Blog #4

Tell me about any part of Principal Sylvia Allan's presentation that "struck a chord" in you, (either positively or negatively), and how you think it will affect you in your teaching. I really enjoyed Principal Allan’s presentation but there were three things that I either disagreed with or am still processing and reflecting on. The first was that the students don’t need to sit in a circle. I do agree with this. I have been told I will have between 29 and 32 students next year; one of the teachers this year has 35 students. There just isn’t the room to make a circle with all those desks. But she said the reason that Krietee says to make a circle is so that students won’t be constantly touching each other and goofing off. I thought it was so that everyone could be seen and heard. She also said that the students don’t touch and pick on each other. I disagree with this. I have observed many classrooms that do morning meetings or go to the rug for other activities and in some of those classes the students are playing with the person’s hair, or shirt that is sitting in front of them or the person in front is laying on the person behind them and there are always the students in the back that are kneeling because they can’t see but that just makes it so the students behind them can’t see either. But with rug time rules, good classroom management and a true feeling of community, these distractions can be minimized if not done away with completely.

The second item that I disagreed with was that the greeting only needs to be done on Monday. I feel that the greeting is an important, every day part of the Morning Meeting. The greeting is one of the elements that help students from different cliques speak to each other. Also we don’t know what has happened to our students on their way to school. Maybe they didn’t have time for breakfast, or they were running late so mom was yelling or they felt like no one noticed them in the shuffle of siblings and neighbor kids on the way to school. Being acknowledged, by name, by one’s peers could be the exact thing that student needed that day to feel loved and appreciated.

The third item was when she told us about the boy that couldn’t read or memorize. The story had a happy ending and everyone is different but to me, at first, it felt like to much attention was being drawn to him. But as I listened to the conference again on black board, I realized that she asked Hunter if he wanted to share with the class why he was so upset or if he wanted to get himself together on his own. Hunter made the decision to share with the class. She had created a place where Hunter felt safe and secure enough to share his pain with his peers and without telling them that Hunter couldn’t read she gave the students the opportunity to help Hunter succeed. I am the type of person that needs to hear or read things several times and really think about them before I can learn them or form an opinion on them. I am glad I went back and listened to the conference again.

I really liked how Principal Allen divided up the class business into vegetables, dessert and medicine. It is fun to see how different people put their own style into Morning Meetings.