A split day with both Heath and Christen's Advisories

Day 2: Wednesday 1/10

          Today, I had the opportunity to shadow both of Heath and Christen's advisories. After PMU, I went to Heath's Advisory and observed. I took notes on how the advisory looks, any assignments, the students, themselves and how she ran advisory. I enjoyed that she continued with the PMU topic in advisory and let her students have an open discussion, sharing their thoughts/opinions regarding the matter. I observed her having a 1-on-1 meeting with a student and took notes on how she conducted it.
          At 11, I popped into Christen's (3rd loop advisor) advisory, another 11th grade advisory for their NEWSELA article. There I took notes on the student who lead NEWSELA, the topic of the article and the reactions, responses and participation of the students. I took notes on Christen and how she managed this time as well.
          After lunch, I continued observing, this time it was QR time. For the first half, I observed and took notes on how Christen and Heath ran their QR Data and Stats workshop and for the second half, I observed Matt, the QR specialist in his space, teaching the other half of students Algebra II.
          At 2, it was time for more IWT, so I was able to observed more 1-on-1s and how students worked on their own.
          While being in both advisories, I compared and contrasted each in my notes. I literally wrote down everything each advisor did/talked about from how they transitioned from one topic to another to strategies they use to communicate with their students.
           Something I tried to focus on while shadowing both advisories was procedures the students have learned and/or still need to practice. I will list them below.

• Preparing for PMU (transitioning from having breakfast, behavior, etc).
• Advisory check-in/out (transitioning from PMU, lunch, IWT, settling down, getting ready to start/continue with the day, etc).
• Phone usage 
• Speaking/Participation (talking one at a time, raising hand, not interrupting others, etc). 
• Visitors (visiting other students in other advisories)  
• Bathroom break
• IWT (project work time) 
• LTI (behavior, interviews, etc). 

          It's hard to say how both advisors taught their students these procedures but I know within the first days of the school year is when it happened because I saw a "norm contract" in each advisory with the signatures of each student. I'm sure they used the three-step approaches to teaching classroom procedures. Explain. Rehearse. Reinforce. Advisors state the "norm", explain it, model and demonstrate it. They continue to practice the procedure with the students and lastly, reteach/reinforce the "norm" until it becomes a habit. I think its safe to say besides, internships and bathroom breaks, the students still need to practice these procedures. I witnessed a few students who follow the procedures better than other and I also witnessed the advisors rehearse and reinforce certain procedures. When corrected, the students were fully able to follow each procedure.
          Overall, today was a great day. I really enjoyed every minute of it.