Forming with Formative

Why do we always forget what the first 2 weeks of school are like? Maybe it's like childbirth, the sleepless nights of having a newborn, and the joys of parenting a 2-3 year old...God blurs our memory so that we will be sure and do it again! The past two weeks have been a whirlwind!! Despite my best intentions and efforts, these weeks have been very far from my perfected plans! Forgetting about and then showing up 30 minutes late to football practice with a very upset 8 year old, arriving a week early to Awanas, and managing to make all 3 kids cry hysterically within the same 2 minutes: this is just a glimpse into my week.  One night as I rushed to the store for dinner groceries, I got a little ANXIOUS and thought..."I don't need to make a list. I'm sure I will remember everything I need!" Of course, I got home with only 5 of the 7 items I needed for supper! It got me thinking about formative assessment and the beginning of the year. As I helped a sweet friend get her brand new class up and going, I was reminded about how hard starting a classroom is each year. The pressure to dive straight into the curriculum is hanging over our heads, we are barely staying afloat, and the to-do list continues to grow with very few things being checked off. Not to mention, our bodies have reached complete EXHAUSTION!!! What happened to summer!?! As tempting as it was to cram in that next lesson, I had to stop and remind myself how important it is to "create my list before running to the store". Sure, at the time it seems like I'm saving time grabbing groceries, and skipping a step to have dinner on the table a little sooner. It's only when I notice the missing ingredients that I come to the realization that I have actually made the simple task of making dinner that much harder and more time-consuming! I wonder "Why didn't I just make the list so I could be in my pajamas cooking, and not dragging a fussy 2 year old, exhausted 5 year old and annoyed 8 year old BACK to Wal-Mart!?!?" All of that to say, we:

GO SLOW NOW, so we can GO FAST LATER

Those things that seem so simple but eat at your time, like:

• remembering to signal kids and WAIT until you have everyone's attention before starting
• thanking them for their undivided attention
• practicing, practicing, practicing over and over again until kids have it down completely
• taking time to create clear expectations and procedures
• overly noticing positive behaviors
• having them "try again" if it's not perfect, and then "trying again" and "again" until it meets highest expectations
• picking and mastering a few cooperative learning strategies that can be your "go to"
• ensuring every student knows their expectations throughout the day, including TRANSITIONS (in and out of the classroom)
• *****DEVELOPING RELATIONSHIPS!!!

These things are actually MORE important than any curriculum, especially right now. We all know that, so WHY is it so hard to STOP and formatively assess how they are doing with these behaviors and expectations? WHY does it feel like our clock is ticking away?!? WHY did we plan so much for this week?!?! I felt these struggles this week, as I am sure many of you did! After reflecting, I think we there is one word to describe it: ANXIOUS. So, as I was attempting to hone in on the above list, I had to breath and remind myself that if I didn't "make the list now", then it would be wasting time later going back to "get the ingredients" I forgot!
Therefore, as we focus on formative assessment this year at RH, let's start with
FORMING our classroom through FORMATIVE...

ASSESSING              REFLECTING               ADJUSTING

that is focused on making sure our classroom culture, environment and expectations are exactly where we want them! It will save you "a trip to the store" later!