As a teacher, my goal in setting up my classroom was to create a place where students felt safe and comfortable in their learning and could rely on their peers to help them with any of their work. I wanted students to feel like my class was a place for them to make mistakes and be okay with it, mistakes are part of learning!

The class list for what makes a good teammate and classmate and how we showed O-SNAP excellence. Don’t mind my messy handwriting, I was still getting used to writing on the board.

In the beginning of the year in geometry, we started the second class by writing down what makes a good teammate and a good classmate, then discussed how in the previous class we embodied facets of O-SNAP, the community behavior agreement at UPCS. Students came up with many traits, including being respectful to others and their opinions, being encouraging, staying on task, being patient, and staying positive among many others.

As the year continued on, we continued from this momentum and got more comfortable with each other in work. I saw groups of students that made excellent pairs in collaboration and understanding with each other that led to those students achieving the most success all year in those groups. Students started flourishing with the comfortable learning environment, participating more and being willing to be wrong with the expectation that their peers will support them in their learning.

This is the WordCloud that my 8A Numeracy class came up with for what they thought good groupwork looked like, felt like, and sounded like. The more a word was repeated, the larger it was.

In numeracy, students started the year by writing down what they thought good groupwork looked like, sounded like, and felt like. We made a WordCloud out of the words students wrote from this activity, compiling the list that students felt was important to them. The more a word was repeated by the students, the larger it would be. We wanted to make sure students understood the importance of groupwork in the classroom early on and were focused on being a positive member of the class. The WordCloud was posted to Google Classroom for the students to return to ensure that they are upholding what they as a class came up with as the expectations.

One of my 8th graders dressed up as me for Character Day during spirit week. It was almost scary how closely she resembled me.

Relationships were a big thing for me starting out this year. I made it a point to get to know each student and find something we could connect with. Relationships are massive in getting students to buy in to your class. If a student has a good relationship with their teacher, they will feel more comfortable in their classroom and be more likely to put the work in. Early on I worked on trying to get to know my students’ names, having almost all of them down by the end of the first week (which was tough for someone who never had to memorize 60-80 names before)! I checked in with students in the mornings to see how they were doing and went to

sporting events early on like volleyball games and soccer games.

As the year carried on, these relationships strengthened. I had students asking to play frisbee with me after school when the weather was nice. We’d get a group of anywhere from 8 to 16 students going to Clark afterschool for a few games of ultimate frisbee. I was getting to know the students more and understand their background and where they come from. Students were coming to me to talk more about issues going on and using me as a form of advice or a way to get things out and laugh a little. Each morning I make it a point to engage with as many students as possible and try to build up positivity before the day starts. I’ll get in long conversations about favorite seasons, favorite restaurants, or just about life.

Getting some geometry club homework help in!

Geometry club was another way I built up relationships. Geometry club is an afterschool help group to provide more individualized-focus time on homework or assignments. At geometry club, I would talk with students between problems and get to know them better and have a few good laughs between all the work in the productive afternoon.

As mentioned before, routines and classroom setup are a big part of what I value as a teacher. To read more about the setup and routines, click here!