How I Started Running My T.A.B. Classroom

This week in S.T.E.A.M. I started taking the plunge into a choice-based classroom which helps Teach for Artistic Behaviors (T.A.B.). It has been such a rewarding experience. The picture to the left was a response from two of my students who "loved the stations I made". I found this on my whiteboard after their third grade class left, after experiencing stations for the first time. I used Pixlr to edit the whiteboard writing to be more interesting. To see more about Pixlr read my blog from yesterday, Cool Tool #5: Pixlr.

My lesson for my third grade students was to think about where fractions are represented in the real world. We listed several different options we thought of. As the students were sitting in the "lecture horseshoe" I explained what their required assignment was going to be. They are required to use the media of their choice to create a fraction in the real world. When they design their fraction it cannot be a shape that is divided into pieces it needs to show an actual object. Some examples were a chocolate bar, pie, pizza, etc. Third graders came up with some even more creative ideas, one of the many reasons I love young minds! 

 After the lesson was explained I gave each student a Popsicle stick with their name and class code on it. I took this idea from Johanna Russell's T.A.B. classroom in the video I mentioned in my blog post, "Becoming The T.A.B. Classroom". After each student had their Popsicle stick I wrote out the eight stations that were available to them on post-it notes and stuck them on my "demonstration table" in the middle of the lecture horseshoe. The stations that I made available were: crayons, chalk, watercolor paint, digital media (Google Drawings), drawing pencils, markers, collage and oil pastels. Students would choose their station by placing their stick on top of a post-it note face down so no one could see their name. After all the students had chosen, I would rearrange sticks if there were more than five students in a group. if a student had to be moved from their first-choice station, I put a dot and the date on the back of their stick, so that the next time they chose, they would automatically get their first choice. One thing I learned, but forgot to say in my first class was to tell students that once they put their stick in a station, it must stay there. It got a little chaotic without that requirement.
I don't have any completed work yet, unfortunately. After explaining the process and lesson to my students, we only had about five minutes of work time left. I'm looking forward to the weeks to come, as what they have started looks pretty cool. When students left I had two cups for them to put their sticks into. The cups were "I'm finished" and "I need more time". All of my students put their sticks into the "I need more time" cup.

 I really like the choice-based/T.A.B. classroom, so far. I am looking forward to continuing my growth with this setup, I can definitely see it benefiting the concepts of S.T.E.A.M. I hope to start out with it next year and see how a whole year of choices will turn out. I want to keep you informed and I will do the best I can with keeping you up-to-date.

Any thoughts, questions, or ideas are always welcome!