My dad is a morning person. Every morning he gets up, gets ready and either whistles or sings throughout the whole house waking up the whole family. As each of us walk into the living room like zombies, he greets us, "Good morning, Tia!" From all five of the rest of the members of my family he typically receives a grunt, moan or a bleak, "hi." My dad then proceeds to read to us from the book we read every morning. He asks us questions as we read, we hardly ever answer coherently. Afterward, he leaves to work, kissing us each on the forward or patting our backs and wishing each of us a fabulous day!! I have always envied my father in this regard. My new goal is to be my dad in my morning classroom. My extension of this goal is for my students to also become my dad in our classroom. With his morning attitude in all 30ish of us we can conquer the world!
Sylvia Allan is a gem. She came to our Differentiation class at school and presented her classroom Morning Meeting components. She has one of those attitudes like my dad.
Her Morning Meeting agenda is:
*Class Creed
*Greeting (Monday Only)
*Pledge
*Memorization
*Class Business
-Vegetables
-Dessert
-Medicine
*News
*Share
*Class Cheer
There are two critical rules:
1. NEVER sit at your desk during Morning Meeting (This is NOT planning time!)
2. It is not a therapy session for us or the students.
First, those who sit at their desks during morning meeting are idiots. How could they miss that? Sylvia Allan discussed how she has had students tell her vitally life changing important things thanks to morning meeting that they have never told anyone. I want to be the kind of teacher that a student can go to if they help with anything. Second, I love what she said about Morning Meeting not being a therapy session for the teacher or the students, they are merely sharing info and facts, having discussion and learning about each other.
Sylvia Allan uses proximity as a reward for good students. I love this! Give the attention to students who are behaving properly as motivation for the other students.
During Morning Meeting, make sure students understand everything they are saying in both their class creed, memorization, Pledge, news, cheer, everything. Take it slowly one at a time and not all in one day, but make sure they know what they are saying. You probably wondering specifically what Dessert, Vegetables, and Medicine are. I shall explain: Vegetables are things that are good for us, things we are going to do that day or that need to be fixed from the day before. Dessert are the specific things that they did well the day before. And Medicine is used when there is a problem that can't be fixed any other way. It is nasty, but cures the ailment. (They also have a Literary Term and Quote everyday.)
My favorite thing to hear about in Sylvia Allan's lesson is how the students bonded with each other and with her. I loved hearing how they all became friends, even the ones who were quiet or a little bit odd. Their friendship carried into the next year and included all of their new classes. Morning Meeting helped students in her class to find who they were and how they learn, if that's not a perfect example of a Differentiated classroom, I don't know what is. :)
Morning Meetings brings people together. Let's all be Morning People!!
I loved this blog... especially hearing about your dad, and how you want to do for your students what your dad does for your family. That's powerful! 5 pts.
ReplyDeleteTia. You never fail to make me laugh out loud. You always talk from your heart and it amazes me. I loved the story about your dad and the book that you read every morning. I love cool dads. I loved Sylvia Allen too. I think that there are so many things that a morning meeting will cure in the classroom just by having it everyday. Tia you are so powerful in everything you do and say. I just love you.
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