My students come from a variety of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. I serve English language learners, students with special needs, low income and middle class families, and TAG students. My classroom is truly a melting pot of learners with a variety of needs. My goal, as an educator, is to meet these kids where they are at, build relationships, and inspire them to be the best they can be.
"From little seeds grow mighty trees", a hand painted phrase on my classroom wall, serves as a powerful reminder of the potential each of my students possesses.
I want my students to realize that they can make a positive impact in their community and the environment around them. To achieve this, I spent hours transforming my room into a national park to motivate my students to put down their electronic devices and look up! It's time they see the world around them and go on an educational adventure.
My Project
Remote learning has not only been a challenge academically, but also emotionally for my students. They are struggling with feeling alone, confused, frustrated and disconnected from their classmates and community. To put it simply, they truly miss each other! I am wanting to help my students find positive ways to cope with these strong emotions and to empower them to find ways to bring joy into their lives, and the lives of others.
I plan to use a collection of books about our feelings to help us create Love Rocks that will be exchanged with our classmates.
My students' social emotional learning is the core of this project. I want them to be able to understand, process, and work through their many feelings in a safe space. I want them to be able to take the next step with understanding empathy, the power of choice, and the reward in taking action.
The books present these social emotional topics and will provide opportunities for discussion and reflection. My hope is to be able to read them during our morning meetings over the next two months while we prepare to return back to school. Once back in school, I am going to use the Love Rocks as a way for my students to express their care and concern for each other. They will be left on each other's desks as ways to increase community and connectiveness during our hybrid model of teaching. Combining the social emotional learning with creating Love Rocks to express those emotions, I feel will create a powerful learning experience for my students.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Delplanche and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
