Two Great Weeks That Go Well Together

We have just finished our second week of school and I am happy to share that it feels like we've been here for weeks. I am impressed by the students' ability to find focus and bring their best thinking to our time together. It feels like we are already a community, ready to pick up where we left off two months ago. 

Last week, I asked the students to finish this sentence, "We are a community of..."

I asked the students to reflect on their previous years at Mason-Rice and their experiences in the library program. I am exceedingly pleased that they used active expressions that demonstrate that they see the library as both a place where they not only consume information, but also produce it. 

Here are some of their answers:

This week, the question was, "How do you want other to see you?"

There will be more on this lesson in the next post, but, instead of focusing on classroom rules, I wanted to place the onus on the students in a different way. I wanted them to think about how they wanted their classmates to view them as learning partners and members of our community. I did not model any words. I gave them a few minutes of think time and then listened to their responses. I had this same conversation with nineteen classrooms of students grades 1-5. 

Here are some of the responses they shared:

Two great weeks that go well together!

I think the traits that they hope others see 

enables us to achieve such an active learning environment.

I created two window displays in our learning area. I hope that by seeing these two windows, the students will be reminded and inspired to be all that they can be and all we can be together.

(* During the first week, I wish I had put more of a focus on the type of community we can be as opposed to the type of community we are.)