigned number, pick up a handout if applicable, pull out their paper or notebook and complete roses and thorns within the first 5 minutes of class (Students have voice in regards to what they share with the small group or entire class for rose/thorn and students have a choice of where the materials will be placed in the room).
• Put away all classroom materials neatly before the bell rings. This could occur during the work time or the last five minutes of class which is another choice option for students. 
• Selected students share their understanding with the class and complete a reflection or exit slip.

In addition to starting to practice these routines, Monday was designed to review their graded assignments and reflect on how they need to alter some of their strategies for learning. Students found out I realize my class is not a structure they are used to so they have an opportunity to improve their grade. We reviewed their graded assignments and I modeled basic reflection of an assignment and use of time to learn. I shared how they would be given another opportunity to improve their grade in a couple of days. The concluded the day with updating their zoom sheet with questions they have and began to work on the actual individual learning plan. They turned in the zoom sheet so that I can see  evidence of better questions as a result of the reflection done as a class.  

Pick Up Where We Left Off??? 

I had originally planned to give them two more days of practice while also asking them questions through nearpod to see if their thinking had been refined on certain skills. The missing of two days required me to make some adjustments. I needed to do the reassessment so that their grade could improve and I couldn't ask them as many questions as I planned to see into their thinking. I decided to just give them one day of practice instead of two and emphasize how much they need to really use this day to be ready for a quiz the following day. I decided just to ask if they felt they needed a lesson on note taking to help them learn the material better. I reminded them that saying no is okay. I would do pull out lessons just for those who want the help. This allowed me to see if some students who I think are fine also felt they didn't need the help. I was pleasantly surprised when a student in one hour said they are going to say yes even though they think they are good at taking notes. They said "it can't hurt to learn some more things." Below is a picture of one of the classes results.

You can find the resources I used for this project at this link.