Crate Seats

Using one of our favorite tools, Pinterest, Carrie found instructions on how to make crate seats for each child.  We made crates for each child and they will be able to use the crates anywhere in the room.  The crates also create a storage space for all of their individual Personalized Learning materials.  We were able to make 72 crates in one fun-filled Friday.  I think after hearing our plans to use power tools our principal was a little concerned for our safety and let us borrow a staple gun which made the process much faster.  The above link was what we based our idea on, but the following is how we made our seats.

We planned to make enough crates in case of high classroom numbers and it ended up being a good plan because we have a lot more children this year.  If following the link above, she made 8 crates for her classroom.  I am not going to lie, we did not take the cheap route in redesigning our classrooms!  So we each planned to make 24 crates, here are the supplies we needed:

-24 crates
-6 yards of fabric
-15-30 yards of ribbon, depending on different ways to make the handle
-5 foam mattress toppers (we used 5 altogether, so that was for 72 crates)
-Wood cut into pieces based on the measurements of your crates
-Staple Gun

If you are the type of person that likes precise directions and measurements, this is not the how-to for you :)  We measured the top of the crates and used that measurement to cut the wood boards.  Once that was done we then used the wood boards to measure our foam pieces.  We used a marker to trace the wood boards and were able to get 15 foam squares out of each mattress topper.  For the fabric we laid it on the floor, then put the foam and wood on top of it.  That's how we measured how much fabric was needed.  Tiff went above and beyond and also bought plastic shower curtains as a protective cover over her seats.  Once we had all of our pieces we put our handy-woman skills to the test and used a staple gun to secure the fabric and foam to the boards.  We finished each seat by adding a piece of ribbon either across the top, or as a loop on the sides so the children could lift the seat off of their crate.

  I know this how-to will not will any awards and my grandma, who taught me how to quilt, would be appalled at my measuring techniques.  However, it got the job done and our crates look fantastic!  To see more pictures of our finished crates check our our classroom environments post.

Whoops! Learn from our mistakes!!

So, everything didn't go exactly as we had imagined!  Who knew?!  But we've made some changes since then.  Here is a list of things thus far that have gone wrong, and what we did to change them!  Always good to learn from others’ mistakes, right?  Well here’s a long list of lessons for you!

1. QR Codes for behavior

We thought we would be super amazing and make some QR Codes for our kiddos who needed reminders for behaviors.  Sounds smart right?  Well, what we failed to think of was this...when a child scans a QR Code that send them to YouTube, they are now able to click on a thousand other videos from there.  As you can imagine, some of these should never be ventured while at school...so we had to intervene.  We quickly changed all the QR Codes to links that were “quiet” instead of straight to YouTube.  If you don’t know about this trick, all you do is go to a YouTube video you want to show, then type in the word “quiet” right in front of the word “YouTube” in the address.  For instance, if the URL you want to use is this:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU4FKj0OmWs, and you want it to be shown without all the comments, videos on the side, and advertisements, you type “quiet” in front of “YouTube” making the new URL this:  https://www.quietyoutube.com/watch?v=UU4FKj0OmWs.  Now the video can be viewed without distractions!  If you would like a copy of our behavior QR Codes to use in your own classroom, they can be found here!

  2.   Telling the kids, “You can sit anywhere you want!”

While this sounds like a GREAT idea, we found that some kindergartners are incapable of being able to handle this kind of freedom right away.  It would be silly to make every child have to go to a “table spot” or have a certain spot on the carpet for just a few kiddos who need those parameters, so we decided to give only the kiddos who needed some structure the structure they needed for now.  It doesn't mean they will always have a spot on the carpet, but it does mean that until they can learn and abide by the expectations, they will have a spot just for them!

On a side note, a really simple way to lay out expectations about the physical environment of the classroom was to actually walk through the classroom with the students and model what learning would look like in each area.  For example, asking and role playing what learning would look like on the carpet if they wanted to sit on their crates, lay on the floor, or sit on the floor.  Then  I had the kiddos show me what it would look like and I took their picture following that expectation.  Now a picture is hanging from the smartboard to remind them what we learned.  HUGE difference...and DUH!  That should have been discussed the first day of school.

3. I absolutely love that my kiddos feel so comfortable and cozy in the new classroom environment that they always want to take their shoes off, because that IS what I was going for, but unfortunately because they are kindergartners and about 80% of them still can not tie, untie, or put on their shoes, I have decided that they need to keep their shoes on until they learn to put on their own shoes and tie them.  There have been multiple occasions where we are needing to leave the room in a timely manner to get to a special or heaven forbid get outside quickly due to an unexpected fire drill….Thank goodness the latter has not occurred YET, but it will; it is only a matter of time.  Due to the time it takes to help them untie the double, sometimes triple knots, that their parent or I have tied in their shoes to prevent them from coming untied repeatedly throughout the day because they just yank their feet out quickly, then help them to loosen the laces so that they can put their shoes on, only to then tighten up the laces to tie them back into double, sometime triple knots, I have just decided for the time being, until there are more classmate “experts” to help with this process, to not allow them to take their shoes off in class.  They now know though, that in order to be able to take their shoes off they must know how to put them on and tie them themselves.  It’s a GOAL and they are excited to accomplish it to earn that privilege back.

The First Days...

Over the summer, we started reading some very interesting blogs that talked about behavior management in the classroom.  We previously used a “bee chart” in our classes, and I’m sure you have seen, or you may have seen something similar.  Each child had a bee and when they made a choice that was respectful, responsible, or safe, we would move their bee up to blue and then to purple.  End their day on purple, and they would get to pick a prize from the prize box.  On the other hand, make poor choices that were not respectful, responsible, or safe, and their bee would move down the rainbow to yellow, orange, and eventually red.  End their day on red, and they would have to take a note home to be signed.  We had been using this system for quite some time now and really knew something needed to change.  You typically have the same kiddos always getting their bee moved down, and the same kids always getting their bee moved up in a public display.  While we had hoped that adding the colors blue and purple we would focus more on the positives, we still found the negatives were getting more attention.  I won’t really go into too much more detail about the systems we used, but I do encourage you to take a look at the blogs referenced in the beginning of this paragraph.  I will tell you it was amazingly eye opening.  With that said, here’s what happened on the first days of school.

I don't know about y'all, but the first few days of the school year are always crazy in our world!  You never know what's going to happen.  Especially in Kindergarten!  Some of the kiddos have never been in school, some are leaving their parents for the first time, and some are so ready for school that they blow you away with their maturity at five years old.  Well, this year was no exception.  We invited our kindergarten families in for a "Brave-On-My-First-Day" breakfast, followed by a story and lots of hugs, kisses, and tears.  This initial portion of our day was pretty much the same way it has been for the past 10 years. . . and then EVERYTHING changed.

I can't even begin to tell you how difficult it was the first day to bite my tongue when those typical "annoying" behaviors started to come out.  Yelling out, wanting to play instead of listen, wandering the classroom.... So here's what was the most difficult thing of the whole day:  Letting go of those behaviors and letting the students take control of their learning environment.  I cannot stress to you how mentally draining the day was!  Every few minutes, I would catch myself about to redirect a child for lying on the carpet rather than sitting up, or wanting to sit at the back of the classroom while I was giving instructions by the SmartBoard.  I had to constantly remind myself that just because they weren't physically where most of their peers were didn't mean that they weren't listening!  One adorable child was lying on the floor with a pillow over his head for most of the morning and was still able to complete all of his tasks for the day without any struggle from me or from him!  He ended his day feeling great, not beaten down, so I say that’s a SUCCESS!!  It’s just the beginning, and yes, it is difficult to retrain our brains, but it’s easier for the kids.  And after all, isn’t that what our focus should be?  Lifting them up, not tearing them down.  Alright Monday...bring it on!

Why the Change?

In order to answer why, according to Ken Robinson, I have joined the learning revolution I have to look back to January of last year when I considered taking a break from teaching.  It has always been a dream of mine to move somewhere far from Wisconsin, just for a little while.  Well last year was not the easiest and I was questioning if kindergarten was where I really belonged.  That being said, when I got the opportunity to move to Australia to be an au pair(nanny), I accepted with open arms.  That is a long story however, it ended up falling through and to my surprise I felt relieved.  As I reflected on my feelings to decide if I would look for other opportunities in Australia or stay at the school I loved, I really had to figure out what was causing my anxiety with kindergarten.  I absolutely love, love, love my school!!!  I have a fantastic kindergarten team, amazing teachers all around me, support staff who keep me sane, and an administration that truly supports, challenges, and advocates for me.  Why then did I want to leave?! That's what I realized, I do not want to leave but, I do want to make a change.

I love technology and experimenting with new ideas.  When I heard about personalized learning during a professional development I knew this was the direction I wanted to head.  My nights and weekends turned into time for research and I found myself lost in blog after blog about integrating technology, differentiation, and personalized learning.  I have listened to so many Ted talks I started dreaming about them.  Through all of this I decided personalized learning truly is best for each child and for me.  I believe differentiation is a best practice and should be in every classroom.  At first I thought of personalized learning as differentiation however, I now realize differentiation is still more of a whole group approach whereas personalized learning truly meets the needs of each individual.  While listening to Ken Robinson’s Ted talks, and reading about education in Finland everything I was hearing made sense.  I found myself asking why wasn't I doing this already?  A  teaching strategy that engages each child, fosters creativity and independence, and reduces negative behaviors.  Yes please, sign me up.  So that is one of my goals this year, to implement personalized learning, and it has been a lot of work but I believe it will be worth it in the end.  

Carrie's Brutally Honest Thoughts About Personalized Learning in the Kindergarten Classroom ;)

Someone recently asked me, “Why personalized learning in kindergarten?”  Well, my response is a lengthy one, so grab a cup of coffee and relax as you read the longest response ever written!

It all started about a year ago.  Our principal, innovation specialist, and academic learning coach all went to visit a school in West Allis, WI and came back over ecstatic about something called “personalized learning.”  I’m not going to lie to you, the first time I heard about it, I wanted to scream!  No way was I going to make individual goals for every child in my class!  I have 24 kids, how on earth would anyone find enough time in the day to do such a crazy thing?  Right?  I’m sure most of you are feeling the very same way that I was.  Why fix what wasn't broken?  Exactly how I felt. Until I reflected on this past school year…

Ever have those days when you feel like all you do is get frustrated, raise your voice, and are so emotionally drained you can’t even function when you get home?  Well I sure did.  And it felt like it was the majority of the year.  I didn't relish those feelings so I wanted to do something about them.  Just like any other teacher would do, I sat down and thought about the common denominators.  For the most part, it was the behavior in the class.  When I thought about behaviors, I started to wonder what I could do differently.  I realized that I couldn't change the environment my kids were coming from, but I could change the environment they were coming to.  So I brainstormed some ideas, read some articles, stalked some amazing blogs, and created the “perfect classroom” in my head.  And guess what?  The perfect classroom meant that all my kids would be learning as much as they could, would be challenged, and be comfortable while doing it.  And Lord help me if that didn't mean I was going to be implementing personalized learning.  Ugh!  I know!  It shocked me too...and I’m not going to lie, it has been a ton of work...but it’s what’s best for kids.  And isn't that what we are all here for anyway?  If we keep on doing the same things we have always done, we will never see growth.  The old ways may not be broken, but they sure can be improved upon.  Horses weren't broken but Karl Benz invented the automobile.  

I encourage you to read up on personalized learning, challenge yourself to try small aspects of it.  If you’re skeptic, you’re not alone.  Read our blog and laugh along with us as we experiment.  I’m sure there will be plenty of failures along the way.  But then again, to fail greatly is to achieve greatly.  Those aren't my words.  They are probably Abraham Lincoln’s…or Kid President’s.  Either way, here’s to a great school year!