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I would want my students to be able to come into the classroom and know exactly what to expect at the beginning of each day. This would take some time to model but I believe by the end of the first few weeks students would be able to do this independently. I would want my students to have their own space or box to store important papers in. At my placement my class of grade 2’s each had their own individual file box where they kept things. These were used often like anchor sheets and counting charts. This kept the students from losing them in their desks.

In my classroom every Monday morning (or day after a weekend) I would have the students get into a sharing circle and tell the class one thing that happened over the weekend. I would also have a routine for everyday that would tell them what was happening that day and have a joke or riddle for them. To take attendance I would ask the students as a whole a different question each day the question would be a short one or two word answer such as favourite candy, what would you wish for, and what is one thing you’ve eaten today. These questions would also build on the relationships I build with my students.

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I want my students to be motivated to achieve things but in this world of instant gratification students need to understand that often you need to keep working at something to accomplish it. I saw a great example of this in my placement that I would absolutely use for my own classroom. In one of the classrooms the students were rewarded with good behaviour by earning a jewel. Once the class had reached twenty jewels the class won twenty minutes of free time outside. When the class won the cycle was repeated. I thought this was a great motivating tool because often the things that were rewarded were things the class did working together. This allows for teamwork and the community aspect of helping each other.

Other ways I would promote student engagement is to be inclusive of all my students. I am a massive reader in general and I would love to set up a corner in my classroom as a library which I would fill with books featuring various voices that don’t always reflect my own but that my students might relate to more than I could. I want my students to love school and be excited to come to class. This also leads to having fun lessons that make the student remember what they are learning. Children won’t always remember every paragraph they have to write but writing out a recipe while making the recipe and then getting to eat what you’ve made is much more memorable. Same goes with science experiments ones that have a physical or visual element to them that kids can go wow at.

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I would work with the students and lay out specific guidelines I wanted our classroom to be based on but then would ask for their own thoughts and ideas to make them involved in the process. I clearly lay out my personal expectations for the class including behaviour, schedules, and what to do if you are finished your own work. I would want the students to have clear understandings of both positive and negative situations.

I would want all my students at the beginning of the year to have two goals, one academic and one learning skill. Throughout the year I would set up little conferences and confer with the students on how their goals are being achieved, what they can do to improve and how once they’ve improved go further in expanding that goal.

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The three ideologies that I would incorporate into my teaching plan would be Humanism, Democratic Classrooms and M3 Mindfulness, Mindset and Management.

Humanism is the thought that until we have fulfilled our basic needs we cannot be fully focused on learning. Positivity is a major factor in this ideology. Students need to know that they are supported fully no matter what. This builds on keeping the connection with students the more trust there is between students and a teacher the more the students believe in themselves. If students are dealing with outside factors that are influencing their ability to learn I would want to do everything in my power to help them refocus on learning. This would include keeping a drawer of snacks, having extra supplies, and being an advocate for them if they wanted me to advocate for them.

I want to instil the building blocks for students to become independent thinkers and learners which follows the Democratic Classrooms model. This model allows for student input which allows the students to be more accountable and gives them choice in what they are learning. As a teacher I would work with my class creating rules and jobs that fit with the ideals I want to have at the forefront of my classroom. These are respect, diversity, and integrity. I would shape the classroom discussion around rules that reflected these values. To not slide into Glasser’s choice theory I would ask questions about how students want to be seen and get the students to strategize their own ideas about respect, diversity, and integrity. I would also allow choice in my lessons the students could be learning about a particular subject, but I would give them options on how they could present their learning. This would not happen every single time but in the case of projects and group work.

M3 Mindfulness, Mindset and Management looks at how we are to be fully present in order to learn. I think this model ties into Humanism well because of the similar belief that the philosophy focuses on emotional wellbeing. Today, students are becoming more stressed earlier, and I feel as if we should be giving students the tools with how to manage those anxieties earlier instead of after the fact. In my placement one of the classrooms, I observed focused on mindfulness and giving the students the tools to deal with stress. This was a routine that occurred daily. The teacher would pick from several mindfulness videos and then the exercise would be different each day. One day the video was of an ice cube and the students were asked to freeze in position. They froze slowly focusing on each part of the body and then were told to slowly release the feelings starting with their feet before working their way up to the head. By doing this they were mimicking the actions of the video which had them melting into the floor. By having this as a routine it is teaching the students to overcome moments that may overwhelm them. This is a necessary strategy for life and one that I would instil in my own classroom.

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At the beginning of the year in order to get to know my students I would have them do an assignment, a questionnaire all about themselves they then would have to turn that into a paragraph. This wouldn’t be the only communication to get to know them I would establish a relationship by asking questions but also being available if they wanted to talk. A relationship with students doesn’t happen overnight it is something that has to be consistently worked on. I would invite students to share their hobbies and interests occasionally carving out specific times to do that. For example, in my placement my second AT would have the students fill out a holiday passport where they would name the holiday, the country it originated in and some of the holiday’s traditions. I was there on Diwali and some students were celebrating so my AT got them to stand in front of the class and tell some of the traditions their families have when celebrating Diwali.

As a teacher I would also want my students to be involved in a supportive community so I would make connections with older grades to create a buddy system. This would take lots of planning and slow steps, but a buddy system could help the older students develop leadership skills while giving the younger students someone to look up to and trust.

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Family Engagement and Communication Plan

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Family Engagement and Communication Plan

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For students to be continuously engaged learning cannot just stop once students leave school for the day. To me this means parents and guardians must continue the learning that has taken place in school. In older grades this would mean homework for the students but in a younger grade I would not call it homework but activities that families could do together to keep up the motivation for learning. These could include reading books together or watching educational things together. I would not police this but strongly encourage this as educational opportunities to further expand the student’s knowledge. As I got to know my students more, I would try to curtail this to their own interests.

Going off on this I would welcome open communication with parents. I would keep all their contact information readily available and would give out my email to connect with parents. I would send out a monthly newsletter of sorts and allow them access to anything we had done as a class on Google Classroom. The newsletter would highlight past learnings and be used to show what we would be doing in the upcoming month. I would want to establish a connection with all the families of students because I feel as if that would make communication easier. When communicating with parents I would most likely use the two stars and a wish method when talking about their children. That way they get positive feedback with something the student must work on to improve. This highlights positive behaviours of the student but also gives them room to improve.

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I believe students should be able to have a say in their learning. Not that they have free reign to do whatever they want but they should within reason have influence over their own learning. I do think this has to be gradually implemented building on structures that have been instilled from past grades but as a whole working towards a more student led approach to teaching. While this portfolio of my teaching plan is intended for a younger grade; grade 3 or 4, and I don’t believe I could do the more independent learning that is a part of older grades, see the Visualize That about the SOLE program that the guest speaker Terry talked about, I do believe I could begin to instil some of the foundational skills required to lead into a program like that. I think the biggest foundational skill in the SOLE program is personal development. Personal development can be broken up into identity, integrity, and character. Integrity and character can be developed over time especially if students are made to be held accountable for their own actions which would be seen greatly if the students were also in charge of creating the rules that they themselves are to follow. If students don’t see themselves in the things they study this will also have an effect on how students view themselves. Without identity students will not become self-actualized because they can’t see themselves only other versions of people which could do the opposite effect. Instead of seeing themselves in roles they could believe they themselves are not good enough because they do not see themselves.

Students need to be taught how to become functioning members of society, which means that they need the critical skills to be independent and think for themselves. This cannot happen all at once. Students need to understand the basic skills needed to become independent thinkers. Some may believe that younger students should not contribute independent thoughts, but they have their own feelings and emotions that they might not be able to word just yet. By being able to contribute to the classroom discussion on how the class should be run, younger students can learn to word their own emotions and they will have a better grasp of how to deal with them. Teachers should create a basic outline of what the rules of the classroom are but then also work together with the students to create a classroom community that feels welcoming for all. This will allow for a reciprocal relationship regarding learning because it will allow the students to demonstrate their own ideas and ways of thinking. In turn this will help teachers connect better with the students because it allows teachers to relate to the students more.

The core values I would instil in my own classroom would be respect, diversity, and integrity. I feel that these would be important values for students and teachers because no one is exactly alike, and everyone brings something to a discussion. People must learn to listen to various viewpoints in order to develop their own because that is how critical thinking skills develop but there must also be mutual respect regarding differing opinions. Integrity is an important value because both the teacher and the student should be honest with each other to a point without overstepping professional boundaries. Integrity shows people that they say what they mean, if teachers and students don’t have integrity there will be a lack of trust within the classroom.

A teacher cannot be a brick wall or a person who avoids every confrontation. They must be flexible and adaptable to different situations. A teacher must get to know their students by being friendly but not friends with the students. If students feel that their teachers are listening to them instead of the students parroting back what the teachers want to hear then the students will feel more valued and build confidence amongst themselves which in turn will allow them to become more engaged in what they are learning. Students should be able to connect with the curriculum, this means that teachers must use the curriculum as a mirror so that students can see themselves within the things that they study in order to connect with the required material. This means teachers must search out diversity within the subjects that they teach. By allowing the students to see themselves in what they are learning, teachers are widening the student’s perspectives and allowing them to become more inclusive, validating the students, and providing spaces for their own voices.

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“Storied experience enables us to open the doors to the development of the dispositions of difference, dialogue, disillusionment, and democracy, dispositions that will continue to develop through ongoing dialogue with students in the classroom.”

When we have access to stories that are different from our own it allows us to become exposed to new concepts and ideas. When this applies to students it allows the students to become more engaged and ask questions, at times challenging their own beliefs and biases. This is best done at a younger age because as we get older it can be harder to change our ways of thinking; at a younger age we are still learning about the world so being exposed to new things allows us to grow.

One of the best ways to do this is through literature. It allows us to talk about the issue and experience it. But just talking about it isn’t enough we must identify the themes within the story for children to make the connections themselves. The stories must be carefully selected in order to engage children to have these discussions. The stories must meet a few basic criteria they must be well written with an authentic setting, characters that are based in reality and the theme must be well integrated into the story instead of an overarching moral lesson.

By allowing students to develop an ongoing dialogue about new themes this allows for a more prominent student voice. They are given the chance to connect with the stories and often open up and tell of their own experiences. By sharing their own experiences, they allow for a more student lead discussion and that would allow for a more relaxed nature where more students would feel comfortable sharing their own experiences instead of having a teacher dictate what the theme is. It often allows discussions to branch off into subsects of the original conversation leading to a more involved discussion because you are looking at an issue from many various angles rather than just the sole theme that was introduced.

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What is resilience?

The basic definition says that resilience refers to the ability to return to good mental health after facing challenging and difficult situations. This used to be thought of a character trait that some children possessed, and others did not. More research concluded that it was not one character trait but a combination of character traits and external protective factors. Currently there are four key ideas regarding resilience: 1. resilience is a capacity all students have for healthy development and successful learning, 2. certain personal strengths are associated with healthy development and successful learning, 3. certain characteristics of families, schools and communities are associated with the development of personal strengths, 4. Changing the life trajectories of children and youth from risk to resilience involves changing the beliefs of the adults in their families, schools, and communities.

What are strategies that teachers can use to develop resiliency within students?

Set goals that are reasonable and attainable, that allow students to focus on 3 different aspects: learning, social, and emotional. Goals that allow students to track their own personal bests instead of comparing them with others give the students a way to show their own progress and see how far they’ve come without comparisons. This can lead to a stronger belief in oneself.

Gratitude journals allow students to focus on the positives throughout their day. This also helps them to take time out and stop and think about positive things in their lives.

Students can identify their own strengths and needs as well as any supports they may require through self-identification or surveys. This allows the teacher to understand what the student is thinking or feeling.

Teachers must recognize multiple forms of intelligence. Teachers must work to understand how a student learns and then provide various opportunities for different forms of intelligence to be shown off. Allow students to become passionately engaged in different activities.

Teachers and students must work together to show how resiliency works both in a classroom but also away from a classroom setting as well. Identity can be built in the retelling of family stories showing how strengths can overcome obstacles.

How can we construct an environment help students feel safe and enjoy learning?

There is an emphasis on caring relationships, that students develop a sense of self/identity, a feeling of connectedness and belonging, and the importance of meaningful learning.

By putting the emphasis on learning instead of performing, that alone can make an impact on changing attitudes and getting students ready to learn. Teachers must create a classroom environment that reduces students’ anxiety and gives them the opportunity to believe they are capable and confident.