Conversation Notebooks

I'm going to let you in on a little secret today.

A teacher friend let me in on this secret last year, and I love, love, love what it's done for my kiddos and the community in my classroom. (If you're reading this, HI JULIE!)

They're called conversation notebooks.

What the heck is a conversation notebook?!

It's a little bitty notebook. (It's little. So right off the bat, who doesn't love that?!)

It's a private conversation between you and each of your students.

It's been HUGE. in developing a trusting, open relationship with my students.

Now. Conversation notebooks do take a little extra time in our oh-so-busy teacher lives, but in my experience with them, it's been so, so worth it!

At the beginning of the year, I bought these mini spiral notepads at Walmart. They were 88¢ for a pack of 4 during the Back to School sales! I printed out little labels, and BOOM they were ready to go!

In each little notebook, is a private conversation between me and each of my kiddos. There are times during the day that they can write in it, and they can write as often as they want! They do have to check in minimum once a week, though. 

My munchkins LOVE that in their notebooks, they can tell me ANYTHING IN THE WHOLE WORLD. They can tell me anything from what they had for dinner last night to a question they have that they're too nervous to ask in class. They can tell me if something in math is feeling really tricky, or they can tell me about a book they loved. They can tell me about friends bothering them, or how a new friend made them feel really good! I've had quite a few tell me things in the notebook that they don't want to say in person, in fear of being a tattle-tale in their friends' eyes. This is a safe place to let me know about something that's bothering them.

When we write to each other, we write our notes like a friendly letter! Anything for a little extra practice! :o)

Our notebooks live in this little box. I take it home, and as I read the things my munchkins write to me, I get little glimpses into them. It's a way to connect with each kid, even if you don't get too much out of them on a regular basis in the classroom!

It's a big exercise in trust, but in the nearly two years I've done this, I've never had an issue. It's only strengthened our classroom community!

Would you use conversation notebooks in your classroom? How do you build your one-on-one relationships with your students?

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Books to Build a Classroom Community

Long time, no blog! WHOOPS!

Anyway, spring break this week (woohoo!) gives me a little time to sit down and blog about something I've wanted to share for a while!

Back in February, I won a gift card to Amazon from Jillian at The Starr Spangled Planner to get some books for my classroom! (Thanks Jillian!!) I debated and debated what books to buy, asked the kiddos for recommendations, and scoured blogs/Instagram/Pinterest, but I still couldn't decide!

After some bullying incidents in my classroom arose, I knew EXACTLY what it would go to! Authors Julia Cook and Maria Dismondy have some AMAZING books about character building, accepting differences, and promoting respect and empathy, so I decided we definitely needed a dose of that in Room 6!

These. Books. Are. Amazing!!

In the beginning of the year, we did the "wrinkled heart" activity, and we made a promise to each other. We promised to (and I quote) "treat each other with respect and kindess at all times." We signed our promise, hung it in our classroom, with our wrinkled heart. I referred to it ALL. THE. TIME. Worked pretty well.

Until this looooooooong stretch of time between our winter break and Easter/spring break...with lots of snow and cold temperatures and rain.....which means LOTS and LOTS of indoor recess. 

So this past week or so, we took some time to read one of these books and talk about them. We talked about how we felt when we read them. We talked about why we felt that way. We talked about what was wrong, who did the right thing, and why it was the right thing. I work in a Catholic school, so we talked A LOT about how Jesus would feel about all of these things. 

We also listened to and read this incredible book:

I knew about this book and song for a LONG time, and I never thought to introduce it to my class until now. Probably because I can't get through it without a little tear. It's a beautiful concept. We read the book and listened to the song, but also watched it on YouTube before I could get my hands on the book...

Then we made a new promise. We came up with it together, and on Monday when we come back from Spring Break, we will sign it.

("Live the message of Jesus" is the mission statement of our school, and it was HUGE part of our conversations this week!)

So many of the books I bought were about what to do if someone is bullying you, how to stand up for each other, and how to stand up for yourself. I LOVED that Have You Filled A Bucket Today? and Making Friends is an Art addressed HOW to actually be a good friend, and how to treat others with kindness right off the bat!

I sent a copy of our promise home, along with a list of the books we read.

I noticed, almost immediately, a change in the climate of our classroom community. It was amazing!

We're also reading...

My city is doing this thing called One City, One Story, and it's promoting everyone in the city to read Wonder! I read it last summer, and was THRILLED to see that this was picked! Since it's generally for the older crowd, they also recommended The Invisible Boy for the K-2 crowd, and it's such a touching story! (Not to mention the drool-worthy illustrations!) We read The Invisible Boy last week, and Wonder is our current read aloud....it's got BIG shoes to fill, considering we just finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone!

I also got some other great Julia Cook books with my Amazon order!

These didn't really touch on bullying or kindness, but they DO talk about some pretty important topics! It's Hard to be a Verb! and Wilma Jean the Worry Machine touch on ADHD and anxiety respectively. I went to an awesome workshop on childhood anxiety this winter, and I think all kids could benefit from learning a little bit about things that make you feel anxious! I'm sure we ALL know a munchkin (or six) who could use a trip to Personal Space Camp ! 

How do you promote kindness in your classroom? Are you solely bucket fillers? How do you prevent bullying? Any other books you would add to this collection?

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