The kids in room 210 were the most difficult class in the entire school. It didn’t help that their teacher had been on maternity leave since the first day of the year. It was only October and the students had already scared away three substitutes.  

"Good morning class, I am your substitute Miss Scheinberg" said the woman. "I am so excited to get to know you all! The first thing we are going to do today and every morning is meet on the carpet for Community Circle".

Miss Scheinberg

"She must be crazy, why is she sitting on the floor and what even is a Community Circle?" Sam said.

"I’m not sure what a Community Circle is but I like that she is sitting on the floor! It feels like she is one of us." Kate replied.

Their teacher explained the basics of Community Circle, discussing the procedures and the reasoning behind it; "When you get the talking stick I want you to say your name and then tell us the silliest thing you have ever seen. I’m Miss Scheinberg and the silliest thing I have ever seen was a dog licking an ice cream cone."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Why do you care about the silliest thing that we’ve ever seen? That has nothing to do with school."

Miss Scheinberg smiled "I want to get to know you and the whole you, not just about you in school."

Everyone went around the circle listening to their classmates stories, each one sillier than the last, all laughing together. During Community Circle that day, Miss Scheinberg told her students that they were going to make up a story together.

"Can it be about soccer?" Jordan asked. "No! Let’s make it about dragons." Nate added. "Well that’s where it gets interesting. Each person is going to add one sentence to the story when it is their turn. The only rule is that the sentence has to make sense with the rest of the story." said Miss Scheinberg.

They went around the circle three times to make up their story, each person contributing something to the whole class story. Everyone, including Miss Scheinberg, laughed the entire time. What they didn’t know was their new teacher was carefully listening to their stories. She figured out that Sarah loves dogs, and Phil visited Ireland this summer, and Danielle doesn’t like to share in front of the class.

Today's goal:

Today's objective:

What is your goal for the day?

"That was such a funny story, I have to tell it to my friends. But it was really long, I’m not sure if I can remember all of it. Let’s write a summary of it so that I can tell them!" said Miss Scheinberg

Together the class made a summary of the story. Then the students got to pick a book to read and write a summary about on their own. During independent work time, Miss Scheinberg conferenced with each student individually, looking at their progress. She gave each of them a card and together they came up with two things they are doing well and one thing they can work on.

"She is basically calling me stupid, I just learned this, sorry I'm not great at it!" whined Sam. "She never said you were stupid! She found more things you were doing well than things you need to work on. She said that we are going to be writing summaries for the entire week so I think this is helpful to know how we can get better at it." said Kate.

Classroom Library

Right now it is independent work time.

Voices: Level Zero

Miss Scheinberg read a book called “Eat Your Peas” to the class. Together, they made a list of ways the main character was convinced to eat his peas. "There was a reason that I wanted to read this book today. I need help from all of you. My mom told me last night that she wants to move out of the country but she doesn’t know where to go. She asked if I would help her but I don’t think I have time to. So I would really appreciate your help, by each picking a place, researching it, and presenting to her what you have learned. Your goal is to convince her to move to the place you picked. It might help if you have an example. Phil, I want you to tell us about the coolest things that you got to do when you went to Ireland this summer." Phil’s face lit up and he excitedly told his classmates all about Ireland. The students went back to their desks and got right to work. Some students used computers to do research, while others went to the library to check out books. Everyone was working hard, except for Sam.

"This doesn’t make sense. Why do the directions say Social Studies if this is a literacy activity?" Sam cried.

"Did you know that you learn better when all of the subjects work together to teach you? You’re learning about persuasive writing at the same time that you’re learning about places around the world. Now when you come across persuasive writing, you can say to yourself “I did this one time! I know all about that!”" said Miss Scheinberg.