Circles. Circles seem to find their way into my thinking and practice. From Community Circle and Smiles and Frowns to my Performance Learning approach to Project 180, I find the circle, a line with neither head nor tail, beginning nor end to be the shape that works for me. I believe in its power. I believe in its promise.

Community is a Circle

Community is about connection, and until the people in the room are connected, a classroom is just a classroom. I don’t want just a classroom. I want a community. So, I work diligently, I toil intentionally to create connections. As my readers know, I use Smiles and Frowns and Community Circle to that desired end.

Okay, but where does “circle” come into play? Well, first, in truth, it’s really a square (the arrangement works better in the space I have). It’s not really a circle but it serves the same purpose: we have to look at each other–all the time, but particularly when we share ourselves in Smiles and Frowns and Community Circle.

Of late, recognizing with even greater clarity the power of visual connection, I have come to make it my mostly-permanent seating arrangement. How’s it for teaching? Depends. If teaching means kids staring straight ahead for fifty-five minutes while I talk and show information, then it’s terrible. A fourth of my kids would need chiropractic help. But, in my room, content is secondary to the primary: kids. I teach kids, and for that, it is tremendous, for it places each at the head of the table simultaneously as I sit with them and teach kids with content, not content to kids.

I’m not sure I can go back. Tried to the other day with my two-horseshoes arrangement, and found it disconcerting to have half my kids staring at the backs of heads while sharing during Smiles and Frowns. The kids felt it too.

Okay, but surely there are times when you have to deliver content to all kids on the front board or screen. Of course. What do I do then? We turn the desks around. And then we turn them back, because…

Because that’s our community. And it feels we are far from home when we are not connected.

On the fence? Try it for a month. It’ll change your kids. It”ll change your teaching. It’ll create connections. It’ll build a community. There’s power. I promise.

Running out of time this morning, so I am gonna do a “to-be-continued” move. Next week I will talk about Learning is a Circle and Progress is a Circle.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will experience…

…connecting through Smiles and Frowns.

…finishing up our poems.

…discussing character.

…analyzing the use of rhetorical appeals.

..discussing Why with Sy.

…reflecting in our Journey Journals.

…hearing a Sappy Sy Rhyme.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.