Classroom Profile:
My fourth grade classroom this year consists of seventeen students. There are six girls and eleven boys. There are four different ethnicities in my classroom: black (non-hispanic), white (non-hispanic), hispanic, and multicultural. Six students are black, four of which are boys and two are girls. Nine students are hispanic, six are boys and three are girls. One boy is multicultural and one girl is white. Most of my students are between the ages of nine and ten. Three of my students are at age eleven. By the end of this school year, nine of my students will be eleven and one will be twelve. Two of my eleven years olds are retained. Both of my students who were retained were held back in fourth grade. My high achievers in the classroom are the four boys who are on level and complete their work early or on time. There are two students who are easy to get along with but have trouble getting work finished. I have six students who are quiet but they have already conformed to the classroom environment. I have five students who are nonconformists, behavior challenged. My students’ reading levels consist of average and below average. There are five average reading level students and they are all boys, which includes one of my repeaters. The other twelve students are below average. Four students are close to being on level in reading. In math, ten students are on level, three girls and seven boys. The other seven students are below level. I have six ESE students (two hispanic, three black, and one white). Two LYC students who are both hispanic and one LYA student who is also hispanic. These three students are my English Language Learners (ELL). I have no gifted students. I have one student who is in need of strong emotional support. There are two students in my class who are ADD and ADHD, both are boys. One of the boys is on medication but the other boy is not. I have one boy who is autistic. I may have several different types of students but the one thing they all have in common is the need for encouragement.
Letter to Parents:
Dear Families,
Welcome to the fourth grade!
My name is Brittani Griffin and I will be your child’s fourth grade teacher this school year! I am eager to start the school year and get to know your children! To start off let me inform you a little about myself and my educational background. I am a graduate from the Urban Teacher Residency Partnership Program at the University of South Florida. I am currently working on my master’s degree at USF as well as working on receiving National Board Certification. Ever since high school, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher and work with students. Helping children has been a passion of mine for some time. That is why I have a fun and productive year planned for us. I want to make sure that your children are interested in what they are learning and motivated to succeed in the fourth grade.
For this year I have superior goals and expectations for your child. I am confident that every student can achieve the goals ahead.
~ Each student will increase their reading level by eight levels by the end of the year.
~ The students will learn to work efficiently in groups.
~ Each student should be kind and respectful to others and themselves.
~ “Class cash” will be used as a positive reinforcement.
Students will participate in group activities every day as well as partner work. Based on reading level, the students will be divided into groups to work on increasing and perfecting their levels. The students will have opportunities throughout the week to play on the computers with technology based learning programs. This lets the student become familiar with technology while learning. Your children will also be participating in specials each day including art, music, or P.E. I will be incorporating fun and exciting activities into our math and science lessons to enhance your child’s learning.
Communication plays a significant role in your child’s learning experience. The goals that I have included cannot be fully reached without your support. If you have any questions, concerns, would like to schedule a conference, or stop by the classroom please feel free to contact me at (813)975-7373 or email me at [email protected].
I am certain that this year will be fun and successful! I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you and your children!
Welcome to fourth grade,
Brittani Griffin
2014-2015
“You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself any direction you choose.” – Dr. Suess
Community Building:
A sense of community is a crucial aspect in a classroom. Your students need to feel welcomed when they enter the classroom before the first day as well as throughout the year. There are so many community building activities that can be done in the classroom. There are also other activities that can take place in the students’ homes.
Before the school year begins, I would want to start building our classroom community. An activity that I would utilize would be to send home a letter to the students that explains who I am and what I would like them to do before the year begins. In the envelope, I would include a name tag that will be placed on the student’s desk. I would explain that I want each student to write their name on the tag and decorate it with their favorite things. They could draw their favorite food, sport, color, team, or talent. When the students come on the first day of school, they will get to choose their desk and put their name tag on it. The students will be able to see each others name tags and get to know a little about each person. This will help start the building of our community.
On the first day of school after everyone is settled in, I would want to play a game to get to know everyone’s name. I would have a small ball that we could toss around easily. I would start off with the ball and say my name, my favorite color, and one thing about myself. Then I would toss the ball to someone else and they would have to say their name, favorite color, and one thing about themselves. After that student finishes they would toss the ball to someone else and sit down on the carpet. The ball would go around until everyone had a chance to speak. Once we were finished we would go around one more time and say ours names.
Towards the end of each semester I would want to play a similar game to the one we played at the beginning of the year. The difference would be that whoever catches the ball has to say three nice things about whoever threw the ball. For example, if I threw the ball to the students across from me, that student would have to say three things they learned about me. Since this game will be played some time within the year, the students will know each other better.
Routine and strategies:
Routines are important in a classroom because they provide familiarity for the students. I believe that having a morning routine will help the students prepare for the rest of the day. For my classroom, I would want my students to walk in every morning and come straight to my desk. They would get out their homework so I could check it and collect whatever papers need to be turned in. After getting their homework checked they would sharpen one pencil then go to their assigned seat. The students would work on their bell-work and once they finished would need to get out whatever book they want to read and read until it was time to start the lesson. If some of the students wanted to go on the computer I would allow them to get onto FasttMath or MyON, whichever they would prefer.
I know that it will take a few weeks until the students are used to the routine. On the first day I would show my students what they should do. I believe that acting out the routine is more beneficial to the students because they see exactly what they should be doing. For the first week I will remind the students what they are supposed to do when they enter the class. After that first week I will periodically remind the students of the morning routine and may have a student act it out. I think that having a morning routine will help the students feel comfortable in the classroom.
Strategies are helpful in transitions or throughout the school day. One strategy I would use would be an attention getter. A saying that I have learned to be a successful attention getter is when the teacher says,“One, two, three” and the students respond, “eyes on you” then the teacher says, “four, five, six” as the students reply, “fingers on lips.” I would use this in my classroom whenever I needed to talk to the students while they are working in groups or being noisy. It is a simple statement but the students know that when they hear the teacher say this, it is time to quiet down. It would take a week or two to teach the students the saying but it is something that can be used all year. I also like this strategy because the students are involved with the saying. Instead of me saying or doing something myself, the students can be a part of the process.
Another strategy I would use would be shoulder partners. Shoulder partners is a community building strategy that is carried out by the students. It gives each student someone to talk to and help with whatever they are working on. It lets the students have some social time during class while still working on the material. If we are in the middle of a math problem and I tell the students to work with their shoulder partners, they would know who to turn to and work together. Every students would know their shoulder partner at the beginning of the year after I put the students into groups. There may be a couple groups of three but they would still be able to work together.
My fourth grade classroom this year consists of seventeen students. There are six girls and eleven boys. There are four different ethnicities in my classroom: black (non-hispanic), white (non-hispanic), hispanic, and multicultural. Six students are black, four of which are boys and two are girls. Nine students are hispanic, six are boys and three are girls. One boy is multicultural and one girl is white. Most of my students are between the ages of nine and ten. Three of my students are at age eleven. By the end of this school year, nine of my students will be eleven and one will be twelve. Two of my eleven years olds are retained. Both of my students who were retained were held back in fourth grade. My high achievers in the classroom are the four boys who are on level and complete their work early or on time. There are two students who are easy to get along with but have trouble getting work finished. I have six students who are quiet but they have already conformed to the classroom environment. I have five students who are nonconformists, behavior challenged. My students’ reading levels consist of average and below average. There are five average reading level students and they are all boys, which includes one of my repeaters. The other twelve students are below average. Four students are close to being on level in reading. In math, ten students are on level, three girls and seven boys. The other seven students are below level. I have six ESE students (two hispanic, three black, and one white). Two LYC students who are both hispanic and one LYA student who is also hispanic. These three students are my English Language Learners (ELL). I have no gifted students. I have one student who is in need of strong emotional support. There are two students in my class who are ADD and ADHD, both are boys. One of the boys is on medication but the other boy is not. I have one boy who is autistic. I may have several different types of students but the one thing they all have in common is the need for encouragement.
Letter to Parents:
Dear Families,
Welcome to the fourth grade!
My name is Brittani Griffin and I will be your child’s fourth grade teacher this school year! I am eager to start the school year and get to know your children! To start off let me inform you a little about myself and my educational background. I am a graduate from the Urban Teacher Residency Partnership Program at the University of South Florida. I am currently working on my master’s degree at USF as well as working on receiving National Board Certification. Ever since high school, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher and work with students. Helping children has been a passion of mine for some time. That is why I have a fun and productive year planned for us. I want to make sure that your children are interested in what they are learning and motivated to succeed in the fourth grade.
For this year I have superior goals and expectations for your child. I am confident that every student can achieve the goals ahead.
~ Each student will increase their reading level by eight levels by the end of the year.
~ The students will learn to work efficiently in groups.
~ Each student should be kind and respectful to others and themselves.
~ “Class cash” will be used as a positive reinforcement.
Students will participate in group activities every day as well as partner work. Based on reading level, the students will be divided into groups to work on increasing and perfecting their levels. The students will have opportunities throughout the week to play on the computers with technology based learning programs. This lets the student become familiar with technology while learning. Your children will also be participating in specials each day including art, music, or P.E. I will be incorporating fun and exciting activities into our math and science lessons to enhance your child’s learning.
Communication plays a significant role in your child’s learning experience. The goals that I have included cannot be fully reached without your support. If you have any questions, concerns, would like to schedule a conference, or stop by the classroom please feel free to contact me at (813)975-7373 or email me at [email protected].
I am certain that this year will be fun and successful! I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you and your children!
Welcome to fourth grade,
Brittani Griffin
2014-2015
“You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, you can steer yourself any direction you choose.” – Dr. Suess
Community Building:
A sense of community is a crucial aspect in a classroom. Your students need to feel welcomed when they enter the classroom before the first day as well as throughout the year. There are so many community building activities that can be done in the classroom. There are also other activities that can take place in the students’ homes.
Before the school year begins, I would want to start building our classroom community. An activity that I would utilize would be to send home a letter to the students that explains who I am and what I would like them to do before the year begins. In the envelope, I would include a name tag that will be placed on the student’s desk. I would explain that I want each student to write their name on the tag and decorate it with their favorite things. They could draw their favorite food, sport, color, team, or talent. When the students come on the first day of school, they will get to choose their desk and put their name tag on it. The students will be able to see each others name tags and get to know a little about each person. This will help start the building of our community.
On the first day of school after everyone is settled in, I would want to play a game to get to know everyone’s name. I would have a small ball that we could toss around easily. I would start off with the ball and say my name, my favorite color, and one thing about myself. Then I would toss the ball to someone else and they would have to say their name, favorite color, and one thing about themselves. After that student finishes they would toss the ball to someone else and sit down on the carpet. The ball would go around until everyone had a chance to speak. Once we were finished we would go around one more time and say ours names.
Towards the end of each semester I would want to play a similar game to the one we played at the beginning of the year. The difference would be that whoever catches the ball has to say three nice things about whoever threw the ball. For example, if I threw the ball to the students across from me, that student would have to say three things they learned about me. Since this game will be played some time within the year, the students will know each other better.
Routine and strategies:
Routines are important in a classroom because they provide familiarity for the students. I believe that having a morning routine will help the students prepare for the rest of the day. For my classroom, I would want my students to walk in every morning and come straight to my desk. They would get out their homework so I could check it and collect whatever papers need to be turned in. After getting their homework checked they would sharpen one pencil then go to their assigned seat. The students would work on their bell-work and once they finished would need to get out whatever book they want to read and read until it was time to start the lesson. If some of the students wanted to go on the computer I would allow them to get onto FasttMath or MyON, whichever they would prefer.
I know that it will take a few weeks until the students are used to the routine. On the first day I would show my students what they should do. I believe that acting out the routine is more beneficial to the students because they see exactly what they should be doing. For the first week I will remind the students what they are supposed to do when they enter the class. After that first week I will periodically remind the students of the morning routine and may have a student act it out. I think that having a morning routine will help the students feel comfortable in the classroom.
Strategies are helpful in transitions or throughout the school day. One strategy I would use would be an attention getter. A saying that I have learned to be a successful attention getter is when the teacher says,“One, two, three” and the students respond, “eyes on you” then the teacher says, “four, five, six” as the students reply, “fingers on lips.” I would use this in my classroom whenever I needed to talk to the students while they are working in groups or being noisy. It is a simple statement but the students know that when they hear the teacher say this, it is time to quiet down. It would take a week or two to teach the students the saying but it is something that can be used all year. I also like this strategy because the students are involved with the saying. Instead of me saying or doing something myself, the students can be a part of the process.
Another strategy I would use would be shoulder partners. Shoulder partners is a community building strategy that is carried out by the students. It gives each student someone to talk to and help with whatever they are working on. It lets the students have some social time during class while still working on the material. If we are in the middle of a math problem and I tell the students to work with their shoulder partners, they would know who to turn to and work together. Every students would know their shoulder partner at the beginning of the year after I put the students into groups. There may be a couple groups of three but they would still be able to work together.