Teaching Portfolio
Classroom Community
I firmly believe that building healthy relationships is the foundation needed to instill confidence, happiness, and motivation in children as they progress through school. Every classroom has its own unique community. My role as the teacher is to get to know my students individually so we can learn together, laugh together, discuss important lessons together, and make connections together.
I believe that it is important to connect with my students first, then teach. I am intentional about taking the time to ask my students questions, and listen to their answers. This shows them that I care, and this is a space in which they are heard and valued. This also provides me with the opportunity to model active listening, in addition to brainstorm ways to link learning to individual interests and experiences. Once I've invested the time in making connections with students, I'm able to teach them more effectively because they trust me. Connecting with students involves allowing our students the opportunity to experience our humanness.
Lastly, I build classroom community by approaching my students, their families, and my colleagues, with dignity and respect. This lays the foundation for healthy and functional relationship building in my classroom.
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Morning Meeting
ROUTINE AND STRUCTURE
Each morning, my mentor teacher and I begin our day with a 20-25 minute morning meeting to ensure that our students are feeling confident about the day and set a tone for challenge, risk-taking, and teamwork.
In my internship, I have found that a successful classroom community and learning environment requires structure and stability with predictable schedules and routines that help create a sense of order and consistency. Now more than ever, establishing routine and structure should be a focus in the classroom, as our students and families are continually adjusting to new and unfamiliar school settings. By starting each day the same way, with four sequential components: Greeting, Sharing, Group Activity, and Morning Message, I successfully engage our 5th grade students in a fun and friendly meeting that helps create community and effectively reinforces social and academic skills.
While the consistent routine of morning meeting offers students a sense of safety and security, the four components are updated each day. This offers an appropriate element of surprise and challenge to each meeting. Students are greeted by name, which provides the most basic sense of belonging. The greeting is followed by sharing, which reinforces communication skills and encourages us to build relationships as we learn more about one another. The whole-group activity strengthens learning, inspires teamwork and is focused on inclusivity. Lastly, with the help of a student volunteer, I read out the morning letter, which is a brief note from me to spark excitement about what they will be learning that day.
I am extremely proud of the work my mentor teacher and I have done to masterfully transfer this in-person experience to the virtual world! Despite having to adapt some of the components to work more efficiently over zoom, the process of planning greetings, sharings, activities, and messages that align and support our specific classroom objectives, has been extremely fun and informative. I can’t wait to take advantage of my ever-growing collection of ideas when I plan morning meetings for my future students!
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Crew Meeting & Spirit Days
At the beginning of the school year, the fifth grade team brainstormed different ways to keep our students feeling connected to the rest of their classmates in the 5th grade. To give our students a sense of belonging and something fun to look forward to each week, we decided that on every Thursday, we would end class early, and hold a grade wide community meeting. In addition to CREW meetings, Thursdays are also spirit days in which teachers and students dress up according to the chosen theme for that week. Whichever class had the most participation, would be announced as the winner at the following Crew meeting. Lastly, the new Star Student of the week would be announced at the end of each meeting. These Crew meetings served as a reminder to our students of the collaborative nature of education, which is easily lost and forgotten in our current setting.
The purpose of Crew Meetings and Spirit Days is to create a supportive online learning environment that is sensitive to student needs. Our 5th grade team firmly believes that students who feel a sense of connectedness and closeness, rather than isolation, will be better prepared and more engaged with learning in a virtual setting. Crew meetings provided time for students to focus on building relationships with those outside of their class. Furthermore, it reminds students that we are all in this together and they are a part of something bigger. Despite this strange learning format, which often feels isolating and lonely, we take this time to let our students know that they are known, loved, and appreciated.
Rules & Expectations
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Classroom Rules
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Zoom Expectations
Star Students
APPRECIATING OTHERS
Every Thursday, a new Star Student from each 5th grade class would be chosen and announced at our grade-wide Crew Meeting. To document and celebrate our weekly Star Students in a more tangible way, I created a Star Student presentation on google slides.
The first several slides introduce and explain the characteristics of a Star Student and remind the class of how to write a good compliment. For example, students learned that a proper compliment includes the person’s name and notes something specific that the person has done well. I also included a slide with compliment stems to help those who need extra support in writing and formulating a compliment.
By celebrating Star Students in this way, our class gets to practice writing and sharing compliments which, in addition to making others feel appreciated and strengthening our classroom culture, reinforces communication and literacy skills.
Additionally, 5th graders learn a lot about character traits and sensory language in Language Arts. When talking about characters in a story, students practice describing them using character traits, which are descriptive adjectives that tell us the specific qualities of the character. Thus, students are able to connect what they have learned in Language Arts about positive character traits to this activity, and use it in their everyday life. Lastly, this has been a great way for me to review classroom rules and expectations with the entire class. To get students thinking about writing compliments and what they value in each other, I would ask questions like, “What compliments might you give our star student who has made our virtual classroom a fun, safe, and welcoming place by following expectations?”
All About Me
GETTING TO KNOW EACHOTHER
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Hopes & Dreams
ACADEMIC & SOCIAL GOALS
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