Monday, October 5, 2009

New idea!

So, new term, new concert, new idea.

It may have been discussed at PD last week that Western society is very good at seeing the glass at not only half empty, but unwashed, chipped, and the wrong size/shape/color/SOMETHING. Oh, and full of the wrong substance. Of course. Translated into teacher-speak, our students seem to get really hung up on what they can't do, to the point of overlooking the twenty things they CAN. I thought it might be useful this term to give very specific and targeted goal ownership... which then facilitates achievement ownership... which makes everyone happier becasue they're force to own up to all the things they CAN do. Hooray.

How does one do this, I hear you ask? Well, in my INFINITE brilliance, I availed myself of some very attractive scrapbooking card and two packets of post-it notes, one star-shaped, one arrow-shaped (OF COURSE the shapes are significant; do you people know NOTHING?!) and sallied forth to change the world. My studio now looks like:



I really ought to have moved that chair out of the way first...


mmmm...that's my deliciously fire-engine-red fiberglass case on the shelf there...

 
And here you can see my nanna trolley that I take to school every week, plus THE bookshelf.

 
Isn't that paper beautiful? I LOVE it.

There's 29 sheets up, one for each student to claim (that's their name on the star) and post their goals and accomplishments on each week. I'll put the other dozen up at school for my primary students who I see at school on Wednesdays.
This term our concert falls at the end of the eighth week, so enough time for everyone to see progress being made! I visualise children replacing the arrow with a star as each goal is achieved, then I'll take them all down and display them at our concert. Very boring post today, I know... I wore myself out after teaching by spreading 250 litres of mulch. I need another 250 litres.
But if any teachers/parents out there want to advise I'd be happy to hear it!

5 comments:

Daizkatt said...

This could be an interesting term. Any chance of putting dibbs on the pink/red piece of paper 10th from the left on the bottom row for T?

Karen said...

What a neat wall idea! My teen daughter would just love that look in her room.

suzukisinger said...

this is freakin brilliant. Interior decorating aside this is FREAKIN BRILLIANT! *FREAKIN* oops I mean *Brilliant*. I am so lucky to be a colleague in your immediate proximity!!!!

kelly said...

That is so lovely. I am a teacher, and I know what you mean. I want to crack open their doubt. I'm teaching a creative writing class, and my goal is to get them to believe that they are writers real and true. If I can give them that, I can give them the world.

lacochran said...

Very pretty! How do the kids not fight over the square they want? Or am I over-thinking it?