Morning Meetings

Doing the assigned readings including "Like Being at the Breakfast Table" The Power of the Morning Meeting, by Bondy and Ketts. I realized the strength and continuity that this brings into a classroom. In this article the students in this featured teacher's class had performed well above all the other 3rd grade classes in testing in a certain year. The only difference in this teachers class was that she conducted morning meetings each day. I think each step of the meeting is important. By greeting everyone, you're giving a signal that it's time to begin. This can also be educational, you can teach your students greetings in new languages in this way. Then talking about the day gives a heads up to everyone so that they know what to expect. I like the games aspect, I think this is my favorite part. The reason for this is that it's causing students to interact with eachother face to face. We've gotten so used to hiding behind technology, that we don't know how to talk to eachother anymore. This concept of sitting in a circle and solving problems together is wonderful, we need more of this.

The fact that one of the students stated, "it's like being at the breakfast table" means that it gives them a warm safe feeling, something good for all. Especially for those students who don't ever have the experience of sitting at the breakfast table, (I have to admit that usually only happens on the weekends at my house, as my children are running out the door with breakfast in hand.)

In the end, morning meetings teaches children logic skills, assertiveness, responsibility, empathy and self-control. Some of these skills came into play during testing, which is why the students in this article outperformed the other 3rd graders.