Hey Reader!

I hope you've had an awesome start to your school year!

Here at KCA, we've had seven days with our students so far and it has been a blast. I'm still getting the hang of a) being back to 100% teaching and b) my new schedule (this year, I'm teaching P-2 PE, Grade 4 Core French, and Healthy Living in Grade 7 French Immersion). It's been wild, but also full of learning.

Here are a few things that I've learned so far:

🌈 What's Working: Squads, Squads, Squads.

Although I've always used squads in my teaching, this year feels next level. Basically, all of my classes are broken down into six teams (a.k.a. squads): red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

Within each squad, students are assigned a number (typically 1-6, depending on the class size).

To help my students learn their squad colours and numbers, I updated my Squad Roster Sheets. The new ones feature student photos, names, squad colours, and squad numbers. This gets displayed on my TV, and I have printouts of them in my clipboard.

The squads get leveraged in a lot of different ways in class. Teams, stations, even for lining up at the end of class.

I used to have so many issues with kids pushing and shoving when it was time to get in line at the end of class. Now, I roll my very DIY rainbow die, and whichever squad comes out on top gets to line up first (in their number order). From there, we follow the rainbow pattern until everyone is in line. I haven't had a single line up issue since I started doing this.

Our squads and squad numbers also get used for our bathroom system. I built this bathroom board for my gym that features lights and magnets. There's a set of magnets for each squad colour and each magnet within a set is numbered. When a kid needs the bathroom (during activity time), they use the board to let me know where they are:

1. Place your magnet in an available "I am OUT" spot.
2. Turn that spot's light ON.
3. Take care of business (and wash your hands!)
4. Move your magnet back to its HOME spot.
5. Turn the light back OFF.

There was 100% a bit of a novelty effect (I teach primary, they all wanted to try it), but that has since worn off and the system is working great!

Finally, our squads always get used in our self-assessment practices in class.

My new Learning Magnets are an evolution of the Plickers Assessment Magnets that I used in the past. Since I no longer actively use Plickers in my teaching, I decided to redesign what these magnets look like and how they are used.

There's a magnet for each squad spot in class. On my whiteboard, I'll have anything from discussion questions, to learning roadmap levels, or any specific goals we are working towards. Students get to show me how they are thinking or where they are at in their learning by placing their magnet in the right area.

At the end of the lesson, I snap a picture of the board and drop it into my teaching project in Claude. The AI reads the photo and tells me where everybody placed their magnet. It's fast, and the kids love celebrating/showing their learning by moving their magnets.

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🚦 What Already Needed Fixing: The Make It Right Bench.

Something I wanted to introduce to my teaching this year was the Make It Right Bench.

While the Breather Bench gives students a place to self-regulate in my gym, not all behaviour issues are regulation-based ones. Sometimes, the unexpected/unwanted behaviour a student is presenting is a good ol' fashioned responsibility-based issue.

For those situations, I wanted to create a space that was grounded in restorative practices (i.e. practices that encourage kids to a) recognize and b) repair the harm their behaviours caused).

My first attempt at creating such a space was a pretty solid success... until l had myself a Friday afternoon with THAT class.

Anywhoodle, I promised you that I would always share my wins as well as my bellyflops here. That said, I also want to show you how I bounce back while my belly is still burning (or at least try to).

I break it all down in my latest blog post, which includes an update that let's you know how things didn't go so great:

Read The Blog Post!

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I love teaching... even when it drives me insane. Which it does. Like, on a regular basis.

That said, I remain forever grateful to do what I do, and equally grateful that I get to share this journey with all of you. I'll never be shy to share my wins, but I also promise to never hold back from sharing my stumbles. After all, that's what being in the trenches of teaching is all about.

If this is the kind of stuff you like to dork out on (like I so very much do), I'd really encourage you to check out #PhysEdU. I post there on a regular basis and I'm closing in on 1000 posts. All of the behind the scenes from my teaching, all of the bumps and bruises, plus everything I design and/or make for my students. PLUS, it just so happens to be a place where likeminded teachers like to share as well.

Check it out! There's more information here if you like.

Thanks so much for reading and helping get this newsletter of mine out to more people. I hope you're doing well and remembering to take care of yourself in between moments that kids are sneezing in your face.

Happy Teaching!

Joey

Join #PhysEdU Today! Community Tier is $10/year. Access to all campus spaces, monthly #PEChat discussions, PubPD sessions, monthly freebies, and a community that actually helps you grow. Plus Tier is $49/year. Everything in Community, plus access to the Games space (which includes downloadable, sub-friendly PDF versions of each game), assessment tools, and Library space (which is full of Atomic Essays, exclusive posts, and more!) Pro Tier is $99/year. Everything in Plus, plus workshops, the Visuals Space (where you can access and download my entire Premium Visuals library), and our Mentor Circle where we work through challenges like this together. Join #PhysEdU and Start Teaching With Purpose Today!

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Joey Feith
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🥳 You're awesome! Thanks for reading all the way through! Reply with any questions you may have. ​Edit your profile or unsubscribe. Want to keep learning together? → Join #PhysEdU - find a tier that works best for you. → Book A Workshop - learn more about my speaking services. Send mail to 600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246