Oh, Hurrah!

Let's celebrate check-in with two stories from Salt Lake, shall we?

Story #1
My AVID class was observed by a lady from our district office the other day. A week or so later, at our district AVID meeting, she acknowledged my class in particular - "Amanda's class has a great sense of community, which I think is a direct result of something she does each day called 'check-in'." She then asked me to explain the concept to the other teachers, which I did gleefully (yet subtly) spreading the revolution.


Meanwhile, my students are creating waves all on their own-
Story #2
Yesterday, the dance teacher at our school stopped by my room to share the following with me:

Kelley (the dance teacher) was taking roll, during which her students normally just sit and chat. Suddenly, though, right after the bell, she heard, 'Hi! My name is Clara. This weekend I went to church, and this is Claudia.'

'Hi everyone! I'm Claudia. I'm feeling happy and this weekend I hung out with my friends.'

And so on. Kelley just let them continue. The other students, the ones who don't have me as a teacher, were confused at first, but Clara and Claudia just explained that they were "checking in", and continued passing it on around the group. Kelley said the best part was at the end: the last student finished and Clara whispered "Pass it back to me!"
Student: Um... Clara?
Clara: Great! And that is us. Today's business (she looks at what Kelley's written on the board) - our dance concert is in two weeks....

At that point, Kelley volunteered to take over, and they let her since she was the teacher.


This story made my day! Especially when Kelley said she thought she would continue it, as long as it doesn't take up too much time.

I loves me check-in!