Standard 3: Learning Environments
“The teacher works with others to create environments that support individual and collaborative learning, and that encourage positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.“
3(r) Is a thoughtful and responsive listener and observer.
3(q) Seeks to foster respectful communication among all members of the learning community.
Community Mural
During my first few weeks at Old Town Elementary, I helped facilitate a mural project that included all grades K-5. Five-hundred is a difficult number for kids to imagine and with five-hundred students in the school community it is important to understand how big and diverse that community really is. Pam, my mentor teacher, designed this project, and she encouraged me to be the one to help students put the pieces together in the hallway for display. Each grade worked with a different subject or symbol, most of which related to what they would be learning in their home classroom. Kindergarteners did clouds, 1st graders did things in the sky, 2nd graders did plants, 3rd graders made geographic formations, 4th graders created trees, and 5th graders crafted ladders. Each piece was unique and was placed somewhere in the whole, often overlapping others. The process of getting the mural up took the extra help and leadership of several fifth graders, as well as some direct communication with students about placement.
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I enjoyed this project and I would do it again with my future students. I might even try to make the connections between grades more concrete and ask students to draw each other--for example, the kindergarteners would pair up and draw a fifth grader. Before they got to drawing though, I would give them 10 minutes to just talk to their partner, and we would brainstorm a list of ways to start a conversation with a new person.
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Moving forward I will work with students to help them develop healthy studio habits that will help them create self-designed projects or purposefully make choices--building their skills to be intrinsically motivated.
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3(p) Is committed to supporting learners as they participate in decision making, engage in exploration and invention, work collaboratively and independently, and engage in purposeful learning.
