The First Week of Second Grade

I’ve met my kiddos.  They are AMAZING!  So different from last year’s group of students.  I can already tell that we’re going to have an AWESOME year together!  I only have one student who is super challenging, behavior-wise.  One other who has some coping issues, but it’s all manageable.  Another who is super low academically, but we’ll work on it!  Overall, a much different class than last year’s group of students.  Isn’t every year like that, a new group and a new journey?

Last week, I posted a peek at my week.  Let me tell you . . . we did not do it all!

Here’s a few glimpse of what we did get to this week and a few cool new toys we get to play with!

Community Building Puzzle

On the first day of school, I lay out puzzle pieces on students’ desks in the morning.  When students come in, they find their piece, write their name and color their puzzle piece.  In years past, I’ve written student names to make sure they are facing the the right direction and large and bold; however, this year, I let students write their own names.

Later in the day or week, we put the puzzle together as a collaborative effort. The puzzle has a boy and a girl puzzle.  On the back of each piece, I write an M or an F and then sort students into two groups on either side of the classroom.  The small group of students puts the puzzle together.

This team did very well working together, except for one student, and was able to complete their puzzle.  The second team couldn’t figure out how to get started and work together.  They needed a bit more hand holding and never did finish their puzzle.

The puzzle pieces come from my Community Building Puzzle product.

Positive Classroom Discipline

I’m really working this year on positive reinforcement, instead of negative consequence.  I’ve gotten rid of our color card / clip system.  I even had my most challenging student ask at the end of the first day, “Do we have a behavior chart?”.  I said no, we’ve go something even better.  He asked what and I said he had to wait to find out.

Enter the Super Improver Team from Whole Brain Teaching.  I’m going to LOVE doing this over the year.  The wall cards are free here.  The stars I cut out from my Cameo.  Next year, I may just use paper and cut it into rectangles.  The stars were time consuming and a pain to cut out.  But, I LOVE the effect.  Students have seen the wall cards and the title, but not their stars, as I put them up Friday afternoon after they left.

I think the biggest challenge for the Super Improver Team is noticing my students who aren’t as vocal or problematic.  They’re quite and I spend so much more time with those who are louder that I forget to pay attention the others.  Doesn’t that happen every year?  Do you have any suggestions?  If you do WBT and the Super Improver’s Wall, how to do you keep track of student goals / improvements?

Later in the year, we will set some behavior goals using our SMART Goals Forms.  The goals students set will translate into stars on the improvement wall.  It’s a long process, though!

Student Notes on Desks

I’m also leaving daily notes on students’ desks.  I have a checklist and try to leave 4-5 notes a day, with the intention of leaving one note per student over the course of a week.  I may slow down as the year progresses.  Students come in each morning to see who has received a note.

This is my student with poor coping skills.  When he was one of the few who didn’t have a computer / iPad (we don’t quite have enough), he was very disappointed.  But, he came around and played the math game (after he complained loudly about not knowing what to do and about it being boring!).  These are just things I know I need to set as goals for him.  There’s definitely room for improvement!

Learn how to Be Together

One of my goals the first week of school (well actually all school year) is helping students learn how to be together in our classroom.  We do a ton of cooperative learning activities during the first week of school.  I also teach students cooperative routines, such as think-pair-share, talking stick, and inside-outside circle.

Talking Stick is one of the routines that we start on the first day with our morning journals.  Everyday when students walk into the room, I have a journal prompt on the whiteboard.  Students spend about 10-15 minutes responding to the journal as I take attendance and we get settled for the day.

I have 6 table groups with four students each.  As students are finishing their journals, I explain about the talking stick and that only the student with the talking stick can talk.  I also touch on what the other students at the table should be doing (listening) and how to do it (look at the student who is talking, not writing, etc.).  Then I give one stick to each table.  I hand it to a specific student so that there is no grabbing of the stick.

Overall, my kiddos did an amazing job during the first week.  We learned our WBT rules, we practiced how to do Teach-Okay and Switch.  We did some community building.  We got to know each other.  Success!

So, how was your first week?