Is your head spinning with ideas and changes for next year?  I am seriously crazy over the idea of a student-led classroom and this week’s chapter was even more convincing than prior weeks.  The topic of this week’s reading was responsibility.  Before I dive in to talking about the actual reading, I would like to talk about responsibility as a whole. As you probably know, I teach fifth grade and in our school, that means middle school the following year.  My teaching partner and I do our best to really encourage responsibility and prepare them for sixth grade.  We do…

Now that we’ve learned what a student-led classroom is and addressed a few common concerns, it’s time to dive into the heart of the PIRATE acronym.  P stands for Peer Collaboration.  In my classroom, I do my best to provide so many opportunities for peer collaboration.  Although I provide these opportunities, reading this chapter opened my eyes to the many things that I could be doing differently. One of the many frustrating aspects of peer collaboration is that it seems that my kids always have some sort of conflict.  I’ll take blame for that.  I often find myself jumping into…

I love the idea of a student-led classroom but I do have my concerns.  First, I’ll admit that I am a total control freak.  Can I release that power to my kids?  I feel that I can but it will take a little learning on both their end and my own. This chapter took the time to address common concerns about a student-led classroom.  While I appreciate the clarification and confidence boost, I loved reading the benefits even more!  Solarz believes that having a student-led classroom leads to increased retention due to an increase in student engagement. Solarz points out…