Classroom Environment
I am very intentional about the physical set-up and condition of my classroom. Having a bright, appealing space to learn helps students to be more engaged and motivated in lessons and conveys the message that they are valuable and cared for. It also teaches students important socio-emotional lessons that will help them be successful in life, such as how to organize their things, how to clean, sharing, and the importance of caring for community resources. The classroom is composed of different areas that allow for collaborative group work, as well as independent spaces for students to work on their own.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, it became necessary for me to learn how to teach virtually and still create a sense of community and classroom "space" for my students. Below are some examples of how I was able to accomplish that during our virtual year.
An example of one of our "Morning Meeting" slide decks in order to build classroom community, relationships with students, increase student motivation, and encourage timely attendance.
Our virtual classroom library! Each book is linked to an online copy of the book so that students could read them on their computers from home. I switched out the books every week.
A "Countdown Calendar", which is a daily activity board we use to countdown the days until vacations or breaks. Each day is a link that takes us to a class activity to do together.
Our virtual year's class picture! Each student created their own avatar online and we used them to create not only our class picture for the year, but also comics!
Virtual Anchor Charts
