Marie Duncan Blog #5 for December (Cambourne)

Our students engagement is greatly influenced by their relationship and perception of us as human beings and teachers. What matters most toward student learning? The answer seems to be the same over the author's twenty year study; the student - teacher relationship. This article expands to include a secondary factor of relationships with peers that are positive and cooperative as a key component to engaged learning. Mrs. Mason's efforts to promote cooperative and assertive reaching out to others takes on a more important priority with this philosophy of professional learning discussed by the author. Kudos to Nicole. Having quiet (enough) focused (uninterrupted) time with individual students or small groups is a struggle as more immature learners or ADHD symptoms interfere beyond about 20 minutes. Our present group of third graders appear to struggle more with independent activities than last year's group; their overall reading skills seem to be lower. Balancing PP readers in a classroom with fifth grade level readers limits attention spans. I am still trying to figure all this out,   Of course, this is the purpose of PLC...ongoing evaluation of strategies by teachers and colleagues. Having book clubs with different literature going on at the same time is overwhelming for me at this time. I am seeking strategies to move in this direction, but fear after two days my lowest students will bring learning to a halt with their inability to work independently enough. They drain 70% of instructional time. Consideration of on level literature outside the basal and planning more in depth activities with higher readers seems to be a possibility to move toward book clubs. These professional articles continue to challenge getting and keeping students loving to read. My goal is to grow students love for reading,then I know they will be successful beyond my third grade experience with them.