Ms. V’s Daily Check in!
Check-ing In
As Art Educators, we can only hope that every class will be full of
student engagement, inspiration, and creative art-making. However,
as humans, we all have good and bad days; on good days, one can say
we might feel overcome with joy, motivated, and ready to conquer
anything... However, our wake up on the wrong-side-of-the bed or
whatever-it-may be days can make us feel funky inside, and when those
emotions follow us from home to the school-place, it can be easy for
normal everyday interactions to amplify a bad mood and cause our
productivity to decline. In the event that a classroom full of
students with a diverse set of emotions is having one of those days,
it can be challenging to meet the needs and expectations of the
classroom without having the proper prior knowledge of it.
So how do I keep up with all 200 students that I see a week? Daily
Check-In!
How it works:
On the first week of my placement, I had all of my students create a
'Check-in card' with their name and colorful design.
At the beginning of each class day, students check-in by placing their card into the envelope of what they are feeling that day: Great, Okay, or Im having one of those days... I need a check-in. While students are working on their daily-warm up, I go through all of the envelopes to take roll, mark what each student is feeling, and write notes to each of my students in need of a check-in. Once our lesson activities start, I talk to them and ask if they would like to share with me whats going on. This has not only allowed me to start building trust with each of my students but provided me with a better insight into how my students are doing and what I can do to better accommodate the needs of my classroom.
To make it: I used an old watercolor-kit book and glue a bunch of
envelopes inside. Originally, I had students store their cards in
their sketchbooks, and it was a great way for me to learn their names, but they fell out easily and became hard to keep track of. So now I keep each my classes check-in cards in mini supply organizers and open the drawers before each class.
Categories Fall 2019, Student Teacher Blog