To trust is to believe in the reliability, truth, ability or strength of someone or something. I believe that trust is something that takes time to give and to receive. Trust is built off of communication and is something we have to work for every day. 

I give trust to people after I get to know them. Once my trust is given, the relationship builds and grows stronger. I start to build this trust by trusting myself  in the situation first and then I learn to trust others. To build trust, I show others that I care by communicating, showing support, and offering advice, help and guidance. 

I believe trust is one of the most important principles in building relationships with others. The more trust you have, the stronger relationship you will have. Trust is something I strive to have with people in my personal and professional life. The more trust I give and receive the happier I will be in every part of my life. 

The Significance of a Name

Parents spend a lot of time picking out names for their children whether it's
because of family, the meaning or they simply that they like it. As Clare McLaughlin says in the article "The Lasting Impact of Mispronouncing Students' Names," names bring stories. As educators, we should be sensitive to student's names and learn how to pronounce them. This will let the students know that they are important and respected by you.


Rita Kohli found that if a teacher mispronounces, disregards or changes a student's name, they feel shame, embarrassment and that their name is a burden. They then in turn begin to shy away from their language, culture and family. As teachers, we need to let students be themselves and embrace their identity. We need to find a way to learn each child's name and work on pronunciation because it would be a shame to take away a part of the child.

Rocks In My Shoes

The rocks that hold me back are my own thoughts. I tend to worry about what others think of me and take things too personally at times. I get stuck thinking about everything I did wrong or what I could do differently and tend to take the blame for things that I shouldn't. 

This year I have slowly learned what works best for me to deal with my thoughts and blame I put on myself. I lean on my coworkers to vent and get advice from. They help reassure me of my actions and help me not put blame on myself. I also find exercise a great way to change my negative thoughts and blame. Exercise helps me deal with my rocks and move forward. 

Being aware of "my rocks" and learning to deal with them has helped me focus on positive things and to be more confident. Each day I am learning to continue to move forward and not let others bring me down or make me second guess myself. My goal is to remove these rocks and bury them. 

Rethinking Recess

Why are there so many kids who can't sit still in class? How do we get kids to sit still in class? These are the questions that pediatric occupational therapist, Angela Hanscom writes about in her posts about movement in classrooms. Valerie Strauss from the Washington Post, writes the article How Schools Ruined Recess- and four things needed to fix it from Hanscom's research and posts. 

Angela Hanscom took a trip to Auckland, New Zealand to talk to the principal at Swanson School, Bruce McLachlan. His school has a very unconventional but very successful approach to recess. During recess there are no rules! When the rules left, so did the behavior issues. Having no rules allowed the children to be creative, take risks, be independent and pay attention in class. This made me think, why do we put so many restrictions on our kids during their play? If we let kids play, they would learn how to problem solve and learn  lessons on their own. So why are we taking away the skill development that we want them to be learning? 

Bruce McLachlan's recess has 4 main things that has changed their recess. He refers to these as their "recipe" for a successful recess:

1. Space: We need to give kids ample amounts of space to play in. If we keep kids in a restricted area, we will have more behavior problems. It is important to let the kids run and go explore, bring their bikes for recess and do the things they like and want to do.

2. Trust: We need to trust the kids by having adult supervision less obvious. We should let the kids lead the play. If adults are less noticeable the tattling will cut down and students will learn how to solve problems on their own. 

3. Time: McLachlan's school has two recess periods for 40 minutes each day. We need to allow our students to have enough time to explore and move their bodies, work through their emotions and dive into their imaginations. Allowing students to get outside and move will help reduce the attention problems in the classroom. 

4. Loose Parts: McLachlan added old tires, wooden planks, etc. to the recess area for the kids to explore. Having objects like these allows the children to create their own worlds and try new things. The more objects we provide them with, the more experiences they will have and their creativity will unfold before us. 

As educators for our children, we need to help our students improve their attention in the classroom by rethinking our recess and including these four pieces. Recess is an important time that kids need each day. We should look at recess as a learning time for students instead of just time for kids to get out their energy. Recess is important for learning social skills and kids need to this time each day to work on them. Recess will not only improve children's social skills, creativity and problem solving skills but also their attention in the classroom. When student's attention in the classroom is improved, then more productive learning will take place. It is a win-win for teachers and students.  

INCLUSIVE

According to the University of Michigan, inclusive teaching involves deliberately cultivating a learning environment where all students are treated equitably, have equal access to learning, and feel welcome, valued, and supported in their learning.

I believe that culture is essential to learning because it plays a role in our communication and thinking processes. It is important to include all student's cultures into the classroom and learning so we can understand each other. I also believe that when we learn about each other's cultures, then we gain respect and build relationships.

Having an inclusive classroom where culture is brought in is very important to me as a teacher. The biggest goal I have for my students when they leave my classroom are to be kind, respectful and accepting of everyone. Having an inclusive classroom and bringing culture in will help me attain my goal as a teacher and help the world become a place of acceptance, kindness and respect.

Operation Hot Cocoa Disaster- TOP SECRET MISSION

Christmas Around the World

  The last week before Christmas break, the entire first grade does a Top Secret Mission from the elves to help Santa collect information about 8 different countries and how they celebrate Christmas. The purpose of this is to teach our students about other countries and the Christmas customs and traditions that they have. The kids learn about the country and do an art project that goes along with their traditions. Our hopes is that the students will understand, have respect and have fun with other Christmas traditions and celebrations.

When we do Christmas Around the World, each of us 8 teachers pick one of the countries to teach and our classes switch to "fly" to each of the countries. The kids make a Top Secret suitcase and we give the students an airline ticket and passport to make the journey realistic. When the students arrive at each country, they get a stamp to put in their passports. We talk about how you need this to travel to other countries and what it is like to go through customs at the airport. 

Each of us teachers, takes a country and the project and adapts it as needed. I taught Holland to the first grade students. When I am teaching about Holland, I try to make it as realistic as possible. I take have Google Earth up on the Smartboard on Delano, MN and then we pretend to fly to Amsterdam. I put on an airplane take off noise so it sounds like we are flying! I was in Amsterdam when I was in college, so I share my pictures of when I was there. The kids love to see me in some of the pictures and talk about my trip. I hope this encourages them to want to travel there some day!

The biggest tradition in Holland is putting clogs out on St. Nicholas Eve and in the morning they receive gifts and candy in their shoes. After last year, I decided to have the kids put their shoes in the hallway. After we did that I continued to teach them about Holland and we did our clog project. While I was doing this, I had a coworker put treats in their shoes. The kids were so excited and thought Sinterklaas had come to our school! Seeing their excitement, showed me that getting treats and adding this to the lesson, was totally worth it! 

Another thing I added was passing around real wooden clogs from Holland. One of my new coworkers had some, so I borrowed them for the lesson. The kids loved to feel them, hold them, and try them on. Having these real clogs allowed the kids to understand what they were really like instead of just seeing pictures. 

After the secret mission was complete, I had many teachers telling me how much their students loved Holland and how they kept talking about what they had learned. I believe that the real clogs and the treats in their shoes enhanced the lesson this year and made a positive impact on the students and their learning. This proved to me that they understood and remembered the Christmas customs of Holland and I will continue to do the same thing next year when teaching about Holland!   

Morning Meeting

Each day we begin with our morning meeting. This is a very important time of our day where we get to greet one another, share something, do a fun activity and read the morning message. We also go over the job chart so everyone knows who is responsible for what. I also go over the schedule and what our day will look like so the students know in advance what we will be doing.

Morning meeting is important because this is the time where we make connections with one another. I get a chance to learn about each student and understand the whole child. During this time, I learn about the student's family, their interests, and what they do outside of school. I find a way to make connections with each student and use that to build a relationship with them.

With one of my previous students, I learned that he loved playing basketball. During morning meeting, I found out that his parents coach, just like I do. I also learned that his aunt played for the gophers and was one of my favorite players! Right away we made a connection and built our relationship by talking about basketball and sports. From that moment, this little boy started to talk to me and share about his life. We built a trust between us which made school and learning enjoyable for him. I had this student two years ago and he still comes by my room almost every day to say hi and tell me about this life. I have also gone to watch him play at one of his basketball tournaments. He was so happy that I came to watch that we took a picture and he wrote me a nice thank you note. This student has made a positive impact on me and I believe I have made a difference in his life too!