Mary Carter-Osborne
Snapshot
This World DOES Revolve Around You!
Do you think the world revolves around you? I can remember being asked that as a middle school student, and automatically I knew what my re1ponse should have been, (No) Now as a middle school teacher, I wonder how empowered my students would feel if 1 told them that their learning environment DID revolve around them. If they were given the choice to work in a space that promotes successful and respectful collaboration, an essential real-world skill needed for future success. My current classroom is a room filled with desks and four-folding chairs. I am always asked by students to sit in the folding chairs. The rolling chairs are viewed as the prime seating location and often I use them as a motivational tool. I predict that by changing mv whole classroom seating and design adding new whiteboard walls, tables, chairs, and student choice student motivation and student engagement will improve.
Involve Me and I Learn
As a teacher, we live for the “light bulb” moments when you see that students nod of the head or eves that light up … that “aha moment”! In my classroom, many of those moments occur when students are in control of the lesson. Remarkably, when I have student-led activities and I am simply there facilitator or, student retention, rates increase! I know we have all seen the pyramid graphic of the Average Learning Retention Rates that illustrate this observation. At the very top of the pyramid with a 5% retention rate is Lecture.
Let’s MOVE Mountains at Mountain View
Mountain View Elementary is a Kindergarten through eighth-grade school, which results in limited use of the facilities tor all students. Physical Education classes are on average once a week, and outdoor, recess time is limited to once a week for the “middle grade” students. Because all tile classes are in dose proximity, students are even limited in the number of steps they get during clan change.