Teaching Terrific 2's!

During this particular week I headed down the junior hallway and found myself in a classroom full of grade 2's. I have to admit, I was nervous as my goal is to be an intermediate teacher and I was unsure of what to expect. To my surprise, they were well behaved, listened attentively and completed their work eagerly. The classroom walls were lined with anchor charts and student work. It felt like the students had really contributed to the creation of their classroom culture. On the door to the classroom was a sign which listed the three values the classroom agreed to which were to be respectful, kind, and responsible. Around this list were cut outs of students holding hands in which each student coloured their own. Before stepping foot in the door you could understand what the culture of this classroom would be. 

In my cohort class we spoke often about the importance of establishing a culture within the classroom and how important it was for the students to be apart of establishing what the core values would be. We also talked about the importance of establishing success criteria so that students would understand explicitly what was expected of them. Two anchor charts that jumped out at me were the buddy reading centre and learners never finish. The buddy reading showed what students could be doing while at that centre in order to be productive. It gives strategies for asking questions, providing feedback and having open discussion. It also allows the students to work independently as they can see what is expected of them on the chart. The other chart gives students a choice of tasks they can complete if they finish their work. Students understand that when they finish their class work they can immediately file and organize their duotangs, read independently, write, or practice their math problems. Again, this encourages independence and student success. Overall, this classroom represented the students and teacher extremely well and it was clear a lot of time and effort had gone in to establishing class norms and values that would contribute to a culture of respect, kindness and responsibility.