Celebrating the Victories

At the beginning of January, I did a re-set with my class because I felt like students weren’t learning and neither the students nor I were enjoying being in class. 5 weeks later, it’s the end of a tough week and I am feeling discouraged again.

However, I wanted to take some time today to focus on the positive changes that both the students and I have seen since the re-set. A week ago, we had a class meeting to celebrate the positives that have come out of the work we have done as a class to make a more productive and learning environment. Here's the student feedback that I got during that meeting.

Survey

Directions: Here is a list of new things that we have tried. Rate each one with a symbol:

+ Has really helped the class improve

✓ Has kind of helped the class improve

— Has not helped the class improve

Results:

What we have tried	+	✓	—	Weighted Total +: 3 points ✓: 1 point -: 0 points
New math games (Climb the ladder,  solve-crumple-toss, auction)	27	10	1	91
Seats in tables instead of rows	27	8	2	89
Not using the warning/lunch  reflection system	26	11	1	89
New bulletin boards with space for  you to decorate how you want	27	7	3	88
More group work	24	14	0	86
Do Now questions to help us get to  know each other	23	11	4	80
Team captains handing out smiley/sad faces during the Do Now	19	12	3	69
Team captains helping us stay  focused during class	13	21	4	60

 

Student Responses:

In your opinion, do you think class is better than it was before winter break?

 

8C:

• Maybe because I’m starting to get use to this and it is more comfortable and nice
• YES. Because I feel like it really helps me focus
• It was ok because things got better
• Yes a lot because we are now learning more before we were learning a lot even though we aren’t perfect right now we will continue to get better
• Yes because everyone is being more and more focused and they are working harder and better than before
• Yes
• I think yes because we settled down after we got the seats but I still think its not working well that much so we should switch seats every month
• Yes because before we did we couldn’t do no project and we never paying attention and we always got a minus on clipboard. But now we get more work done and learn more in math class and it more fun now.
• Yes
• Yes I do because before I was bored with the lesson but now there more fun and I think people pay more attention
• Yes because most people are working more and I now understand more of the math and am able to help more people understand it too. And I getting to participate more in class!! I love it! But can we step it up like the math to improve 8^th grade math a little harder
• Yes because class is going much better

8B:

• Yes, because now everyone listens to her but before the break everything was a mess
•  I think it’s ok. I feel like it was better when it was no group.
• Yes, I think class has been better before winter break because we have improved as a whole class
• Yes, I think it has been better now than before winter break because now it’s more focus, and engaged people and it’s less chatty than before
• Yes because more people are concentrating than before and also because a lot people are getting their grades up
• Yes because we got more work done and less people getting in trouble and helped me understand more classwork and helped me stay on task more
• It was better because before we didn’t let you talk and we made all this noise
• I think class wasn’t better before winter break because people keep getting into trouble. I think that the class is way better than it was before.
• Yes
• Sure, because we are better than before
• No
• Yes because everyone is participating more
• Yes because some rules that we made are working out
• I think it’s better than ever!

Shout-out Certificates:

The kids also did a great job recognizing each other. This is just one example of the certificates that they filled out.