Blog #1 Mrs. Kristen's Kindergarten Class

Welcome Back to School 

Dear Parents- 

I am so happy to welcome you and your children to kindergarten! This year will be full of lots of learning through play and I will keep you posted on individual progress! Please note we are taking safety precaution measures daily to keep all children safe while learning.

A few things about our classroom: 

1. Students are encouraged to bring a healthy snack each day.
2. Only water is allowed in the classroom.
3. Please do not send mechanical pencils or sharpeners
4. I take students to the restroom twice daily and let them use it when they need to.
5. There are sand tables and other messy equipment in the room, clean up is taught to the children.

Please know you can e-mail me during the day at krwitham6959@students.uaptc.edu

I'm truly excited to be a part of your child's education this year!

• Quick reminders
• Library books are returned every Thursday
• Friday folders should be signed and return each following Monday
• Homework is assigned Tuesdays- Fridays only.

Special dates: August 30- first day of school

September 1, 2020 - Curriculum Night

September 2nd- Labor Day

October 18-20 First of the Parent/Teacher Conferences

Other ways to contact- Via phone 501-555-5555

BLOG #2 Greetings Parents! Why TECHNOLOGY is so important in the classroom!??

Happy Greetings Parents!! 

I want to share with you how technology is drastically improving our classroom teaching!! I also would like to know more about you and your relationship with your child to better help me care for your child while they are here in my classroom! 

First, students have access to an incredible amount of new opportunities. From learning how to code to learning how to better collaborate across teams and with their instructors, your student will have ample opportunity to adjust, grow, and excel in the classroom! This helps to empower your child and allow technology to super-charge how we learn today! The traditional test learning model is broken. With technology in the classroom I, as the teacher, become the encourager, adviser, and coach for your child instead of just an exam-giver. Technology also gives your child the opportunity to enhance the interaction with their classmates by encouraging collaboration! Using technology in the classroom gives teachers the opportunity to develop my student's digital citizenship skills. It's one thing to use mobile devices, it's another thing to know how to use them correctly! In my class, all students are encouraged to safely handle all devices so that your child will be responsible for upkeeping this device in and out of the classroom for all their years to come!

Secondly, Chrome is the easiest tool online for all students to access on a computer. It directly syncs all of the information you currently have with even more offers of necessary applications to create better-standing lessons for your child. There is an ability to secure your child's' browsers in chrome, and it makes for online learning an easy transfer from classroom to virtual techniques. This application will automatically save and store everything your child works on for class so that you are able to monitor and assist! Chrome has an unlimited amount of activities for excelling in the classroom. There is an ability to have virtual desktops all combined into your chrome application, syncing important information, print webpages, and so much more to help your student learn and grow with technology. 

Thirdly, having specific devices that cater to chrome will unlock for your child a magnitude of free learning modules and applications to better learning lesson plans, create a specific blog that can be closely monitored, and it can restore positive reinforcement that your child is creative and learn in substantial education. There are parental restrictions that can be put onto your desktop with chrome to prevent your child from exploring any sites that may not be used for educational purposes. Keeping our children safe while exploring is the first goal, following learning new modules. 

It is very important to keep technology in the classrooms at the fore-front of teaching techniques so that your child and all students will feel confident and well accomplished throughout the many years of schooling to come. Keep technology in a student's curriculum and watch the mind flourish! If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to e-mail or call me at: khwitham01@gmail.com

                                                        501-864-6574

Thank you,

Ms. Kristen Witham

Creating Classroom Community!

It is very important to provide pictures depicting social equality situations on bulletin boards within the classrooms for students to see, use, and go over throughout the daily routine. The bulletin boards will have all positive pictures and information on them for the students to re-create. 



Having a clear description for students to see in the classroom about how to treat one another is a great way to keep all kids balancing one another throughout the day to day fun!

Having literature that translates friendship is highly important to positively teach students in the classroom how to treat one another, work together, and respect differences. 

 Having texts such as these reiterates to students how to correctly treat one another! This will also help students to be excited to learn how to be kind to everyone. This is so important in the classroom because this is where the children will be most of all day and getting along with all of the students is very important. 

The third fantastic way to reward students in the classroom is by giving them a reward for being kind to one another!! For example having a popcorn party sometime during the week to promote sharing and caring and explaining to the students that because of their wonderful behavior we can take time off from spending it on tasks and appreciate each other for all the patience, love, and respect we have for one another in the classroom. Another example is small rewards such as erasers, pens, pencils and going around in a circle and complimenting each and every student. To hear compliments that are sincere from fellow classmates can definitely promote happiness and growth in the classroom! 

Blog #4

 

In order to positively impact my students I want to build relationships with them and a trusting bond. All children are different, and all children learn to trust adults at a different pace. When a child can trust you, you are able to build a solid foundation when teaching the child. It is my goal to teach my students with enthusiasm and passion. It may be a chore at times to always be positive, but I believe showing positivity to children in my classroom is an ultimate way to build a solid foundation. I want to make learning fun for each and every child that are in my classroom. One key factor on building trust and communication with children in the classroom is by engaging in conversations with children about their day to day lives outside of school. What do the children do that make them feel comfortable, and what can you ultimately learn about a child when they learn to open up and just share their true feelings? There is no better moment than to have a child's complete trust and I as a teacher am able to help them grow and learn to become better individuals every single day that we are all in class. I have absolutely learned that students won't even listen to a teacher they don't have a special bond with because they will show little interest if any at all. I had to build trust over a couple of weeks just for some students to open up completely to me. 

Blog #3

 https://www.ted.com/talks/sophie_howe_lessons_on_leaving_the_world_better_than_you_found_it?language=en

I really enjoy this video and the interpretation it gives for making the world a better place for all of us. There are a lot of helpful techniques that we can all pull a positive source from. I like that it is discussed how it is important to gain knowledge of all topics discussed for our future generations that have yet to be born. I like how she states it is our mission to make long term goals and get into the groove of policies to better our world and community. I believe everyone can take away a positive mind frame by listening to this TEDtalk. I think having Tedtalks are so helpful in teaching our teachers great tools in order to help our students. Sophie also discusses how to use chrome maps to circulate how many people are affected in the area with living, passing away and more tips to help sustain long-lasting life and better aspects to keep that the focus. Sophie suggests ways of how they excel in Wales and how other countries can use their modules to help other civilizations. There are opportunities in Wales to have a trade organizations in a medieval walkway where people can safely speak and trade with others. 

Blog #5 Getting to know you & Building Student Rapport

Getting to Know YOU!! 

We will be doing a few activities during our first weeks of class so that we all can get to know each other and learn, grow, and build rapport with everyone!!

Ms. Kristen Witham 

Favorite movie: Ever After

Favorite candy: Snickers

Favorite color: Pink 

A few of the fun activities we will do in class include;

• Passports – students are given time to create a passport about themselves, including relevant information and at least one piece of memorable information that will stick in the minds of others.
• Student teams - putting the students in teams creates a pattern in your mind of where they sit. It is similar to a seating plan but letting the student compete with their groups makes it seem more like an activity.
• Unforgettable Neighbor – We will work in pairs or with partners and share a memorable fact about each other. They can then share these facts with the class so there is an additional fact to help make each student’s name easier to remember. Ex: Ms. Kristen is a dancer
• Adjective Name Game – similar to the unforgettable neighbor activity, students work in pairs but have to come up with an interesting adjective that starts with the same letter as their first name, ie: Meticulous Miranda, Artsy Anna, Kind Kristen. 
• the importance of these activities will help all of us grow together and be able to work with one another in a healthy and happy way that every single one of us deserves!
  
  

Building Rapport In The Classroom!

It is absolutely so important to build rapport among the students in the classroom. This will take time. Building trust in students is a must. One way to make sure you build rapport with your children properly is by getting to know what each child likes and dislikes. Another way is by letting the children come to you and tell you specific subjects that he or she likes to learn or just let them talk to you and ask open-ended questions. Students will open up completely once the trust has been built between you and them. Building a rapport means to have a bond that is harmonious between one or more parties. It is vital in order to make a difference in each students' life to get to know them on a personal level. There are also fun ways to take notes, take surveys, and write down specific areas the children talk to you about so you can revert back to what was said at what certain time. There are always new adventures students like to explore and coming back to the week to week will offer quite a lot of changes and new experiences you as a teacher can learn from and build lesson plans around. It is always great to have lesson plans that spark specific interests for all students. I want to build a rapport with every student of strength, trust, and empathy so that we can accomplish many studies and lessons to help grow the students hourly in the classroom. I encourage all teachers to build a weekly curriculum around your students' specific interests and to always know that you are the reason for students to want to learn more and you have the ability to make one of the most everlasting effects on students' lives forever. Keep moving forward and know you are the difference for a new generation, so make it count!!  

blog #5 Building rapport

Building Rapport In The Classroom!

It is absolutely so important to build rapport among the students in the classroom. This will take time. Building trust in students is a must. One way to make sure you build rapport with your children properly is by getting to know what each child likes and dislikes. Another way is by letting the children come to you and tell you specific subjects that he or she likes to learn or just let them talk to you and ask open ended questions. Students will open up completely once the trust has been built between you and them. Building a rapport means to have a bond that is harmonious between one or more parties. It is vital in order to make a difference in each students' life to get to know them on a personal level. There are also fun ways to take notes, take surveys, and write down specific areas the children talk to you about so you can revert back to what was said at what certain time. There are always new adventures students like to explore and coming back to them week to week will offer quite a lot of changes and new experiences you as a teacher can learn from and build lesson plans around. It is always great to have lesson plans that spark specific interests for all students. I want to build a rapport with every student of strength, trust, and empathy so that we can accomplish many studies and lessons to help grow the students hourly in the classroom. I encourage all teachers to build a weekly curriculum around your students specific interests and to always know that you are the reason for students to want to learn more and you have the ability to make one of the most everlasting effect on students lives forever. Keep moving forward and know you are the difference for a new generation, so make it count!!