Blog #2

1. In the "morning meeting" readings you were exposed to several teachers who do morning meeting in their classrooms. Please find one of them, list his or her name, and explain what they do or believe about morning meeting.

I really enjoyed the article Bell to Bell Teaching, by Kathleen Stumpf Jongsma. Kathleen believes that every moment of the school day is valuable and can be used to encourage learning. She believes in using activities that help students to think on their feet as well as solidify information the students have learned in class. All of the activities she suggested can be used during morning meetings and closing time. The article is a great reference sheet to use when planning my own morning meetings.

2. In both part I of Differentiation in Practice and chapter 1 in Fulfilling the Promise, you find a short list of curricular elements that teachers can adjust and a short list of student traits or characteristics teachers can respond to. One of the books lists 4 of these, while the other lists only 3. What do you think changed in Tomlinson's thinking to add a 4th curricular element and a 4th trait to her original list?

The original 3 student traits or characteristics teachers can respond to are readiness, interest, and learning profile. Later Tomlinson added the Affect.. The original 3 curricular elements teachers can adjust are content, product, and process. Tomlinson later added learning environment. I believe that she added learning environment because they are key factors of differentiation. Students respond differently to aspects of a classroom and it is important to provide your students with a place that they all feel comfortable learning. I believe that she added affect to remind teachers to be aware each student feels differently about each subject and that when students are excited about what they are learning they are more likely to be engaged in the lesson.

3. In the introduction to The First Six Weeks of School you read about the importance of establishing a friendly, predictable, and orderly classroom as a "prerequisite for children's academic achievement." Is "friendly" as important as "predictable" and "orderly"? Why or why not? (Please refer to ideas you find in the introduction to The First Six Weeks of School.

I believe that establishing a friendly classroom is just as important of prerequisite for children's academic achievement as establishing a predictable, and orderly classroom. Being organized and being predictable are important; however, in order for the behavior of the students to be predictable and organized you need to have the students participate in activities that build trust between peer to peer as well as between student to teacher.  If students have developed a relationship with one another as well as with the teacher they will want to make the classroom a nice place and will follow the expectations, schedules the teacher has put in place.