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).
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