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Ms. LampertI'm originally from Freeburg, Minnesota and attended school in Caledonia.
I attended college at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota, for one year before transferring to Northwestern College, now University of Northwestern, in Roseville, Minnesota. At Northwestern I earned a Bachelor of Science in Communication Arts Literature Education 5-12, as well as minors in Special Education and Bible. I earned my Masters of Science in Education specializing in Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment through Walden University. My master's thesis focused on integrating technology in 1:1 classroom settings. Additional coursework through Northland Pioneer College in Arizona and the South Dakota Board of Regents system enhances my learning. The 2018-2019 school year will be my 12th year teaching. As an English teacher I strive to instill a love of reading into students' hearts. There are so many things I enjoy about teaching. I enjoy, like many teachers, seeing the Ah ha! moments come to light on students’ faces, but there are other aspects of teaching I enjoy as well. I love watching students figure out how to think for themselves and generate new ideas. The state says that as an English teacher my job is to teach reading and writing, but it is really more than that. To teach someone how to read is to expose them to ideas which, through writing, they can make into their own. English teachers show students how this process of communication can be used effectively to express their own ideas and share them with others. I enjoy this process, especially when students work extremely hard to get something right and it finally comes together the way they want. |
Flexible Seating: An Experiment
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Kayla Delzer, Edutopia contributor, TedEx speaker, and education guru, states: “Our classroom environments should be conducive to open collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. This simply cannot be done when kids are sitting in rows of desks all day” (“Flexible Seating and Student-Centered Classroom Redesign” 2016).
In February 2018, RTR High School teachers had an opportunity to hear Delzer speak passionately about her views while attending the SWWC technology conference in Redwood Falls, MN. By Friday’s staff meeting, the teachers were buzzing with ideas and questions for how they could implement what has become known as flexible seating in their classrooms. For me, the journey began several years ago.Flexible seating is the idea that students learn better when given an opportunity to do so in a non-threatening, comfortable space. The idea stems in part from an education theorist named Maslow. Maslow wrote a paper in 1943 titled “A Theory of Human Motivation,” which established his idea that people needed to have certain, basic needs met before they could successfully complete complex, analytical tasks. In short, individuals need to feel safe and secure before true learning can take place.Ten years ago, I brought a huge box of pillows into my classroom. When students had reading time, I let them sit in desks, at tables, or on the floor. Having a pillow on a hard concrete floor helped students be a little more comfortable, and they were more likely to read and experience success. It is a basic concept elementary teachers know well, but it is rarely implemented in high school settings. Eight years ago my pillows were joined by a pair of stadium chairs—the kind designed to sit over the hard benches of high school gyms. The little chairs were a hit; students enjoyed the back support while otherwise stretching out on the floor. Since then, I have been considering how to adjust the classroom environment in such a way that students remain focused on the task of learning while also being comfortable. I was regularly reminded of one of my favorite college professors from the University of Northwestern, St. Paul. Dr. Sally Harris hated our classroom. She said it was cold and poorly lit. So each week,we squeezed into her office in Nazareth Hall. Four people squished onto a couch, five of us sat at a dining-room table, and one of us sat on a big round ball generally reserved for gym use. With this experience in mind, I decided this year was going to be the year for change. I started by telling my senior students at the start of the year that if they could find a couch, I would consider adding it to the classroom. Within a week, a student had volunteered a couch his family no longer needed. Throughout first semester, the couch, on casters, would be put away if students were off-task, but would be rolled back out not long after. The goal was to help students understand that the fun seating is an acceptable option, but only if they were able to keep their focus on academic tasks. As students adjusted to this expectation, the couch remained in the center of activity. It was not allowed to become a distraction, and students learned to regulate themselves with reminders of “will you be able to focus on today’s task if you sit there?” and the occasional, “no, you can’t sleep there, kiddo.” With blessings from Principals Bettin and Lindeman, I visited the University of Minnesota ReUse Program Warehouse while in Minneapolis to photograph the RTR Boys’ Basketball team. The ReUse Program Warehouse is a huge warehouse full of furniture and supplies cast off by the U of M. It is open to the public on Thursdays and Saturdays. For a fraction of the original cost, I was able to find some more comfortable seating for my students. Currently, my classroom has seating for 28 students, but it doesn’t look that way. Students and teachers say that the room looks more open and inviting than ever before. Jerry Stefanick and Erick Harper helped me find some tables already at the school which weren’t being used. I brought in a small dining room table from home. I then boosted one of the tables to counter-height for students who would prefer to either stand up during instruction or to sit on a high stool where they could easily see over the students in front of them. And I kept a few desks. Like before, students are reminded to focus on the academic task, and to try a new chair regularly to see where they learn best. Taylor Greenfield enjoyed the transition, stating that room “feels like a living room where we happen to learn.” Chloe Hess enjoys a change from the “monotony of desks in the usual classrooms. Every single other classroom is desk in rows, except for this one.” While there are some safety concerns to consider, such as making sure the couch is fire retardant and that the chairs are washable, for now my experiment in flexible seating is going well. Students remain focused on academics, but enjoy the opportunity to relax a little when they arrive in English class. A side benefit is that because students are in seating arranged for natural conversation to take place, it does. Students are more likely to openly seek help from one another, offer to help one another, or otherwise collaborate or discuss an academic topic, in part, because of the seating. For now, it is a win-win. Readers can view a video of the classroom seating and follow Ms. Lampert’s classroom at her class website, rlampert.weebly.com, or follow her on Twitter @Lampert_Robyn. |
What's Up? |
Updates coming soon!
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Great Reads for the Folks |
The Role of Parents
The Core Coaches, a group of teachers who create and publish resources they've found helpful in their own classrooms, have an excellent article regarding the role of parents in classrooms. Click here to read. I recently read a blog post by writer and mom Amy Carney which discussed parenting teenagers. The article, titled "Stop Doing These 8 Things For Your Teen This School Year" is available here. Critical Analysis and Information Literacy This article is published by Edutopia.org, an organization which promotes the professional development of teachers. The article describes how teachers can assist students in building their research skills. The suggestions made all align with Minnesota's standards and the pedagogy used in ELA classrooms. Teachers don't teach research skills just to make students jump through different tasks; the tasks and skills developed through the process are meant to assist students in developing their own thinking regarding various topics. The role of teachers is rarely to tell students what to think, but is rather to show them how to think critically about any topic with which they are presented. Read the article here. Looking to add some reading to your student's summer plans? I have an Amazon list for that! Check out these places for a few good recommendations. Ms. Lampert's Library Recommendations Young Adult Library Services Best of the Best TIME: The 100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time |