Black Belt Scholar

There are a few things that make a teacher incredible, ways to essentially grade yourself on a rubric to see if you are on the track to success in being the best teacher for the students. One is the Culture of Achievement (I’ll go in more detail later) which describes how engaged your class is with the material and their level of understanding. It is a goal of TFA  that all teachers create a culture of compliance and on task, meaning the students are understanding materials and students are staying on task. There is a general interest of the subject. I personally float around this area- sometimes better, sometimes worse. Another way of measuring is your ability to plan, invest, and/or execute with your students. I am still growing in planning and execution, but Alex and many of my peers say I am really good with my investment. You know you are always hardest on yourself, but I am still on the so so about how I feel regarding my investment plan. I created the Black Belt Scholars Program in which students can earn smiley stickers by staying on task, participating, having moments of maturity, etc. With every 4 stickers a student can earn a rank (a color ribbon). By the end of the summer, if they all earn black then there will be a mini black belt ceremony. I will tell you my students are definitely about getting those stickers! Several are super excited about getting their “black belts” in a few days. I feel like my connection from the Black Belt program to my classroom vision is disconnected – but it may be because I am disconnected from my classroom vision which is ever changing. Not sure best way to approach that but maybe to write the vision on a white board that can be changed… But these type of things are to be implemented for my classroom in the fall. I’ve actually been thinking, since I do have a full year to work with to try and incorporate character building lessons with Black Belt Scholar to truly have a holistic program incorporating behavior, academia, and social skills. This character initiative would involve a word of the month, perhaps Power Up activities based on the word, if possible incorporation of the word into daily use of labs and activities, and maybe a student of the month that demonstrates the word (this would include if possible a letter from me, letter from the parents, and a letter from the principal).