About My Classroom

Throughout my career my classroom environment has changed drastically as well as evolved. I have based most of my classroom decisions and purposeful learning environments on current best practices with innovative teaching/learning in mind. I have built a 21st century classroom focused on technology with a nearly paperless curriculum. I teach 7th & 8th grade Social Studies, specifically Ancient World History and US History respectively. My classroom utilizes the Google Suite of online applications. Google Classroom is the hub for all material and grading as well as a purposeful way of allowing students to collaborate on classwork. Along with Google Classroom I utilize other various digital resources to enhance learning and lessons. TCI online serves as a digital textbook where students can annotate, highlight, and take formative assessments to show growth as well as struggles they

find within the curriculum. Teaching a multimedia rich subject like Social Studies

lends itself well to the format of my classroom. Having the ability to provide

individual students with diverse learning material helps differentiate instruction

for different learners. While the 7th grade classroom is structured much different

than the 8th grade classroom, I use relatively the same tools for both learning

environments. My school is fortunate to have an abundance of Chromebooks.

I have a designated Chromebook cart in my classroom for 8th graders to use and

my 7th grade students have 1 to 1 Chromebooks the are assigned at the beginning of

the year. I have had this setup for the past three school years. I have learned and grown as a

teacher to recognize that if the technology doesn’t enhance the lesson or learning to not force it. The first year in practice was a struggle trying to find the right fit however, in my third year, the students and I found a proper balance between digital and analog teaching and learning. 

Other aspects of my classroom include fluid seating arrangements best suited for student comfortability and learning. I frequently change seating arrangements to keep students engaged and attentive. Slight easy changes seem to refresh students and invigorate a lively and productive classroom. I also create and assign many student-led inquiry                                          based group projects. These projects focus mostly on 7th grade learners because the 8th grade                                        course is more so focused in high school prep. I frequently use digital formative assessment                                              tools, Forms, Quizizz, Kahoot, Gimkit, Edpuzzle, etc. These engaging platforms help reinforce                                          key content information in a game-ified fashion that middle school students gravitate toward. I                                          have curated a collection of Digital Breakouts for each course that students have to critically                                              think and analyze to “breakout”. My goal as a teacher is to keep the class interesting and                                                  engaging as possible while building and practicing skills for each student's future. Considering where the world is at digitally, I believe that one of the most important needs for students will be comfortably learning new tools as they move forward in their lives. Showing students the usefulness of these tools should help them as lifelong learners not to shy away from growing technology but embrace it and be confident in their abilities to use it.