Norms & Values
Every classroom community is defined by the daily exercises that continuously build trust among peers and with the teacher.  One of the essential components of this practice is the daily morning meeting, reinvented in our class as “mid-day meeting.”  This year, I did my best to be intentional with the share question.   In a normal year, I might have chosen questions like “Which superpower would you want to have?” or “Do you like sweet or salty foods better?” to start our first week of school.  However, I knew that students were confronting a lot of change amidst the pandemic and the switch to online learning.  Therefore, I supplement some of the “silly” mid-day meeting questions with ones that connect mid-day meeting to the content we are learning and the world around us.  For example, on one of the first days of class, I spoke briefly about how remote learning was something that was new for all of us, and asked “What is something you recently learned how to do?”  The responses ranged from “sharing my screen” to “baking chocolate cake.”  Other mid-day meeting prompts included “What is your favorite home-cooked meal?” and “If you could start a new country on an island, what is the first rule you would make?” I always make sure that Ann and I participate in these discussions as well, so the kids can see that we have questions, concerns, interests, and opinions just like they do.  This helps them realize that students and teachers alike are all people that are working together to maintain a community in the classroom.

Additionally, giving students opportunities to celebrate each other’s achievements helps build rapport among the community.  Though we can no longer display student achievements on the walls of our classroom, that does not mean that completed student work has no place in our learning community.  Student work is shown in several ways – work is shown in real time throughout interactive Nearpod presentations, students work together to create several collaborative documents such as anchor charts and vocabulary sheets which are then used frequently by the teacher and class, group work is presented to the class over the Google Meet, and notes of congratulations are written in the Google Classroom Stream.  The importance placed on student created resources is a source of pride for many students and encourages them to continue their collaboration and effort.

Equity & Access
School changed for everyone this year.  For students who already have a negative self-perception and have been insecure in school, this transition to remote education made learning even more difficult.  Now, students have been contending with noisy backgrounds, limited space, and oftentimes, taking care of and supervising their younger siblings.  As I journaled in the early months of my practicum, “School can sometimes be an uncomfortable and even threatening place for students with negative experiences or self-image, but this year can be especially taxing because they have limited interaction with their peers and their teachers, they are operating in a modality that is foreign to everyone involved, and they may not feel they can learn their best in their home environment.”  As a teacher, it is my job to make sure that students are comfortable while they learn, no matter the circumstances.  Students should have no worries about speaking up when they have questions, sharing their thoughts, and contributing to the classroom community.  My classroom community is a community of risk-takers.  They know there is no harm in a wrong answer, and that a lot of good conversation can rise out of a misconception.  They do not hesitate to say “I don’t get this,” and “can you go over that again?”  This vulnerability is necessary for real learning to occur.  When a student shares a vulnerable moment, I like to remind them that they are being a leader; if they have a question about something, other students probably do too, so when they ask a question, they are helping everyone learn.  In this way, I can provide opportunities for all children to grow as learners, no matter their circumstances or experiences.