Advisory Lesson Co-Creating Our Essential Agreement

The students at my school do not respond well to lectures. Well, they don't respond to my lectures. A large part of that must be because of my not wanting to give them.

So, I avoid that teaching method whenever I can and I always try to keep my students engaged. 

I am a Grade 9 advisory teacher along with two others, so we have to collaborate. And again, I did not want to lecture or sit through one. I have seen some teachers, and I have also at one point in time, read out the technology agreements to the students. But that never sticks. And I wanted this to stick. 

So I pulled out a trick I learned from Jeff Utech. I had them brainstorm ideas for what we should include in our essential agreements. Their advisor teacher from last year told me they spent too much time on them. 

I didn't want a repeat of that.

From there, they then got with a partner, randomly chosen for them, and put their ideas together into these groups.

The last time I did something like this, I wrote the whole list out on the board. This time I pasted this list into Google Sheets and showed them the UNIQUE function. (I want to show them the power of a spreadsheet.) This gave us a list with no duplicates.

The next step was for them to make categories of ideas. Looking at the shared spreadsheet of the unique topics, as pair groups, they think of topics that will act as umbrella categories. We came up with the following:

• Respect
• Responsible
• Mindful
• Cooperation
• Learning
• Environment

We only had a few minutes left, otherwise I would have asked them to create sentences for the list we made. So I made these sentences:

• Be Respectful

• Help make a positive learning environment

• Cooperate with others

• Be Mindful of others

• Be Responsible

I guess these are not sentences.

We did a lot of work in a short period to get these together.

This is how I want all my classes to run.

A New Year All Over Again

I was originally going to talk about the start to the new school year from a system point of view, but today I started trying to plan for my MYP Design class, and I feel so rusty. 

I planned for a "first day activity" - something to get to know the students. I planned questions to ask. I planned an overview of the course. 

Then I was late to class.

Today was the second Monday and it went a little better. I spent more time on planning out the activities. I grouped the students and gave them a short time to put their ideas onto a Thin Slide. 

Criteria A - Inquiring and Analyzing - The Principles of Design

Next time I need to have them in some sort of a seating plan. I think before we start, they should do some sort of activity where they can talk a little beforehand.

Patterson, Brenda. csomethingalivethatsnotaplantorhuman.jpg. 2017. Pics4Learning. 1 Sep 2025

Inclusive Questioning

Last week I subbed in the Grade 7 Math class. While I was going through a few problems, I made the mistake of asking a question of the entire class. 

Why was it a mistake?

Callahan, Samantha. preschoollearning1.jpg. 2013. Pics4Learning. 2 Jun 2025

When I was asking the students the questions, one student kept answering them. He was answering correctly, which was impressive, but what were the other 24 students doing while this was happening?

After this lesson, I started thinking back about how I used to handle this kind of situation when I was in the classroom full time. 

I thought that grouping students and having them talk within their groups would be good. Then I could call on a group and they would tell the class what they answered. Another way could be to pair students up and have them "turn and talk", but the issue here is time. 

What are the other students doing while a few are active?

Then today on my way home I heard this podcast that talked about how to make discussions better. Give it a listen.

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[Math Chat] 149: Common Mistakes That Shut Down Math Discussions (And What to Do Instead) #mathChat
https://podcastaddict.com/math-chat/episode/199233095 via @PodcastAddict

The Beginning of a Blog Post from 10 Years Ago

Many people say learning is messy. While I do not disagree with that statement, I do disagree with its wording. "Messy" is too simplistic. Rather, I believe learning is complex. Looking at the surface does not always reveal the undercurrents of thoughts.

It is the same reason why "popping into" a classroom can lead to a false conclusion.

In my classroom I foster a dynamic community to f learners who are able to learn from each other through the connections they make to their experiences.

I believe connections to prior knowledge to be essential to learning and take a constructivist approach to the way learning experiences are constructed in my classroom.

Student learning does not flow linearly and will often move beyond the teachers expectations so we must be flexible and prepared to move with the flow of understanding.

Teaching a Blended Classroom - Midpoint Reflection

Yesterday I had the opportunity to substitute I in the class for which I made the blended math lessons.

It was only the third lesson I have been involved with during this unit. 

I started going through the anchor problem and one student answered my questions. What I should have done instead was to group the students and have them work out the problems in the group.

I was able to sit with a few students to have them explain how they think through the problems. This included one who didn't have any quizzes completed.

I forgot to record the lesson so I could give them a summary, but the lesson is on video anyway.

I noticed a few things in this lesson: 

• students need to be taught early to allow other students a chance to answer

• teachers need to be intentional about grouping

• I need to update the pacing guide to show pass/try again instead of simply "done".

One other thing to note is that students need to understand that they are taking responsibility for their learning. This means they need to work to really understand what they are learning.

When I was reflecting with the math teacher, she suggested that students should be asked to do all the assignments posted.

I like that idea, but I am not sure that is teaching them to think about what they need for themselves. I wonder if another way would be to do more tests along the way. I would make the tests "redo-able" (maybe this would be less awkward if I wrote "I would allow students to retake tests"). I would like to allow students to try to recognize what they need help with.