Welcome to Boldschoolers! Today, we’re talking about starts and stops. The primacy/recency effect shows us that we best pay attention to what comes first and what comes last. Beginnings and endings are important, not just because they stand out to us, but also because those starts and ends help form a container for the day and set the tone and atmosphere of the learning space. Such boundaries can define the experience and allow us to claim victory over the day’s goals and experiences.
There are many ways to start and end the learning day. Here are a few ideas:
- An upbeat song
- A seasonal poem
- A story
- A series of habits (dressing, brushing teeth, breakfast, etc.)
- A brisk walk or other form of movement, such as yoga
- A game
- Drawing or other artistic time
- Journaling
- Reading
- Current affairs
- Intention setting
- Goal setting
Today, I’d like to combine several of these ideas into a daily meeting, called a Scrum meeting. The idea of a Scrum meeting comes from the agile community of software development and it’s sometimes also referred to as the daily stand-up. These brief meetings provide a framework for wrapping the day in positivity, setting expectations, collaborating effectively and solving challenges. The idea is to hold a brief meeting with the team to ground and make sure everyone is aligned on what they’re doing, instead of jumping right to action without forethought. Here is an idea of what a Scrum meeting might look like in your home.
Terminology
Scrum—a short meeting (approximately 15 minutes) within your learning community (i.e. children and adults involved in the learning day)
Scrum Master—a child or adult facilitator chosen to lead the daily Scrum meeting
Sprint—-a one or two sentence description of a goal/intention of the day or for a particular project
Sprint backlog—individual clear goals for the day or project
Story Time Meeting—a time to come together to discuss clear goals based on potential obstacles, experiences and further information
- Choose a Scrum master for the day, adult or child.
- This facilitator chooses a game to begin. The game provides a time to connect with family members, a chance to focus outside of oneself, on a game objective, often an opportunity for movement, engagement and novelty.
- In the opening meeting, the Scrum master can ask each person about their sprint (i.e. intentions for the day or project) and review the sprint backlog, (i.e. the clear goals for the day). There may be a brief discussion on what was accomplished yesterday, any obstacles that may be foreseen or help requested.
- At the close of the day, the Scrum master can ask each person to reflect on their Sprint through Story Time, which includes setting Sprint Backlog (i.e. clear goals) for the following day. The Scrum master can make sure all voices are heard and then close out the Story Time meeting with another connection game.
- To keep track of the Sprint backlog, daily goals, some families like to use a Kanban board, which is a simple whiteboard or digital board made up of columns. These columns might be entitled To Do, Doing, Done, for example, and tasks are moved from one column to the next, as progress continues on the Sprint.
I look forward to hearing from you on how you choose to start and end your learning days. Next, week I'll share a few of my favorite Scrum games. And as a special bonus within Boldschoolers Blueprint, we have a descriptive list of over twenty-five Scrum games, so head on over and join us.
