Active Engagement in the Classroom

Active Engagement in a classroom I have come to learn is a very important thing. Mrs. Bennett in our classroom does several hands on activities, and has the kids working together on many different occasions. Still one of my favorite things in her classroom, is our class mail box. I may have mentioned this before, but it is only because it is my favorite thing we do as a class. The students each write 1 letter each week to another student in the class. They put the letter in the mail box, and we hand out the letters at the end of the week. They have to write to each student at least, once, so everyone gets a letter from every student in the class by the end of the school year. This is a way for the kids to be engaged with their classmates, and make friends.
In our classroom, we do a warm up and cool down song/dance/interactive video that we do together every once in a while with the students. It is such a fun activity and we have a great time doing it together. Within the first few weeks, the kids knew all of the words to the songs, and had memorized the moves. It is an easy and simple way to have a fun interaction with your students, and helps to wake up their brains when they come to school. It is a nice cool down before we send them home, and makes our class very calm before we leave. Singing a song, learning a new nursery rhyme or fable with puppets, these are both very great ways that we have interacted with our class. It helps engage the student in the lesson, and they always seem to remember it better, if we make it something memorable to them.

How important are teachers?

During my time in the classroom, I have learned so much that goes into being a teacher. The respect I have gained is bounds beyond what I thought I would take away from the class. I think the teacher makes an important role in a students life, because they are bringing new information to the student. The teacher is the person they spend most of their day with, they see them every single day shortly after they wake up, and they are basically staring at them for the majority of the time they are in class. My graphic organizer allowed me to see the variety of roles that a teacher has. I didn't think there was one role that was more important than the other for particular reasons. They all make an impact on the students and you can grow together as a class.

Considering the Roles I found to stand out, I will define those specifically. Being a friend to the students is important, because in return you gain the roles as a confident with them as well. They trust you, and are not afraid to come to you for anything, and look forward to coming to class. The term "cheerleader" is something that I know was important to me when I was in grade school. It showed me that my teacher cared about me in and out of the classroom. Attending my students school plays, dance performances, choir/band/orchestra concerts, that will be a priority to me. I have a long road ahead of me and making sure every role as a teacher, is every way that I can be defined as a teacher by everyone around me.