02/23/06

     My goal in education is to enable my students to develop a for:

          I believe children learn best in an environment where they feel ,  , and .  I work hard at creating an atmosphere where my students can feel these things and as a result, develop the characteristics of excellent learners on a daily basis. 

       My classroom is built on love and trust.  My students learn that their teacher is fair and honest.  Our classroom rules are posted and taught early in the year.  Students learn what to expect and that the expectations are consistent and fair.  This is achieved by modeling patience and understanding within the parameters of the rules and consequences of the school.  Disruptions and misbehavior are dealt with in a private way,  avoiding public embarrassment of my students.   In this way, students have a chance to monitor and correct their behavior before I step in.  We all make mistakes...even kids!  Feeling that they will still be accepted even if they make mistakes is a life lesson that is so important for kids to learn! 

     I have high standards for my students and myself where  conduct and academics are concerned.  However, we laugh a lot and grow together as we strive to meet these standards.  

     As a teacher, I enjoy developing and presenting interesting and challenging thematic units that tie our curriculum together as much as possible.  This makes learning fun and meaningful to my students and for me, too!   

     In my class we love to participate in exciting activities  where we can use hands-on activities, technology, music, brainteasers, food, hand movements, games, experiments, writing, drawing... to get us learning in !  We collect and study spiders, watching them build their webs and trap food, write books from stories we've written in our journals, and do some awesome math activities like graphing the birthdays of our schoolmates!  We learn about geography through Mrs. Geiger's Travelin' Ted web-based learning activity and we even sing songs about regrouping, adjectives, and science, too!   

     I absolutely love teaching! 

Learn more about my teaching by visiting my Portfolio of Work-a collection of essays and voice files dealing with learning and classroom management