This quote means that if students are excluded from class as a punishment, then it will result in future infractions and students becoming less connected to school and their peers than before. This quote also shows that exclusion can have a negative impact on academic achievements and that exclusion is not an effective form of punishment and will cause more harm than good. I selected this quote because it informed me and reiterated that exclusion, although commonly practiced, is not a good route for punishment and that I should consider other methods. Sometimes as educators you think that exclusion is not the answer for a punishment but are sometimes challenged to find an alternative. This quote stressed the importance for an alternative. In my eyes, if you want a student to change/improve their behavior, then you need to provide students with the tools to do so rather than excluding them from class activities. This quote has informed my future classroom decisions by encouraging me to use redirection rather than exclusion. Sometimes asking a student to take a moment to reflect on the situation with negative behavior rather than leaving the classroom for an extended period of time still provides the student with the proper time to reset their attitude. 

This quote means that if an educator makes the choice to get to know their students on a deeper level, then student engagement and academic success will follow. This quote also stresses the importance of including student backgrounds within lesson and unit plans. By allowing students the opportunity to see themselves represented within class content, then they will become more interested in the material and allow themselves to be open to learning more new content. For some students, especially in history, they have never seen their culture depicted within lessons, so they feel as though they have no connection, therefore easily losing interest. In order to accomplish greater student understanding, I will give students the opportunity to share information about themselves at the start of the year. After sharing, I will start a discussion where I will also share more about myself. By establishing these relationships and learning more about my students, I will have better success with the content throughout the year. 

This quote means that to truly have a caring classroom environment, a teacher must see capability present within every student and hold them all to higher standards, not just a select few. The teacher should make it a goal to see all students accomplish tasks at a higher level. I selected this quote because it depicted what I strive to be when I’m an educator. I want all of my students to feel that they can accomplish what they set their minds to; everyone deserves that kind of support. I also know it is important to set forth high expectations for all students and not just, “make tasks easy” in order to get a higher success rate initially. I want to encourage my students by showing them that challenging yourself and not getting something initially is totally okay and is actually a good thing. In order to accomplish this, I need to show/talk about my own challenges I’ve faced and how I’ve overcome them. Allowing myself to be vulnerable in front of my students will make my students feel more comfortable with being vulnerable in class and to be more open-minded about trying new things. 

This quote talks about how the circle method gives students an opportunity to realize what they may have done wrong in a situation and how to make up for that by apologizing and/or showing kindness. The circle method is designed to give students a safe space to be able to speak their minds while also learning from their mistakes. I chose this quote because I liked how it acknowledged that students should not only admit mistakes but also take the time to apologize and grow from what they did. I plan to implement a practice like this in my class by creating a designated space where I could take students who may have been involved in an argument to talk out what happened and be able to apologize to one another and learn from the situation. By making this practice a priority, I will be setting my students up for success.