Relationships can go a long way. That connection between people can open doors to numerous opportunities. In my classroom, I have focused on creating a community of people, not just a teacher versus student situation. It has changed my mindset, my relationships, as well as the culture in my classroom just by focusing on the community aspect. We learn from one another, not just the teacher. We work together as a community to better everyone. The relevant curriculum is such an important piece of connection and engagement in any class. I strive to continue evolving myself and my work to make what we do in my class meaningful and relevant. This takes getting to know my kids as well as the world around us. I am very focused on having my learners read to learn this year. We are not just reading to practice reading. We are also reading to learn something about ourselves as learners and as human beings. From this, we can take these skills and apply them to our own lives.

It is a powerful moment when a learner opens themselves up, makes themselves vulnerable, and let’s you know what their world is like. This connects to forming relationships with your learners, and making content relevant. I believe that we are here to teach learners more about themselves, and to see how they can take the skills we have learned and apply them to their lives. It isn’t about whether or not they can remember a novel, but rather whether they can learn a truth about themselves from that novel. I am working hard this year to transform my learners’ minds from believing that learning is content related, to believing that learning is skill related. I am focused on giving my learners choices, and the opportunity to own their work. At the end of the day, I want for them to look at what they have learned and see their own reflection within it. I want for them to not be afraid to apply their own understandings to the content of what we are covering by utilizing the skills we have learned together.

There have been many times that I have seen learners more focused on how good the product looks, versus having the assigned criteria actually within the product. Seeing this pushed me to be more intentional in telling and showing learners the expectations and the requirements of the product. This came in the form 3 items: a rubric of the skills they were to perform, a user-friendly checklist they could use to edit their work, and a simple question: “What can we learn from you?” That question has challenged my learners to shift their mindset of just “jumping through the hoops” of getting work done the way that will please the teacher, to providing our community with ideas and insights that we can learn from and grow from. In this way, the learners become the experts and owners of their work, empowering them in their own learning and growing process. They end up gaining confidence in the end, which is powerful for anyone.

Booth, D. (2011). Caught in the middle: Reading and writing in the transition years. Markham, Ontario, Canada: Pembroke Publishers.