We had a class meeting today. I know, it’s not Friday, but this was when we had time for it. (If you’re new here or need a reminder of how we do class meetings, see this link.)
So we sat down, like normally, in a circle on our carpet. I put up the class meetings flipchart and Archie got ready with the pen to mark our thoughts. Today, instead of having the red dot count for things we thought we could do better on, though, I rephrased it to just be “things we want to talk about.” I thought this might help some kiddos who might look at the list and not see an “issue.” Here’s what our dots looked like before we started our main conversation:
See all those red dots on Super SS on Monday? Well that was related to the post about Monday’s Social Studies time and how well it went. And unlike our usual class meeting conversations, they wanted to talk about it because it went so well! YAY! As they went back and forth and shared, I kept hearing kiddos share how they thought it was a great day and why they thought so. I heard them saying that they liked how they could work on the reading part in reading and then the SS part in Social Studies, how I had picked their groups for them (they admitted that often they don’t choose wisely and end up wasting their learning time), how they could work with me to make sure they knew what to do and then focus in to go and do it. They knew that it was a good day and they wanted today’s SS time to be the same. But then my friend Abigail asked a very important question: We know that we want it to be great again today, but it’s not as easy as just saying we’re going to do it. How will we make it happen? I love it when a kid reads my mind and says exactly what I’m thinking! So many times they just say that their solution is that they’re not going to do whatever we were discussing that the problem was. And usually that doesn’t work. Abigail knew that and was brave enough to call us on it.
They then took a little bit of time to discuss this, and made a plan for how they would go and get their work done in a focused manor again today. And they did. 🙂
20somethingkids and 1kookyteacher 
I like the class meeting but truthfully I feel nervous when M takes out the piece of paper and tracks how much we talk . I think she does it because she wants to involve the people who haven’t talked but I feel like if I have a really good idea and want to share but I’ve have already talked 3 times , I feel nervous and end up not talking because I think if I do I am going to get in trouble . I think its pretty obvious who the people who talk more and don’t talk as much and invite them in instead of writing it down.
I think that when we played the music today it really helped me , regane my self foccus and have more self control in my body. Maybe it could a be a daily thing? . + I loved the game . But i think we can beet 54 seconds. ;] ;] ;]
LOVE , YOUR BIGEST FAN!!!!!!!!
p.s Lauren Eiler
I agree with Archie that no one should mark down our names on how much we talked. I think we should know if we have been talking too much and then invite someone in on the conversation.
I think we made SS good on Tuesday and Wednesday. When we have something fun and new and we like it, we are focused and we concentrate on our work. Maybe doing Wordale again and a picture would be really cool.
So happy SS is going well. I would like to come and learn Mancala when you get to that!
Mrs. Sisul–Absolutely! We’ve actually already played a little with kids who already knew it. Maybe I will have Z teach you–he would love that and is already a pro! I’ll try to remember when we all play it together. Just need to wrangle up a couple of other sets of it. KE showed us where to play it online, too, at http://www.softschools.com/games. 🙂
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