I’m really starting to think that the Full Day Kindergarten teachers have it right. Students learn through play. They need opportunities to wonder, to explore, to talk, and to reflect. And the flow of the day matters. Even as a Grade 5 teacher, I can learn from and embrace this Kindergarten model. 

This year, as we explored the possibilities of inquiry more in the classroom, I knew that we needed to make some changes to our current program. Over the Winter Break, I did a lot of reflecting. Then yesterday, we jumped in with this new plan. I’ll admit that I haven’t made all of the changes yet. I still want to begin the quasi-literature circles, and I plan on doing so next week. But I started with the “talk time,” I changed my daily posted schedule to Language and Math only, and am now completely integrating Science, Social Studies, Health, and The Arts. I just finished the second full day back at school, and so far, this new plan has been a huge success!

Here are my observations to date:

• The students that I was most worried about have been terrific with the changes. I really wanted to be cognizant of keeping a routine/structure that would meet the needs of my students with autism. To me, this new routine had less structure than before, but I forgot about something: longer blocks of time mean fewer transitions. Many students, including those with autism, often have the hardest time with transitions. Minimizing these transitions during the day increases the success for ALL of my students. I can then use Social Stories and task analysis to provided added structure for those students that need it.
• Reading and writing can happen naturally. As I’ve started teaching the junior grades, I’ve taught more and more students that are reluctant readers and writers. How do I inspire them to read and write? Embed reading and writing in everything that we do. Today I watched students research and read about aneurysms so that they could perform surgery online (thanks to this wonderful game shared by our vice principal, Kristi Keery-Bishop). They even started the day reading, writing, and talking about the human body (our Science unit) thanks to the placement of plaques, the laying out of sticky notes, and the presence of recording devices. And then there was even a group of students that worked together and read instructions to start building a skeleton. They were showing their understanding of what they read in what they created, and they were excited about doing it!
  
• Students need thinking time. I hate to say it, but I always felt so pressured by the bell, that sometimes I rushed students just to make sure that we ended on time. This didn’t benefit me or the students. I was left feeling stressed and the students were stopped before they had the chance to make connections and think deeply. As I stood back and watched our math learning in action today, I realized the value in slowing down and giving students the time that they need to work through the problem, to push past the single solution, and to see the various possibilities. And then there’s the value in the reflect and connect stage, where students have these aha moments and get to really make sense of what they just learned.
• There’s tremendous value in standing back, watching, and listening. As I’ve circulated around the classroom these past couple of days, I find myself taking a few extra minutes to stand at the periphery of the group, watch, and listen. Even though it’s tremendously hard for me — and trust me, this is the case — I try to resist the urge to talk. I can learn a lot just through observation. Watching today, I got to see a group of students that went beyond what a math problem was asking them, and even started measuring desks and measuring the classroom to see if their solution would work. They took a real world problem and made it even more real world! When I posed today’s question, I had a basic answer in mind, and by jumping in too early, I probably would have steered the group to this single answer. By watching first, I saw them get to an answer that was so much better! Then later, I could come in with questions to help clarify their learning and see any gaps in understanding. With the added bonus of bigger blocks of time for the different subject areas, I also have more time to observe first and then react.
• Embrace this system, and students will choose to learn even when it’s not required. With the extreme cold temperatures today, students were inside for both nutrition breaks. Before I left for lunch this afternoon, I took a quick look around the classroom, and I was thrilled to see the number of students that chose to explore one of the human body apps: talking together about how the heart, lungs, and digestive system work. And in fact, one of the groups that was playing Minecraft together, were using one of the human body books to create and explain the workings of the heart. This wasn’t an expectation. This was a choice that the students made because they wanted to learn more. Needless to say, I went down to the staffroom smiling today!

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