Freedom to Thrive

A Pathway to Intellectual Freedom

Kathleen Gallagher

• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781647011543
• eBook ISBN: 9781647011567
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Behavioural Management

Timing, organization, and a special interactive dialogue will change a classroom into a happy and successful learning environment.

PART TWO

Part Two: The School Day

All-Day Dual Management System for Teachers and Students

This program is not comprised of special books or confined to a random “slot” on the curriculum. Although each individual school and teacher will create their best schedule, this is how a typical day is structured. The system works best when used in its entirety. However, teaching and learning are enhanced whenever any part of the system is implemented.

“The program is a dual-management system: there is one schedule for the teacher and one for the students all day long.”

DAILY TIME SCHEDULE FOR SELF-CONTAINED ROOMS
Time	Teacher	Student
30 minutes	Responsibility Papers	Workshop** Tasks
30 minutes	Whole Class Lesson—Non-Math
5 to 7 minutes	Check Puzzles and THINKERS®	Risk Sheets
30 minutes	Session 1 Reading	Others in Workshop
30 minutes	Session 2 Reading	Others in Workshop
30 minutes	Session 3 Reading	Others in Workshop
20 minutes	Risk Sheet Accountability Check and a Small Group for Re-Teaching & Enrichment	Others in Workshop
??? minutes	Lunch & Recess
30 minutes	Whole Class Lesson—Math
20 minutes	Small Group for Re-teaching or Enrichment	Others in Workshop
20 minutes	Session 2 Reading	Others in Workshop
30 minutes	Whole Class Lessons—Science, History, Religion, Etc.

* All times (number of minutes) determined by school schedule.

** The Workshop Board of Independent Work is a series of numbered independent tasks. Each task engages students whenever they are not in a full-class lesson, a reading session, or a small group setting with the teacher. This will be fully explained later.

* * *

The First Thirty Minutes: Eye Contact is Crucial—Intellectual Safety is Initiated

The First Thirty Minutes of the School Day

The structure of the day will be based on the realities and challenges within the school. Tremendous benefits have been derived from applying the following suggestions which have evolved from practical experience.

• It is very important to provide students with time to quiet themselves after leaving their home. Independent work for the first thirty minutes of the school day is quiet work and is geared to success for all.
• First of all, as students arrive, they do not see the teacher sitting at a desk in the front of the room but rather at a table to the side or back of the room. This reduces their tendency to view teachers as authority figures and increases their sense of safety in the educational environment.
• During the first thirty minutes of the school day, the teacher’s voice is not heard giving any instruction or direction. The work the children do when they first enter the classroom was taught and practiced on the first day of class.
• Toward the end of the first day of school, students are given a Responsibility Paper. It is a single sheet of paper with a list of about twenty-four to forty grade-level vocabulary words or phrases. Words are taken from readers, other textbooks, or directions from standardized tests. When students receive this paper, the teacher explains the assignment like this:
  “The work for tonight is to be able to read just one word on this paper or as many words as you choose to study. You can ask anybody for help to read one word. You could ask a friend in the classroom, a parent at home, the bus driver, the crossing guard, or anyone you choose. If you want to read more than one word, read down the column.”

The teacher demonstrates what “down the column” looks like.

• On Day 2, once students have entered the classroom and have beg...

Table of contents

• WHAT IS WORKSHOP WAY®?
• THE SCHOOL DAY