Week Two

Its very noticeable the students who know the difference between social time and learning time. The quality of work is considerably higher from those students who:

•  chose a place to sit and work away from distractions and a place that will enable them to actively engage in their work. 
• ask questions to clarify what is required of them.
• engage in learning conversations, not social conversations. 

Conversation this week has focused around three points:

1, You need to make a learning decision about where is the best place for you to sit. You can make a social decision at break times. 

2. A learning conversation is the talk we do when we are learning.  A social conversation is the talk of the playground. 

3. You have the right to chose if you are going to engage and be an active learner.  You dont have the right to make this choice for anyone else. 

This will be a continuous conversation until it becomes a routine and habit from all students. 

Next week I am going to explore the 3 stages of being an Active Learner and Pit of Learning.  

Week One

A lively first 3 days. However, the students have settled quickly and have responded well to the activities this week on getting to know each other and beginning to see the relationships / connections they have in the room with each other.

The ideas on how to make the class a learning community had two interesting contributions among the normal ones of respect and being good to each other:

1. Make Room 22 a safe place so everyone feels comfortable to make mistakes.

2. We are all equal. We all have an equal voice in the room.