24 days of school... 24 morning meetings. Yes, every day! And they are about 20-30 minutes long. Which at first may seem like a crazy amount of wasted time but I cannot wait to share some things I am noticing throughout my day that I can accredit to my Morning Meetings. I have so much I would love to share but I am going to share just my top three takeaways from morning meeting so far.
- Students -especially fifth graders- are social beings!
I think something we often forget as teachers is how important socialization is. Today at work a co-worker even pointed out to me, "Notice how during your plan time, you take time to go see coworkers you haven't seen throughout the day. And it isn't always about work is it? Sometimes you just want to check in on your friends and so do our students" Morning meeting has allowed a set aside time for students to socialize, to share their thoughts, and to learn about their peers in a safe place. I notice that after spending some time sharing and listening to others, they are so much more ready to dive into learning!
2. Teamwork and cooperation are built on each morning instead of during instructional time!
Our students have to learn how to work in groups. Many teachers do teambuilding activities throughout their days, as do I. But now, much of this is built into my morning meetings. If I need to quickly put together groups for a project, my students know each and every student in the room and how they can best work with these peers. It isn't an end all be all approach to teaching teamwork, but the more they have to practice it, the better they are at applying it. And we apply it a lot!
3. You can incorporate the curriculum!
I know that sometimes we worry about instructional time or worse, our principle walking in and asking what it is that we're teaching that aligns to the standards. Well.... check out your speaking and listening skills! Grades K-5 all have a standard on participating in collaborative discussions. It even extends to asking and responding to questions, reporting on a topic, and adapting speech depending on the context.
Just this past week, a student shared that her grandmother broke her arm and now they have to get rid of her dog. Students listened and asked follow up questions. For two reasons, they wanted to know more and they truly cared to understand this students story!
If speaking and listening skills aren't enough, I will share in a later blog how we use our activities to explore content standards such as science, math, reading, or writing.
If you haven't checked out The Morning Meeting Book by Adaptive Classroom, I highly suggest checking it out. I will definitely be back to share more of my journey with you as well!
