Reflecting on Open Seating in the Classroom

Last summer I explored Student-Led Learning in depth and pledge to reflect upon that practice-and I failed at it!  Miserably!  However, I did not fail upon the practice of this, including my pledge to try Open Seating.  Open Seating is different than Flexible Seating as it allows students to find their own seat in the classroom.  In best practice, it is done on a daily basis.  (Check this article out!)  Upon reflecting on open seating in the classroom, here's what I found worked for me.

What "Kind of" Worked!

First, I did try the idea of weekly moving of students.  That is the best I could do with this practice.  We never moved into the ability to do a daily change.  It was a huge investment in weekly changes when I was working on that practice.  I slowly moved into bi-weekly, which ended up becoming monthly.  I just could NOT put that much time into moving students around, not in this testing environment.  In addition to this, my administration became REALLY strict about bell-to-bell instruction.  That included on Friday.  We had our RtI invention at the end of the day, including Fridays.  I just could NOT fit everything in.  So, it became a monthly changing of seats.  

Second, we tried truly Open Seating.  It worked for a good amount of students.  However, as you would predict, there were "those" kids who just could not do it.  It was fewer than I thought it would be, which was surprising.  Students had to be reminded to try new friends, even with the idea of trying subjects, etc.  They tended to still want to migrate to their friends.  Or, carry on a pattern.  

Surprising Finds

Patterns-we soon discovered that certain students had patterns, including areas of the classroom that they wanted to sit in.  It was very hard for these students to want to be flexible.  At first, when kids found "their" spots, I allowed for them to stay in that location for more than one rotation.  But then they never wanted to move!  It became a need because as the year progressed, some of the other students needed to be separated.  Same problems as a regular class!  The thing I kept coming back to is that I wanted them to feel comfortable in a spot that they felt allowed for them the best opportunity to learn.  That was the hardest thing to balance.  

Partnerships-This was the most interesting discovery!  Students really do have the ability to find learning partners.  It quickly became apparent that this Open Seating opportunity allowed for partnerships to strengthen and grow.  Frequently, students began to sit together.  I began to watch these partnerships closely, to see if there was value within them.  There was!  I then gave permission for those partners to begin to stay together!  This was amazing, but came with some consequences.  Just like anything, this could wear on these kids.  They actually then knew that it was time to move apart-and WOULD!  Soon, these teams were back at it, working together although their seats were not.  AWESOME!  

Overall, I'd try Open Seating in my classroom again.  Students can and do monitor their choices.  They do determine where the best learning location in a room is. They do know when to give up friends and move to working partnerships.  Again, this applies to the vast majority of students.  Just like in anything, reflecting on open seating in the classroom is just as good for students as it is for the teacher!  

Let me know your thinking on Open Seating in the Classroom!  I'd love to know if you have tried it or you are willing to try it!  If you are, I have just the product to get you started!  Find it in my store!  In the meantime, drop your thoughts in the comments!  

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How to Request Supplies You Need at Back-to-School Night (Or Open House!)

Do you spend a lot of time agonizing over how to request supplies you need during your Back to School Night or Open House?  Many teachers use lists to show parents what they need for  the learning that goes on in their classroom.  Have you ever thought to use a themed Giving Tree for this all important request list?  Here are a few ideas for your classroom donations!

Easy to Use Design

These Giving Trees are totally easy to use!  Inside each of the Giving Trees you will find the letters to complete your display, the 8.5' x 11" poster that communicates the fact that you need to get those supplies for your classroom, and awesome frames for you to write your supplies on.  Everything you need!

Displaying Your Giving Tree

These are super easy to display too!  All you need is a white board, a bulletin board, your classroom door, or a display board!  I've seen them done in all of these ways!  Here's how you put this together.

1.  Print out all of the materials you will need.
2.  Cut out the letters and other items.  You may want to laminate them because you can sue them year after year!
3.  Write your wish list items one at a time on each frame.
4.  Display your Giving Tree in your room!
5. Get those supplies!  Whoot!!

Things to Remember!

Think across your school year and subjects for your supply needs.  Think about those craft projects or those STEM activities that escape you right now! Holiday parties and events are another thing to think about!  Dig into your year and go from there!  

It is always key to thank parents for the supplies that they send in.  Simply sending a thank you note is one of the easiest ways to thank them.  One great way to show everyone what supplies were donated and say thank you all at once is to make a picture collage of all the goodies and send it out to all the parents at once!  It's a super fun way to show your thanks!

Themes!

There are so many themes available that you should find something that meets your needs!  If you don't see one here, I could probably whip one up for your needs!  Simply leave a comment or email me at classroombestdays@gmail.com to share your idea!  Here are the themes available in my store now!

                                    

            

       

       

       

As you can see, using Giving Trees to request supplies you need at Back-to-School Night or Open House can be a simple and fun process.  I'd love to see you try one out!  Drop a comment if you have other ideas of how to ask for supplies!  We'd love your suggestions!

Want to discover more about how to make your classroom more student-led during the first week of school?  Check out this blog post!

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How to Hack the Dreaded Teacher Observation Rubric to Save You Time

Each year as teacher observations come around, everyone starts to panic!  One of the panics include:

"How in the WORLD am I going to get my student created rubric done for the lesson they are going to see!"

Yep!  Every. Single. Time!!  After my first year of getting "dinged" I realized that it can't just be for this observation, this moment. What are we really doing in our classrooms that things like this are only good enough for observation moments?  Do we not realize YET that kids aren't going to play into that kind of thing and that administrators (or, at least, let's hope) get that the kids have no idea what they are using that rubric for!  The fact is, every classroom should be creating rubrics with students and for students! But, we struggle with allowing them to create, to impact their learning and, in all of this, make our rubric rock for our observations!  I think I have found the PERFECT Teacher Observation Rubric Hack!  

How to Hack your Teacher Observation Rubric

First, determine what your end results for your observation needs to be.  This is what they students will be learning in the lesson that you are going to be teaching.  You want this to be fresh and new-nothing they have totally mastered.  If they have some ideas, that's ok.  My admin looked at my finished rubric and specifically asked if the students gave those outcomes.  I was able to say no!  That was a good thing.  My admin said that if they were able to give the outcomes in 4 levels, there was zero reason to do the lesson!  So, keep that little tidbit in mind as you are planning your observation!  

Next, create an anchor chart with the titles.  I simply headed it STEM and added a column for "Behaviors" and one for "Scientific Knowledge."  Your second column will be your curriculum focus.  You can even change your behaviors column to something like, "Grammar Elements" or "Center Work"-anything you need for your lesson!  Get creative!  

Now comes the magic!  Gather your students to your carpet or meeting spot!  Explain that your administration will be coming into your classroom to record the story of your class.  I take this route because our administration talks to the students and writes things down.  This totally scared my kids the first time they did this because they have little to no contact with administration.  By explaining that they are writing a narrative piece, they are ok when they see their names being written down on the paper or computer they are using.  I tell them to be open to the story and to add whatever they can to make our classroom story be the best!  Next, I  introduced the chart.  My students knew that we would be observed and what we would be doing.  I shared this again with them and then asked them to think of other times we have worked through an activity like this!  We worked first on the behavior side.  I had them turn and talk about what behaviors they felt were key to this activity.  Then, here's the magic, I had them record information for behaviors with the idea that 4 was the best work and 1 was the lowest performing behaviors.  They could write to whatever they felt they know the most about!  All it take is one student's ideas to make this work, so don't stress that they are all perfect statements!  
Now, do this again with "general" knowledge of your topic.  Remember, you are not looking for them to nail it!  You want them to be general so you can adapt it, etc. to your needs!  You get to nail it!  

Whats Next?

Now, pull that chart off just as it is, take it home or someplace quiet, and get to work!  Here's what you do!  
1.  Set up a table in PowerPoint or some other document that will allow you to create the rubric.  You could also create it on another sheet of paper for display.
2.  Look for great quotes from students that you can adapt to the positive just enough to make your rubric work! 
3.  Look for levels of learning expectations (See the level 1 in that pic!)  
4. Create the teacher observation rubric from the students' statements and ADD THEIR NAME where their statement connects on the rubric!  Yep, nothing causes ownership like their names on a rubric!  
5.  You add the content specifics and add names only where needed.  Notice on mine, it is only at Level 1 because they actually targeted their struggles in this statement.  That came out during my observation!  

Easy-peasy!  And, you have a beautifully designed teacher observation rubric with student-led learning wrapped inside!  This took me considerably less time than the rubric I made the year before.  That one took me DAYS of class time, because we had to do it in small doses!  This one was quick and easy!  Students loved their names on it and many were impressed that they even had the thoughts they did!  The only thing we did in addition to these steps was to share the actual content of the rubric the day before the observation.  Students also had a copy in their STEM folders and I was able to refer to it and remind them of their scoring criteria throughout the observation!  All in 1/2 the time of the previous rubric development in my classroom!  

How about you?  Have you developed an easy way to create a student-led observation rubric?  If so, I'd love to hear all about it!  Drop a comment and let us know!  

The product I used for my observation is available in my TpT Store!  

Want to read more about my ideas on the Teacher Observation System?  Check out this post!  

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