Although it is not a new year, only a new semester, I am starting over in a new class. I was moved from 3rd grade to 5th this semester. Since I'm new in this classroom, I felt that it would be helpful to refer back to one of our texts from last semester; The First Six Weeks of School by Paula Denton and Roxann Kriete. I read back through the first 2 chapters and was able to make some meaningful connections to a concept mentioned in the book and some of the things I experienced in my first week back in the classroom. The idea that stood out to me is that "knowing the children we teach is as important as knowing the content we teach"(Denton & Kriete 2013). In this new classroom I am a stranger and must build relationships with these students before I can teach them anything. Also in the book, one of the goals for the first week of school is that "students and teachers will be able to name some interests and out of school activities or experiences of members of the class"(Denton & Kriete 2013). In order to meet this goal and get to know my students, we had a simple greeting my first day back so that I could learn a little about the students. My CT and I met before the students came to class, and we discussed how this greeting would go, and she said to me," I show them pictures of Boo Boo." Boo boo is her cat. she explained to me that an important part of having a relationship with your classroom is to let them know that you are a person. They need to know that you have a life, outside of school, and that you're not just some robot programmed to come in, teach, and leave without making any personal connections. She said that it's important to let them into your life just a little, so that they can relate to you as a human being, and not just as an authority figure. During this conversation is when the wheels started turning. Now bare with me, because I'm not a very linear person and my thoughts bounce around a little, but they DO all connect. During our Social Studies class earlier that morning, we were given an assignment that requires us to make an animoto film about ourselves using a primary source. So basically, using pictures to show a timeline of our life that tells about who we are. This animoto website is a perfect resource for a new teacher to use to introduce themselves. Now unfortunately, I did not have time to make an animoto between Social Studies class and internship, so I simply showed the students some photos of my family, and talked about some of the things I like to do for fun, and then we went around the room and let them do the same. Now that I know about this resource, and the importance of using it to build relationships with my students, I'm going to do my absolute best to give a good representation of WHO I really am, so that my students can get to know me. After the assignment is complete, I intend on going back to my 5th grade class and showing them the video, and then maybe allowing them to critique it. They can tell me what they like, don't like, wish there was more of, and I can mold this video source into something that I can use in the first six weeks of school in my own classroom someday. Hooray for awesome resources!
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