I love to be on Instagram, Pinterest and read various blogs. I am BIG on following other teachers. I love to see what is going on in classrooms around the country. This gives me inspiration. It allows me to collaborate with teachers all over the nation to provide a better class for your children. Many times my ideas are not really original to me. I find them by reading a blog, seeing a Pinterest board, or viewing an Instagram post. I may tweak them to fit my room if it is something I want to try - such as, the flexible seating idea-but the original idea belonged to someone else. These teachers are such wonderful professionals for sharing their visions and concepts. One teacher in particular that is just an inspiration is Mr. Ron Clark.
For those of you who don't know, Ron Clark is a good ole southern boy who decided he needed to teach school in Harlem, NY. It is a long story, but basically, Mr. Clark worked and inspired children in one of the poorest socio-economic areas in the country to become TOP NOTCH students. Mr. Clark then went on to open his own school in Atlanta, GA. It is is private school that only allows students with the most NEED of his particular skills. I am DYING to go observe in his school.
One of the things his school is known for is the 100% student engagement rate. Yes, you heard me correctly...he gets 100% of his students to pay attention and stay on task! WHAT!!??? HOW!!?? I want to know the secret. I have watched countless videos of Mr. Clark's classrooms (not just his teaching-but also teachers in his employ). I was even lucky enough one year to hear him speak in person!! I have begged Mr. Pennington to let me fly to Atlanta and tour his facility and observe a day or two of learning. Maybe if I nag enough, he'll let me go-hehe. It fits my PGP (professional growth plan -for those of you who are non-educators). I have been working toward increased student engagement for the last couple of years. School should not be boring. It should be where students go to soak up knowledge. Okay, yeah everything can't be fun and games, but for the most part, school should be, well...cool.
I implemented the flexible seating arrangement to increase engagement. It is a great success when doing partner work, but a bit of a challenge (time management wise) during work stations. We held a class meeting....well, not really a meeting - more of a lecture...on the importance of responsibility. For the flexible seating to work, then students HAVE to be responsible.
Work stations were also a throw-back to my early childhood days...short work stations kept my first graders from losing their ability to attend to tasks. I decided this might work with 5th graders. The only real problem is that they like to work in certain stations more than others and were under the impression they could just do whatever they wanted. We cleared that misconception, as well.
I want students to enjoy coming to class. I want them to leave with a wealth of knowledge that they wouldn't otherwise have. I want to encourage them that even if literacy is difficult, its not impossible. It just takes hard work.
I want to leave you this week with a video of Ron Clark. Its a little long, but I think it is worth it. I absolutely LOVE his philosophy and he is one of the reason I teach the way I teach and have such high expectations for ALL my students. Someday, I hope I get the chance to become "slide certified". You'll have to watch the video to find out what that means.
Happy reading-
Mrs. Tipton
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