Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Teacher Advisory and Student Voice

Democratic Classrooms - Middle grades teachers create and support democratic classrooms in which student voice and student-centered pedagogy empower students with agency and choice in their learning.

On Tuesday we listened to students from different schools discuss their likes and dislikes in Teacher Advisory. One important lesson I took away from that was to involve students in what our TA process is. It was evident that students in that group had some definite things about TA that they liked. For instance, students like TA to be the beginning of the day, they liked the transition it had to set them up for the day and they liked the activities that were fun. But there was one student who said he would prefer to start the day with silent reading, go ahead and welcome him and say announcements, but don't bug him after that.
My aha moment was when another student explained that in his class they all took turns running morning meeting. What a powerful way to engage students especially 7th and 8th graders in this process. Another wonderful thing is that we will actually have more time to plan this time with students because of schedule changes. The 7th and 8th graders will be able to choose activities, some learning, greetings etc. I look forward to recharging my TA time and making it meaningful for my students and myself.

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