Bright Ideas: When You Need Three Extra Minutes

With last year being my first year teaching, I often found myself needing a few extra minutes to read over a lesson plan, gather materials, or just pull myself together. I found a quick, easy way to keep the kids engaged and give myself those extra few minutes. 

More often than not, my students are anywhere but their desks. We usually meet on the carpet in front of the whiteboard, and when asked to meet, the first question they ask me is always, "Circle, rows, or blob?" Circle is self-explanatory, rows are facing the whiteboard, and blob is usually facing my read-aloud chair. For this activity, I have my students meet in a circle and call on one student to be the teacher. I give my teacher (with the rest of the class listening) a question to reflect on. The teacher has his or her classmates raise their hands to reflect on the question. For my more shy students (or language learners), simply calling on classmates is more than enough of a responsibility. For the leaders of the classroom, they love offering feedback to their classmates. To be considered for the position of teacher next time (this happens a few times a week), students need to behave exactly as they would if their real teacher (me) were a part of the circle. This means raising hands to be called on, staying on topic, and actively listening to their peers. Being the teacher is a highly coveted position, so everyone is typically on best behavior during this activity.

You can have students reflect on anything you want. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. What is one fact you've learned so far about landforms/inventors/explorers/what-ever-your-current-unit-of-study-topic-is?
2. What book are you currently reading?
3. What are the properties of a polygon?
4. What strategy could you use for solving a given math problem?
5. What features might you find in a non-fiction text?
6. What is your CAFE goal or strategy and how are you working towards it?
7. What did we work on yesterday in math?
8. Give one fact you've learned about the Scientist of the Month. 
9. What book are you currently reading? What do you like about it so far?

It is usually an academically based question, but sometimes is also social curriculum related. In our school, we use Responsive Classroom and focus on a value each month, so sometimes the question is based on those ideas.

1. How will you stay balanced this month?
2. What does active listening look like?
3. What went well during our last activity (or recess/art/cleanup/etc.)?
4. What are our classroom rules? Why is that rule important?

Sometimes we also use this time for peaks and valleys or compliments and appreciations. More on those at a later date!