Teachers' Favorite

 Greetings teacher friends! This week let's talk about favorites! 

We all have favorite things: a favorite book, movie, sport, song, color, food. No doubt our students also have their favorites, and they are always eager to share them! It's important for us as educators to connect with our students, and help them connect with each other. I think at times we either forget or feel uncertain to sharing experiences and what we like with our students. Let's not be afraid to do this, but rather embrace it as part of the classroom culture. Students are often fascinated by their teachers, and sharing makes for a perfect opportunity to gain their interest. The more we are open and share with our students, the more they will share with us and each other. This creates a climate of trust and respect- two keys we are always aiming for as teachers. 

There are many ways to weave in different favorites into the classroom. I say find your classroom theme and run with it! Play more music throughout the day- most students love it! Use your own experiences to help tell stories or use as math problems. Making connections makes all the difference. Share a piece of writing or art with them, and watch their interest rise as well as ideas for cross-curricular lessons. Having these favorites not only connects us with our class, but has the potential to connect us with other teachers. Using our similarities, we can collaborate with each other to create lessons with our grade level or related arts teachers, which not only results in engaging lessons, but shows students teamwork as well. Let's take some time think of our own interests and how we can incorporate them into the classroom and continue to connect with other educators and let the ideas flow!

When we work together we are building a solid foundation for our students, and we show them that we have more in common then we do different. Let's keep that momentum going!

Final thoughts: Keep incorporating your favorites into classroom activities and decor- it will "hook" your students in. Keep discovering what others's favorites are and embrace them... both students and teachers. Keep developing lessons that integrate other subjects and related arts. This is the beauty of teaching!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Leadership Mini-Series: F.E.E.D the Teacher Leader in You! Part #2: Engagement

Greetings everyone and welcome to my blog this week! I'm so glad you're here for our mini-series leading up to a great event at the end of the month: the KDP, Delta Rho Teacher Leadership Development Summit on 2/24/24. It is a free virtual summit open to all educators everywhere! Please visit my social media for information, or reach out to me! Our theme this year is “Leaders are hungry... F.E.E.D the teacher leader in you!” Each week we will break down F.E.E.D and get excited to hear our amazing presenters and keynote speakers that will give us the fuel we need to confidently lead in our classrooms, schools, and beyond! Last week we talked about “F”- foundations. Discovering our own definition for teacher leadership is the foundation for growing as a teacher leader, and embracing the role. Foundational skills also include knowing yourself as a leader, and believing you are one. Self-reflection, networking and professional learning are great ways to establish your foundation t...
Read more

T.E.A.C.H er Appreciation Month, Part #1

Welcome to Teacher Appreciation Month educator friends! For most places there is a week designated to teacher appreciation, but I vote we celebrate all month! With that in mind, let's celebrate with the acronym T.E.A.C.H. Each week I'll focus on a different letter and what makes educators unique and essential to our world. Today let's start with "T" for Time . Time is one of the most valuable things that we have. We all know that it cannot be bought, exchanged, or given back once it is gone. Teachers know this better than anyone because of the amount of time they spend on work for the profession. From lesson plans, reports, reading, spreadsheets, videos.... and the list goes on, teachers can easily spend hours in their classroom or at home working on things that need to be completed. This is all to better serve their students, schools, and the community.  It's often difficult for teachers to choose between personal time for themselves and doing something that ...
Read more

Veteran Teachers' Corner: Post #3- The Journey of Curriculum Writing- Out with the Old, In with the New (and Old).

 One of the overarching ideas for rewriting the ELA curriculum was the concept of keeping what already worked and add in new details to create and enhance the new version. I paused and thought "would writing from scratch actually be easier in this case?" I determined given the timeframe (see blog post #2) that answer was definitely a no. Others who were creating curriculums from a blank template had a more difficult road to travel by for sure. But for me, as an educator and writer, weaving new and old concepts was a challenge in of itself.  I decided the best way was to start by reading each section what was there, look at new notes I made throughout the year during lessons and reflection, and add those in. There were of course essential pieces we had to include such as new standards, cross-curricular activities, and career readiness. While those were a "copy-paste" movement, it took some time to locate them. Once found, I added all of them into the first unit of t...
Read more