Ms. Javaher’s Classroom Edit display name

About my class

I have a class of sweethearts all eager to learn and ready to play. Several of my students are ELL and all come from a pretty poverty stricken background. Often both parents are working and the students are left to help take care of the youngers. In some ways they are very self sufficient and in others there are heartbreaking stories. It's not unusual for me to call on our community resources to bring shoes to fit a child or to seek out a special lovey for a child who is essentially homeless. But kids are kids and they are full of energy and a real interest in the world around them. As part of a community school we do a lot to foster relationships with our parents and they are invited to come to my class often throughout the year. Students are working hard to master the alphabet this year and become early readers. It's a huge undertaking when several students have never held a pencil much less written their name. I will leave you with two short stories about my class. On the first day of school, I read "First Day Jitters" to my class. The teacher in the story had a Dad who woke her up to go to school. I had a student who took exception to the fact that a teacher could have a dad and he kept saying "God made teachers." I finally just agreed with him, because there was no convincing him that teachers aren't special. The second story is about a class rule. From Day 1 I worked on procedures with my class. We use Whole brain teaching rules and Rule #2 is Raise your hand for permission to speak. The kids were brilliant learning these rules and as a teacher I can shout out Rule number 2 and every student echoes it back while making the motions that go along with it. On day 6 of school when my class continued to be noisy, I asked the question, "What does it mean to speak? and the room got awfully quiet. Not one student raised their hand. They'd learned the rule, but I'd forgotten some simple vocabulary. We had to learn the word "speak". This will for sure not be the last time I'm reminded to slow down and come at my students with every teaching strategy and game choice I can. They need a rich robust vocabulary and a strong reading and language rich classroom. The few hours they spend with me need to be jam packed with interesting and relatable lessons. I'm committed to bring them this opportunity to learn and grow every day.