1 minute read
Tip 15: Help Students Get to Know Your Surroundings
As mentioned in tip 6 (page 11), it’s great to mix up your background and give students an opportunity to see you in different locations. While this can be an effective way to highlight content (fractions with measuring cups in your kitchen or a science lab out on your back patio), it’s also a great way to help students get to know you.
Where appropriate, let students in on what your surroundings look like. Perhaps every Friday, you read the day’s story out in your garden (see figure 2.1), with your cute dog sitting at your feet. If internet access permits, perhaps you can head out to somewhere that you like to go—the local library (during the nonfiction unit), the woods near your house (photosynthesis, anyone?), or maybe just the middle of your living room (let’s talk calculating square footage!).
It’s also important to remember that you might be teaching students who live far away, or in neighborhoods far different than your own. What a golden opportunity to show our students a different geographical location or neighborhood, and when appropriate, learn a bit about theirs as well. Just be sure to be aware of equity issues before doing this. (Read tip 75, page 121, Be Conscious About [Camera] Backgrounds.)
When teachers and students learn about each other’s surroundings, we go far beyond the walls that often confine us in a physical classroom.
