I really wish I could start this post by telling you how I thought of this amazing idea, pursued it and gave birth to this amazingly life changing teaching practice. I wish so bad...but that's not the case. This classroom practice blossomed out of inspiration from a FaceBook friend, and became something that I began to do every year. I hope you enjoy this post, find it inspirational and begin to consider how to develop more positive relationships with your students.
When I know I have something coming in the mail, I can hardly wait to get home. Regardless of the significance of what is waiting on me, having something come the "old-fashioned" way in the mail sends a certain amount of excitement through me. Maybe it is the delayed gratification, but waiting for something to arrive makes the arrival all that more exciting. That is one of the reasons I have incorporated writing postcards to my students in my classroom practice. I wish I had mine to show you, but they are in the mail, working their way towards me as we speak so I can began my writing (I will update with a photo when they are here!) Every year, I get online and design a postcard for the year. Throughout the year I will write postcards to my students. There are many reasons I do this, but the most important one is building a relationship with each and every student. When students know you care about them, they are way more willing to work hard than when they think you are aloof or uncaring. I try to strategically write postcards to my students when I see they may be struggling and down, or when they have had huge success and growth in the classroom. Regardless of the reason, every student gets one! I typically will send one on in the fall and one in the spring. I wish I could tell you how excited the kiddos are when their postcard arrives. What's even more exciting is that it is a TOTAL surprise to them! All of a sudden they come home to a postcard from their teacher telling them how proud they are or how they can see their growth. KIDS LOVE IT! Another great importance of this is that not every contact with home should be regarding negative behavior. This creates a positive contact with the student and parents and develops those relationships even further. Sending postcards to students is such a small act that reaps big dividends. I wouldn't change this for the world as I believe I can truly see the benefits in my classroom and in my kids. I find it so fun to design my postcard each year and it has become a classroom practice I deeply enjoy. Every students deserves to hear positive things from their teacher and sending it through "snail mail" is just a unique and fun way of building that relationship. Check back soon for an update with the reveal of what my postcards look like for this year!
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The procedures may change, the quotes may change, but the benefits of creating students who think critically, meaningfully and deeply will never change. As I began teaching, I knew that I wanted what I did to mean more than filling in blanks on a worksheet and checking off a grade. Each year I tried to figure out how to add more meaning into what I was doing. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education." A couple of years ago I saw an idea on Pinterest (obviously-I wasn't on Twitter yet) where students responded to a quote by writing about what they thought it meant and how they could connect the quote to their life. This I thought I can do! And so I set off full force into incorporating a quote of the week into my classroom.
I am not a big fan of a rigid curriculum that doesn't adjust to students needs, so doing a quote of the week where I could pick out the quotes that were relevant and meaningful to my students was something I knew would work. Each week I set out to pick a quote that related to what my student were struggling with at the moment and would prepare the quot for the following week. It was sometimes incredibly easy to pick out a quote, and other times I struggled to find something that fit just right. At the end of the year we, as a class, realized that the quotes really fell into two categories: our character (and how we treat others) and how to handle failure. Character and how we handle failure are two big things that kids can often struggle with. I found that having these quotes in the back of my student's minds not only helped them see what famous and historical people had to say, but also was something we could discuss together and they understood. Now the understanding part does take time-students don't always walk in thinking deeply about the meaning of things, but they can develop this as a skill. With practice and modeling, all of my students were able to analyze what each quote meant and how they could personally connect to it. I found that often preparing them with a video before discussing our quote was a great way to get their brains in the mindset of what I wanted them to learn. Procedurally, students would come in and grab their "Quote of the Week" journals. I would already have the quote displayed on the board as they began to copy it down. On Mondays, they would write the quote and what they thought it meant, and as a class we would discuss. Discussing is where all the magic happens! Don't skip the discussion! I found that students who didn't think about if very deeply or really didn't understand were the ones who benefitted most from our discussions. I also found that students learned to respect one another and their ideas during discussions. On Tuesdays, student would grab their journals and then write how they could connect this quote to their lives. Seeing students apply what was said to something they experienced is really is powerful for them. It was giving students an action with the idea, and it really helped them reflect. Using quote of the week, not only are students being critical thinkers and learning respect for one another, they are also practicing writing, analyzing and text to self, text and world connections. This one activity showed so many benefits for my students that the time invested in it really paid off! At the end of the year, we did a culminating presentation where students picked their favorite quotes and created screencast videos and slideshows about them. It was amazing to hear what their favorite ones were, especially when they were ones we hadn't visited about in a LONG time. It showed that the work stuck with the kiddos and that they were actively remembering what they were learning. It was also great for the students to see how their understanding has changed and grown over the year. I heard over and over, "Well this is what I thought then, but I think.....now. Is it ok to change it?" to which I would answer "YES!!!!" This truly was a powerful and impactful classroom practice for my students. The procedures may change, the quotes may change, but the benefits of creating students who think critically, meaningfully and deeply will never change. The big question is always this...in a sea of bloggers, why would you blog? That's a great question...one I've often asked myself of other, and yet here I am...blogging. Over the last two summers, I have developed a new sense of appreciation for the art of blogging. I've come to understand that it is not only a way to share ideas, but to reflect and grow as a learner. Thanks in large part to inspiration from workshops I've attended by George Couros and Aaron Hogan, I have decided to take on the task of blogging. This blog is meant to help me self reflect as an educator and learner. It is also meant to help me share ideas of what I've learned and what has been working in my classroom. My last objective with this blog is to be able to connect to other educators out in the world. I hope that you will laugh with me, cry with me, grow with me, adapt and change, and learn more about this crazy wonderful world of teaching with me. In my district, we live by the saying Better Together, and I truly believe that we are far better together than we could ever be apart. Welcome to my world, my inner thoughts and my India Morris Ed blog.
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