Standard II: Teachers Establish a Respectful Environment for a Diverse Population of Students
Element IIa. Teachers provide an environment in which each child has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults.
Element IIb. Teachers embrace diversity in the school community and in the world.
Element IIc. Teachers treat students as individuals.
Element IId. Teachers adapt their teaching for the benefit of students with special needs.
Element IIe. Teachers work collaboratively with the families and significant adults in the lives of their students.
During the 2017-2018 school year my school has implemented The Postivitiy Project. For several years I have been implementing the ideas of Responsive Classroom into my personal classroom. I have been conducting a morning meeting, afternoon meeting and implementing student choice and voice in my classroom since 2002 when I was afforded the opportunity to attend a week long training in Responsive Classroom from the Northeast Foundation. Adding the Postivitiy project to my classroom this year has been a great experience. My students have really responded wel to the weekly direct instruction on individual character traits. I have noticed my students using the language mentioned during the lesson in the morning during their everyday informal conversations with classmates. I also frequently check in with my students on an indivdual basis to let me know that I am concerned about more then just their academic progress. The cornerstone of any great classroom is having relationships with both students and parents and getting to know them as individuals.
During the 2016-2017 I had the opportunity to attend the Phase 1 training offered by the Racial Equity Institute. This experience ignited a passion and fire in me to ensure that ALL of my students were being offered the best educational opportunties that I can give them. I particpate in my schools' monthly equity conversations. I also attended Phase 1 for a second time in 2017. I firmly believe that equity in education is the largest social justice issue facing students at this time. I continue to work towards expanding my understanding of this issue everyday. I am consistantly reading scholary articles, participating in Twitter chats as well as monthly meetings at my school in order to become more knowledagble. The first step is admitting that there are issues that need to be addressed. Once you acknowledge that their are issues it then becomes your duty to work towards trying to better understand the issues and work toward solutions.
For the last two years I have worked collaboratively with our schools EBS (Emotional/Behavioral Support) teacher to sucessfully mainstream her students into my 2nd grade classroom. For years I have had wide range of students in my classroom, from students that are new to this country and learning our language, to students that have learning differences. Working with the EBS program these past 2 years have afforded me the opportunity to better understand how to incorporate best practices for all students into my classroom. My greatest teaching moments over the past 2 years have been when visitors to my classroom were unable to distinguish my mainstreamed students from other students.
Working with families is an crucial part of being an effective teacher. This is a giant task and is essential to establishing a productive school year. I do this in several ways. The first way is that I invite all parents to complete a form telling me about what they want for their child to accomplish during the school year. Often times the parents have a very specific set of ideas of what success looks like and it is very important that parents and teachers are on the same page where that is concerned. I also have a classroom website that has a weekly blog, as well as a calendar of important dates.
Classroom Website
I also have a classroom Twitter account (@mccommonscrew) so that parents can see daily updates about what is going on in the classroom. In addition to both of these methods I make positive phone calls home as well as do home visits when possible. Finally, I have an open door policy in my classroom. I enourage parents to come and volunteer whenever possible.