Oh my goodness!! I can't believe the new year is just about to start! I know many of you are already at least setting up your classrooms and participating in those dreaded professional developments! u g h h I start my "teacher week" on Monday .. which is my birthday :( boooo! For my last week of summer vacation Scott and I went to the jersey shore for a couple days with the dogs at his family's beach house! We found an AMAZING dog beach that the dogs LOVED! Long beach dog beach… definitely recommend it!!
All jokes aside as much as I don't want the summer to end I am SO excited for this next year!! Third year's a charm right? I feel that my first year was just trying to stay afloat, second year I was really starting to understand my teaching style and this year I can fuse a lot of it together!! I know I'm going to make mistakes but every year it gets better and better!
So, I've been thinking about how I'm going to manage and set up my classroom this year.. so the question I am pondering and what prompted me to make this post is:
Assigned seats or no assigned seats?!
In the past I have always had assigned seats and moved name tags around twice a quarter. There were behavior problems occasionally when I needed to move students but for the most part it worked ! However, as I am reflecting in first grade we are hardly in our seats!! I teach reading on the carpet, small groups at my table, math games everywhere!! The only time we are at our seats are during writing and assessments.
Another thought I have had is that I have been to all these workshops this summer that have been highlighting accountable talk and collaboration. How are we going to have the freedom to collaborate if we are stuck at the same seats for a month or two?!?
Am I crazy to consider not assigning seats to first graders??
I'll experiment this coming week and let you all know what I'm going to do!
So, I've been thinking about how I'm going to manage and set up my classroom this year.. so the question I am pondering and what prompted me to make this post is:
Assigned seats or no assigned seats?!
In the past I have always had assigned seats and moved name tags around twice a quarter. There were behavior problems occasionally when I needed to move students but for the most part it worked ! However, as I am reflecting in first grade we are hardly in our seats!! I teach reading on the carpet, small groups at my table, math games everywhere!! The only time we are at our seats are during writing and assessments.
Another thought I have had is that I have been to all these workshops this summer that have been highlighting accountable talk and collaboration. How are we going to have the freedom to collaborate if we are stuck at the same seats for a month or two?!?
Am I crazy to consider not assigning seats to first graders??
I'll experiment this coming week and let you all know what I'm going to do!