Artifact 1: Developing a classroom

community
The mention of Lucky Charms serves as a reminder of my ability to create a
classroom community. The Lucky Charms picture sits on my desk and was a gift
from my fourth hour American history class. It was a gift in response to a lesson
describing the practice of taking outline notes. No student likes to take notes and it
proved to be a tough task to get the students motivated about outline notes. As I
was leading the lesson and prying my mind for any creative idea that could add
some spice to the day’s lesson a student raised their hand and said, “I don’t like to
use bullet points. Bullet points are boring and dull. I like to use little hearts instead.”
When the student first began to speak I imagined an interruption to the lesson. But
as I heard her speak it clicked that this was a way we could make it exciting. I then
explained to the class that sure they could use hearts or even…stars, and
horseshoes. It was not long before the class became a chorus of leprechaun’s
echoing the Lucky Charms anthem. Most all student use bullet points during outline
notes without even thinking about it, but because of the adlibbed reference to a
popular cereal jingle fourth hour’s notes always include creative little designs for
their bullet points.

The students thought it was fun to use different shapes in their seemingly bland
looking notes but what they thought was even more funny was my horrible Irish
accent. The accent was so bad it became more like a pirate. The whole class, me
included, was hysterically laughing at their teacher talking in a half Irish/half pirate
sing song voice attempting to recite a cereal jingle. This incident became our class
mantra, or how fourth hour referred to themselves. The students even wanted to
create class t-shirts! I managed to develop a classroom community through
assignments and activities like this that would create a positive learning experience
and environment for every student. This community was strong enough for students
to feel comfortable enough to share ideas in front of the class, take part in
simulations, and speak their mind without feeling uneasy.