After reading at least a dozen books these past few months and taking many pages of notes, it is finally time to start turning all these ideas into a coherent class. Actually, I have been trying to make sense of all this for months. The ideas get rearranged and copy/pasted again and again, slowly gaining more order.

What has finally helped me to make some progress is inventing a new elements for my classroom. Here is one that solves many problems:

The giant folder upon which my roster and notes will be mounted. That can store all the stuff I want to keep track of for each class. It’ll take up my table space, but what I was doing last year was NOT working.

The other huge help has been a to realize that I need to start with what a student will be seeing/thinking/saying/realizing and designing the class to make that come true. With that in mind, tonight I was able to come up with a better set of categories that all these endless ideas can be sorted into. Its a lot of categories!

Starting Up

Routines and the basics

Entry Element

Daily Activities

Project of the day

Surprise Element

Instant feedback/delayed feedback

Everyday reminders to me

Big Class display

Team Building

Narrative building

Hooks for Class

I am wearing or attending

Nearby handouts, packets,

Daily Flow of things
Unit Rythm
Signs and signals on walls
Documents that are stored in envelope

Artifacts that embody purpose and Identity
Skills of proficiency – what to do:
Creative Skills
Additional
To do

What an exciting Saturday night!