Teaching and learning are interconnected. When teachers act as facilitators of learning, students are able to construct their learning through hands-on experiences and interactions. I believe that teachers have the power to create a positive culture of learning in their classrooms based on the way they build relationships with their students and when they encourage respect for all. I’ll never forget my first year teaching in a third-grade classroom of 22 students – I started teaching in January because the students had been without a teacher since September when their teacher quit. I had a chance to observe the class who had a long-term substitute at the moment, and I noticed she struggled with them and yelled to get their attention. As I announced to the students, I would be their teacher starting in a couple of weeks, one asked me “Do you yell at students too?” and of course, I responded that I could think of other strategies to reach students – the substitute murmured “Well, good luck with this class!”. I made it my goal to create a positive learning environment and to form relationships with the students before doing anything else. In the four short months that I had with them, the students had structure, a teacher who respected them and expected the same in return, and most importantly they looked forward to learning every day.

Since my first year, I decided to set goals to make learning as engaging and interactive as I could every year that I was in the classroom. I knew that my goal was achievable if I took the time to build respectful relationships first. One year (pre-covid) I participated in professional learning targeted at incorporating technology into lessons. The goal was for students to record themselves giving mathematical responses to math problems. I processed the information and thought that my third graders might be a little intimidated by the idea and it would be especially difficult for my English Language Learners who were very recent newcomers. I tried it out with a couple of outgoing students, and they seemed to feel embarrassed at the idea of recording themselves with others watching. Did I abandon ship and move on to something else? Absolutely not! At the time “You-Tubers” were a very popular topic of conversation with my students. I told them that in our class we were all “Mathematician You-Tubers" and the only way to gain popularity would be to create content dedicated to math talks. I built a “recording booth” out of poster board and made a “Recording in Progress” sign that students could hang up when at that station to not have any disruptions from students. It was a hit!! All the other third-grade teachers were coming to observe and wanted in on the fun!