Building Relationships and Classroom Culture p.2 - April 2017:
As I continue reflecting on the best methods to develop my dream culture I realize how important it is to build relationships with my students beyond the classroom. Aside from knowing general information about them that I can always reference (“How was your game? How are your parents? How was your trip?”) I need to utilize strategies to effectively incorporate their parents/guardians into the classroom. Parents/guardians are an essential key to getting to know your students better, especially in regards to how you can help them succeed academically. We discussed at length how underutilized parents are, and parents should not solely be contacted when something is “wrong” with a student or when delivering “bad” news. Parents/guardians need to be kept in the loop about their student, and by fostering a connection with them will also show the student how much a teacher truly does care. By opening up communication on my end as the teacher, this will hopefully also open up and initiate more communication coming from the parent/guardian end. Also I think I have officially decided that I will probably not jump into curriculum with my students for at least the first two and a half weeks of the school year. There is an unlimited amount of activities and skill building that I both want to facilitate, but that also need to be facilitated in those initial weeks to successfully establish a commitment to community hopes and expectations. Students would never believe I care if I do not allow time for them to both get to know me and each other. These activities and practices are also not solely reserved for the first couple of weeks. They will be consistent and crucial if ever welcoming a new student. |
My Morning Commute Pep Talk
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Twitter and Tech Supports in the Classroom - March 2017:
At this point I am a bit unsure, and to be quite honest a bit overwhelmed, with all of the technology supports and resources we have learned about. I say unsure because I find myself at a point where I do not know where to start, and so I have yet to implement new technology supports into my lesson, aside from google docs and google slides. Most of what we have gone over I can see myself using in the future, especially the game oriented strategies as fun exercises to do with the class, but I am also very reflective on how helpful some of these apps would truly be to the students. Although I think it is easy to assume students, especially high schoolers, can navigate the internet or understand a new platform in under a minute, I think it is essential for all the different tech supports that will be used throughout the year be introduced during the first couple of weeks of the school year. As for myself I have realized there is an abundance of resources and materials for me to pull from. There really is no need to reinvent the wheel with a particular topic, but it is essential to take a lesson, edit it with your own style, adjust to ensure it meets the learning needs of your students, and then adapt where necessary in the future. Specifically with Twitter I have not found it to useful, but I think that might be because I am following too many different accounts. Initially I thought more would be better to add a variety, but I have found that multiple accounts will repeat information/headlines, and since I go on about once a week I get overwhelmed by how much I feel I have to scroll through (even though it’s not required I scroll through everything, there is this feeling of trying to catch up on all that I missed). I think if I cut down to about twenty solid accounts I should feel better prepared to use my Twitter account to it’s fullest potential. In regards to the Twitter chat there was too much being tweeted at once for me to easily follow, and the 140 character limit truly does get in the way of what I would find to be a whole and thoughtful response to questions or concerns. It is great to see how easy it is to connect via social media, but I am still unsure how helpful a “tweet” can be. I still plan on using twitter, updating my profile, more intentionally following accounts, and hopefully better stay in the loop with what is going on in the education Twitter realm. |
This I believe..... - Feb. 2017:
I believe in inclusion, adaptability, and teaching with empathy. Every students deserves and has a right to an equitable education, which is why a teacher must be willing to be adaptable with their teaching methods and curriculum in order to justly include each of their students. I believe in practicing, modeling, and fostering within our students the lifelong learner mentality. Teachers must model the value of education, must welcome when they are wrong or are learning something new, and must help instill the value of education within students because being open-minded to new ideas, thoughts, and practices help create a more fair and supportive society. I believe in taking an active role in fostering a positive community, and showing that I truly care about every student (not just the ones in my classroom). I am an educator both inside and outside of the classroom, which means I must step up to address and advocate on behalf of my students at the higher level of educational policy change, as well as work every day to build a personal relationship with each of them to ensure they have the tool and essentials need to lead a fulfilling life. |
Building Relationships and Classroom Culture - Feb. 2017:
I used to think that the best way to get to know about your students is by asking them to fill out a survey, and then making sure you are checking in with each of them at least once a week at the least. With about 30 students per class and six periods to teach I am trying to think of efficient ways to get to know all students at once. As long as I am positive and nice to students in class, then that should help them feel comfortable around me and willing to do their work. But these strategies only focus on the classroom management component of my class, and not on actually building a positive classroom culture. Instead I now believe that it takes daily, personal, and genuine efforts on my behalf to ensure I am building trusting relationships with my students and continuously fostering a positive, community oriented learning environment. A part of my dream culture is my hope to implement a variety of activities focused on developing community in the classroom, where students are encouraged to take risks and be their honest self, as well as learning each other's strengths and skill building together to feel prepared to jump into the curriculum.
Through my observations and extended practicum I have not had the opportunity to implement or reach out to the students in the way I envision, but that should not stop me from trying to establish relationships with these students. As I have moved on into my student teaching I can feel a difference in how much more comfortable I am around students, which then opens the door for students to feel more comfortable around me as well. Since I rarely approached or interacted with students during my observations they clearly did not see me as a resource or someone to help them in the classroom. Now as I have slowly progressed to working with the students in both one on one and group settings, this began a clear slow transition into them acknowledging me more and taking me up on my offers to help. I wish I had made more proactive efforts to get to know and work with the students earlier on in the school year.
I used to think that the best way to get to know about your students is by asking them to fill out a survey, and then making sure you are checking in with each of them at least once a week at the least. With about 30 students per class and six periods to teach I am trying to think of efficient ways to get to know all students at once. As long as I am positive and nice to students in class, then that should help them feel comfortable around me and willing to do their work. But these strategies only focus on the classroom management component of my class, and not on actually building a positive classroom culture. Instead I now believe that it takes daily, personal, and genuine efforts on my behalf to ensure I am building trusting relationships with my students and continuously fostering a positive, community oriented learning environment. A part of my dream culture is my hope to implement a variety of activities focused on developing community in the classroom, where students are encouraged to take risks and be their honest self, as well as learning each other's strengths and skill building together to feel prepared to jump into the curriculum.
Through my observations and extended practicum I have not had the opportunity to implement or reach out to the students in the way I envision, but that should not stop me from trying to establish relationships with these students. As I have moved on into my student teaching I can feel a difference in how much more comfortable I am around students, which then opens the door for students to feel more comfortable around me as well. Since I rarely approached or interacted with students during my observations they clearly did not see me as a resource or someone to help them in the classroom. Now as I have slowly progressed to working with the students in both one on one and group settings, this began a clear slow transition into them acknowledging me more and taking me up on my offers to help. I wish I had made more proactive efforts to get to know and work with the students earlier on in the school year.