2B: Establishing a Culture for Learning- "Change Sings" Morning Meeting
During my student teaching, I taught Kindergarten, so I believe that the morning meeting is the most crucial part of the day because it allows the students to start their day off on a good note, and allows for them to establish a culture for learning in the classroom. This lesson was done in February, during Black History Month, and because my school did not have a social studies or science curriculum for kindergarten, I wanted my students to learn about black history through our morning meeting. During our morning meeting, we read the book "Change Sings" by Amanda Gorman, where students learn that change can be big or small and that they can do simple things such as picking up trash to change the world for the better. Through the lesson, students were able to learn about what Change means and were able to give examples of what change looks like. We also connected to how change can change the world for the better and went over Black History Month leaders that have changed the world for the better.
This lesson focuses on Domain 2B: Establishing a Culture for Learning, Because students are not only learning about the world around them but focusing on a content area that they normally would not have learned about during the day. This lesson also allows for students to build rapport with the teacher by answering questions, and also allows for them to build support and rapport with each other by checking their understanding and communicating with the other students about the book.
2D: Managing Student Behaviors- Classroom Management Plan
I believe in order to have a good classroom, a teacher must be able to manage student behaviors so that way all students are able to have a welcoming and comfortable environment for them to learn. This assignment was done during my student teaching and focuses on how to manage behavior by creating a fun game that would allow the student to be able to participate and be rewarded for their good work.. A student in my classroom who is called "Anna" in this presentation, would call out during smaller groups, and distract others in her group by wanting to talk to them about their day instead of focusing on the lesson. to help manage her behavior, I got to know Anna on a personal level and learned that she loves games with a "winner" and loves to be competitive when out at recess. I decided to implement the game "Teacher Versus Student" in our small groups. The student, Anna, would receive a point during our small groups if she was able to stay on task without calling out by raising her hand. The teacher would get a point if Anna had called out or refused to do her work during the small group. Because I knew Anna on a personal level and knew that she was competitive, I quickly found the game to be something that she thoroughly enjoyed. the number of times that she called out severely decreased, and the amount of work and information that she was able to retain from the small group activities increase substantially.
This artifact represents Domain 2D: Managing Student Behavior. I had to work with Anna as an individual to get to know her likes and dislikes and personality in order to make sure that the classroom management I would implement would be something that she would enjoy. I also had to collect data that would show if the management tool was working, and had to make adjustments depending on how well Anna was able to adapt to it. Luckily because I knew and on a personal level, and was able to make adjustments throughout my time there, the classroom management tool works so well that was expanded to all small groups that I was teaching in order to help with other student behavior as well.
Download Lesson Plans:
Morning Meeting Lesson Plan