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Set professional learning goals to explore and apply pedagogical approaches made possible by technology and reflect on their
effectiveness.

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Pursue professional interests by creating and actively participating in local and global learning networks.

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Stay current with research that supports improved student learning outcomes, including findings from the learning sciences.

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A sense of community is essential for a truly beneficial classroom. Not only should students want to learn, but they should be invited to and be able to learn. I truly believe that inherent in building a sense of community is intentionally offering the meaningful support, care, and feelings of belongingness that is necessary for students to learn and grow the best.

As technology continues to advance, the options for effectively building a sense of community continues to increase as well. Therefore, I am extremely open to experimenting with technological tools to find reliable and beneficial ways to develop a sense of community in the classroom. As such, I will continue seeking and testing out those new opportunities whenever possible.

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Engaging in conversation about current research and best practices for creating a sense of community in the classroom is essential for any educator. As every student is different with their own unique learning needs and preferences, it is my duty as an educator to continue researching, experimenting with, and using the best teaching practices to support all my students. As education research into classroom community and techonological development continue, new and potentially more helpful information, teaching practices, and tools will continue to emerge as well. Therefore, it is important for me to continue learning through continuous discussion so that I am better prepared to develop a sense of community with my specific students. Technology especially helps me stay informed and engaged in conversation as I actively read educational articles, interact with other educational professionals on social media, and have access to research journals from around the world.

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My goals for effectively utilizing technology to develop a sense of community in the classroom are: intentionally coaching social-emotional learning and offering choices within the learning experience to honor student preferences.

Intentionally coach social-emotional learning

As part of establishing and maintaining a sense of a classroom community, students must be equipped with the skills to participate positively in a community. Those skills are social-emotional learning (SEL) skills. Through my role as an educator, who plays a significant role in my students' lives, I will strive to intentionally coach SEL skills so that my students can not only participate positively in the learning environment, but can also be better equipped for their lives outside the classroom walls. I will also leverage technology with its vast trove of information to learn from and its wide capabilities to utilize to more successfully teach these skills.

Offering choices within the learning experience to honor student preferences

As each learner in the classroom is unique, I will strive to offer choices within the learning experience, so as to potentially increase student engagement. This is because student choice potentially provides students the opportunity to learn content or learn in ways that interests them more. Not to mention, offering choice can possible enhance student accountability in their learning and increase access to the learning itself. Not every student learns best in the same way nor do they have the same abilities or preferences, but existing and emerging technology affords more opportunities to offer the choice that could allow students to feel more welcomed in the classroom and allow for more learning overall.

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The connections and tools in my PLN:

ASCD

Teaching Channel

Edutopia

Learning for Justice

CASEL

Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Welcoming Schools

The Institute for Arts Integration and STEAM

TikTok

LinkedIn

Pinterest

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Professional-Based Content Consumed Related to My Goals:

Academic Choice: Comprehending & Retelling a Story (Teaching Channel)

This video demonstrates how one teacher implements choice into their students' learning experience, such as through learning profiles and allowing choice in how students learn and how they express their learning. The Teaching Channel is a reputable professional resource and this video provides an effective, realistic method of implementing choice from a 2014 National Teacher of the Year finalist.

Digital Literacy in the Classroom Podcast (Learning for Justice)

This podcast explains the importance of teaching students how to develop a specific SEL skills of critical thinking, specifically in regards to working with online content in all facets of their lives. Through interviews with digital literacy experts, the podcast offers crucial, evidence-based suggestions for how to develop digital literacy in the classroom.

Why We Can't Afford Whitewashed Social-Emotional Learning by Dena Simmons (ASCD)

In this article, Dena Simmons describes the importance of SEL skills, and more specifically teaching them meaningfully in the "sociopolitical context" that students live in. Simmons also provides specific strategies for educators to implement. The article is from ASCD, which is a trusted educational community, and the author Simmons specializes in SEL and racial justice.

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To Intentionally Coach Social-Emotional Learning: CASEL

CASEL is the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, which is a foremost online resource on developing students' SEL skills in ways supported by academic research. CASEL not only disseminates information on SEL, but provides free webinars, hosts forums, and offers other tools and materials for educators to inform or guide their SEL coaching with.

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CASEL identifies three essential areas of hiqh-quality, SEL-focused classrooms. This section will provide your school team with guidance and resources to support teachers in developing aligned strategies for these areas:
A supportive classroom climate where students feel emotionally safe, part of a community of learners, motivated and challenged. This type of environment creates a strong foundation for students to engage fully and take academic risks (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017). This includes:

Community-building

Belonging and emotional safety

Student-centered discipline

Integration of SEL into academic instruction that weaves deep academic learning with opportunities for students to understand their own emotions, empathize with diverse perspectives, cultivate trusting relationships, solve problems constructively, and make decisions while considering the needs of others. This includes:

Fostering academic mindsets

Aligning SEL and academic objectives

Using interactive pedagogy

Explicit SEL instruction that provides consistent opportunities to cultivate, practice, and reflect on social and emotional competencies in ways that are developmentally appropriate and culturally responsive.

Evidence-based programs can support one or all three areas of the SEL-focused classroom. Your team may also choose to supplement a program with additional strategies contained in these sections.

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CASEL identifies three essential areas of hiqh-quality, SEL-focused classrooms. This section will provide your school team with guidance and resources to support teachers in developing aligned strategies for these areas: A supportive classroom climate where students feel emotionally safe, part of a community of learners, motivated and challenged.

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To Intentionally Coach Social-Emotional Learning: Learning for Justice

Learning for Justice is an online source, founded by the Southern Poverty Law Center, that provides free educational resources centering on four principle areas: culture and climate, curriculum and instruction, leadership, and family and community engagement. Offering resources such as - but not limited to - articles, lesson plans, videos, and webinars, educators can implement more informed, meaningful instruction to develop SEL abilities, such as empathy and perspective-taking. This source also provides a crucial Digital Literacy Framework to combine with SEL instruction.

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Learning for Justice is a community education program of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) that centers civic and political action education for everyone.

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To Offer Choices Within the Learning Experience to Honor Student Preferences: The UDL Guidelines

The UDL Guidelines tool provides evidence-based information about how to build in better access to learning through the Universal Design for Learning framework. Building in this accessibility and support, such as through student choices in multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression, should help students feel as more valued and supported members of the classroom community.

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Reenvisioning the UDL Guidelines

Because the UDL Guidelines are meant to be informed by feedback from the field as well as new research, they have been updated several times in the past. We are in the process of updating the Guidelines once again in our UDL Rising to Equity initiative.

This update will focus specifically on addressing systemic barriers that result in inequitable learning opportunities and outcomes. CAST aims to develop a transparent, inclusive, and community-driven process. If you are interested in collaborating and staying updated on our progress, we invite you to complete a brief survey.

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

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As a "digital native" I have had experience with online social networking from a very young age, but as I aspire to become an educator, I have increasingly spent more time using social media for professional development. As a result, I have begun to create and devote social media accounts solely for the purpose of staying informed of current events and recent research developments in education, expanding my teaching repertoire, and interacting with other education professionals. As of now, I primarily use social media like TikTok or Pinterest to learn more about teaching strategies I could potentially implement to create safe and nurturing classroom communities that are often suggested by other teachers. I am also beginning to use my social media accounts to share information about creating a sense of community in the classroom to my followers and fellow educational professionals.

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Artifact #1: Living Pinterest Board on Building Classroom Community

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Artifact #1: Living Pinterest Board on Building Classroom Community

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Through this living Pinterest board, I am compiling and sharing resources I have found throughout my course of study to intentionally coach SEL skills and offer student choices, among other teaching strategies. With this information, I continue striving to improve my abilities to build a strong sense of community in the classroom through the use of technology to find and share of knowledge with other educational professionals.

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Through my professional LinkedIn account, I am able to "connect" with other educational professionals, including those I have met from my course of study and also those from the social networking site itself. Through my posts and from those that I follow, as well as from any online discussions, I will continue to share and learn more about how I can effectively build a sense of community in my classroom.

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Artifact #1: Show & Tell Community Activity

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Artifact #1: Show & Tell Community Activity

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To Intentionally Coach Social-Emotional Learning: Show & Tell Community Activity

Show & Tell Community Activity Lesson Plan Link

During the first week in my new classroom, I worked on developing a sense of community between my students and I by intentionally coaching SEL. Through a "Show & Tell" activity centered on how to "Appreciate Diversity," we all shared items that represented ourselves and our "families". Technology allowed students to show items that they could not physically bring in by uploading a digital presentation that I projected to the class. Students could then see the full range of diversity in their classroom as thoughtfully chosen by each member and come to appreciate it through intentional questioning.

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To Intentionally Coach Social-Emotional Learning: Source Investigation

Environmental Responsibility Source Investigation Lesson Plan Link

During my mini-unit on Environmental Responsibility, to teach students how to "Recognize how critical thinking skills are useful both inside & outside of school," I led students through a digital source investigation on a community issue. Students accessed the sources through a digital presentation shared to all students. During my lesson that stretched into two days, I used questioning and modeling to build students' digital literacy skills. In particular, I worked with students to practice evaluating any online sources for credibility and students engaged in discussion over indicators of trustworthiness in the sources provided.

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Artifact #3: Multiple Means of Expression

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Artifact #3: Multiple Means of Expression

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To Offer Choices Within the Learning Experience to Honor Student Preferences: Multiple Means of Expression

Environmental Responsibility Unit Lesson Plans (Day 2)

Through my arts-integrated unit on Environmental Responsibility, I also worked on building a sense of community in my classroom by experimenting with offering controlled student choices. To create their final public service announcement posters, I offered students the choices to work either physically or digitally, specifically with a drawing tool familiar to the classroom called Kleki.