Teaching with Intention (by Debbie Miller) Book Study

Ok....I told myself I was going to get organized and start blogging more.  Well, I have organized my house (my classroom will be in July).  I had to focus on my house.  This is the place that I neglect most of the school year.

I shouldn't say start blogging more.  It should be to blog with intention! This is where I am going to start talking about & referring to "Teaching with Intention" by Debbie Miller.  Greg from "The Kindergarten Smorgasboard", Jessica from "Mrs. Plemons Kindergarten",  Stephany from "Primary Possibilities", and Keri from "Enchanted Kindergarten" hosted Chapter 1 of this book study.  There will be a discussion of each chapter on Wednesday.  

I need to be "thoughtful, reflective, and strategic" with what I do.  This should occur inside & outside of the classroom.  We do things for a purpose and have a specific reason behind that purpose.  This includes students as well as teachers.  Teachers need to know what they are doing and in turn, students will know what to expect & know what to do.  They will have learning with intention.

Chapter 1:  How Does Your Ideal Classroom Look, Sound, and Feel?

My ideal classroom (especially at the end of this last school year) feels like a fantasy right now.  To be truthful, that is all my fault!  According to Debbie, your ideal classroom needs

• to be "perfect".  You need to use all your senses and envision your dream.
• Once you do this, you can bring your vision to life.
• authentic interaction & and organized and accessible  classroom.  The students need to have access to everything.
• resources for background knowledge.  This is to understand the content of what they are learning.

All of this allows the teacher the ability to talk with the students and be more intentional with her teaching.  How are you going to teach without getting to know the students?  All students are experts and in charge of their own learning as a teacher is in charge of their teaching.

I was kind of hesitant to blog on this book study.  I mean....to be in the same category as all of these FABULOUS bloggers.  I have learned so much in the past few months "blogstalking".  There is one blog I did not mention above.  It is the AWESOME and AMAZING Ashley from "Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd".  

To show you how new I am to blogging, I can't figure out how to add everyone's blogger buttons to the bottom of this post.  If you happen to come across this post, I would greatly appreciate the help in how to add buttons to the bottom of posts.

~Susan~