I have been very fortunate to teach mostly 3rd grade (3 years in 4th) at the same school my entire 16 year educational career. My school is amazing and I love the teachers, students, and families that fill its halls. One thing that my years at my campus have taught me is that many times students are not motivated to succeed, because they believe they can’t.
Building Relationships
Building relationships with my students is my number one priority every single year. If my students do not trust that I have their best interests at heart, they cannot learn from me. I call them “my kids,” I tell them I love them, and winking at the kiddos has become such second nature to me that I often don’t even realize when I am doing it. A couple of times recently, I have even caught myself winking at adults without even thinking about it. And yes, I’ve been horrified with embarrassment every time.
This year, despite all its hardships, has been a blessing in disguise. Due to the fact that half of my students are learning from home, I am able to get a lot more one on one time with my in-person students. I am able to confer with them individually about their reading and writing several times a week. This not only provides me better insight to their strengths and weaknesses, allowing me to help them grow more, but my students LOVE it. They want conference time every day, because they get to be the center of attention. The experience of working with kids one-on-one will definitely be informing my instructional practices in years to come. As one of my students that struggles the most has told me twice this week, “my reading confidence is getting better!” Oh. My. Heart.
Classroom Community
I know I am not alone when I say that creating a strong classroom community goes hand in hand with building student relationships. My students learn that we are a school family and classroom family from day one. We have each other’s backs. We look out for one another. We offer a helping hand. And we apologize when we are wrong.
Students cannot learn in hostile environments. Bullying is intolerable. I will not stand for one of my students being mistreated or for one of my students doing the mistreating. We discuss respect and what it looks like every single day. We discuss our actions and better choices when can make when we do wrong. All of these things create a stronger bond between us all. As I tell my students, you do not have to be someone’s best friend or even like them in order to be kind and show respect.
Classroom Motto
I highly encourage anyone and everyone to develop and adopt a classroom motto or chant. There are numerous Instagrammers and Teacher-Influencers out there who post their videos of their classes following along with a class chant or song as the teacher climbs up onto a desk to direct. You don’t have to be “Instagram Famous” or fancy. I have had a class chant for years and I can say with 99.9% certainty, it will never be something I post to my socials.
I start our chant in the second person and they repeat it in the first person. It goes a little something like this:
Me: You are important!
Students: I am important!
Me: You are loved!
Students: I am loved!
And so on…
You know how they say that what you tell yourself is what you believe? I truly feel that having my students tell themselves and each other that they are important and loved and can achieve greatness helps change the way they see themselves. Especially if they lack the self-confidence to believe those things to begin with.
Create Your Own Class Motto or Chant
I strongly encourage you to come up with a class motto, chant, song, or poem that you can use with your students every day. It’s a great way to get the ball rolling for learning and to set the moods and attitudes of your learners!
I have a freebie you can use HERE! Feel free to use mine or use the editable pages to create your own! Whatever you decide, I hope your week is smooth sailing and brings lots of learning!
Thanks for stopping by! See you again (virtually!) soon!
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