Today we did a check in with staff about class meetings. The day before, the following questions were emailed out so teachers could have some time to think about them:
- What is going well?
- What could use improvement? Specific suggestions are helpful!
- Do you have any ideas for upcoming class meetings? We have three class meetings left in the semester: March 26th, April 9th, and April 23rd.
- Meetings are going well/fine/good for many and it is like 'pulling teeth' for others
- Upper-level classes and seniors tend to be harder to get buy-in
- Like the flexibility and options of lessons/activities each week
- A folder on the S-Drive to keep record of lessons/activities and have them categorized would helpful and everyone could contribute
- Teachers like hearing different ideas of what other teachers are doing in their class meetings that are working
- Some believe that 20-minutes is not long enough
- What do we do with students who are problems and don't care and ruin the experience for everyone else?
- Some teachers like the scripts while others modify the activities to fit them and their class
Although some classes are struggling to get buy-in from their students, the majority of the feedback was that class meetings were going well.
I said in PLT and I want to reiterate that creativity is encouraged! While our committee comes up with ideas for teachers to use, we don't have your 4th hour class or your personality or your relationship with those students. Use what comes naturally to you, don't be scared to modify activities to make meetings more relative and natural to your class. Feel free to tie in subject content to make connections to the meetings... I have resources that can help with that and am happy to share if you ask!
Ultimately, these class meetings are about BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS with your 4th hour... feel free to take some time to celebrate what is going on in your students' lives (birthdays, accomplishments, etc). As always, if you have questions, concerns, or suggestions, feel free to shoot someone on the committee and email!
-Erin
I said in PLT and I want to reiterate that creativity is encouraged! While our committee comes up with ideas for teachers to use, we don't have your 4th hour class or your personality or your relationship with those students. Use what comes naturally to you, don't be scared to modify activities to make meetings more relative and natural to your class. Feel free to tie in subject content to make connections to the meetings... I have resources that can help with that and am happy to share if you ask!
Ultimately, these class meetings are about BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS with your 4th hour... feel free to take some time to celebrate what is going on in your students' lives (birthdays, accomplishments, etc). As always, if you have questions, concerns, or suggestions, feel free to shoot someone on the committee and email!
-Erin