Erin Bas in the great state of Tennessee offers some jewels for us, ideas she is testing out as we crank up another year. This stuff sparkles. Here is the first jewel from Erin:
Hi Ben –
I took a break this summer from checking anything school-related, which included your blog. School is back in session in my neck of the woods, so I’ve been catching back up with the CI world lately.
I just wanted to share with you and the group some things that I started implementing this year.
1. I have found a compromise on the desks/no desks situation. In the front of my room, by the board, I cleared the area of any furniture. My students arrange themselves in a semi-circle on the floor during ‘story time,’ as they are calling it. Some of them lean on the radiator or perch on top of the desks, but the rule is to have nothing in their hands. That time is for listening and responding, and while I have just had a couple days back with the kids, I really like it. I get more eye contact and more buy-in about the storytelling rules. It serves as a transition time for kids to stand up and move around, and it also reminds me to hold myself to 15 minute bursts before sending kids back to their seats to do something else, because sitting on the floor too long can be uncomfortable. It’s a lot less disruptive than my system that I abandoned last year, in which students shoved desks aside and pulled out chairs for story asking. It helps that I have carpet, and a big enough room to do this in.