The Pluses, the Learnings, and the Deltas

What in the world are pluses and deltas? Is that what you were wondering? If you were, then read on! If not, well...you can still read on! :)

Once a week, our classroom partakes in a classroom meeting. On the board, students see a list of everything that happened that week in school. It's a great way to see what students enjoyed, what they learned from, and what they think needs to be problem-solved.

And here's how our very first classroom meeting went!

The blue plus signs were all the things that students enjoyed (they were allowed to provide two items that they enjoyed the most). As you can see, receiving the iPad Minis created quite the excitement in our class! The red checkmarks were the items that students learned the most from. In this picture, you can see that students learned a lot about themselves and how they are smart, whether that means they are body smart, logic/math smart, music smart, nature smart, people smart, picture/art smart, self smart, or word smart. (You aren't only one category of smart, but there tends to be one or two that really stands out! Ask your child for more information about it!) The yellow dots were the things that students felt needed to be improved. And although the iPad Minis caused quite a stir of excitement, it also caused the most problems for us in class! So we sat in a circle and talked about what the issue behind the iPad Minis might be and how we could solve the problems and make it a better tool for our learning community.

I have to admit, that is exactly what I wanted to talk about and I was really impressed when students were able to acknowledge that as well! We had to bring to light the fact that iPad Minis are not toys that we are playing with, but tools that will help support our learning in (and out) of our classroom. Of course that did not come out right away, but with the right steering and highlighting of the conversation from a special someone :), students were able to provide some suggestions for the following week.

It really was impressive to hear what students had to say and the amount of respect that was being shown around the circle. Great job, fifth graders! Way to problem solve!