Final Blog Post: Final Project | Pecha Kucha | Fostering SEL and Community with Mentimeter
This past year was challenging. I was a first-year teacher navigating how to be an effective middle school science teacher in a school where I admittedly did not look like many of my students. Heading into last year, I wondered a lot about how I needed to position myself to connect with my students, and how to build relationships with them in order to foster true growth. I was balancing, (like all teachers) lesson planning, teaching content, communication with families, curating classroom structures, and navigating classroom management. More times than not, my ducks were not in a row. At least not in the row I wanted. My ducks were drifting downstream, trying to poke at someone’s loaf of bread, and running havoc on my nervous system. Don’t smile until Christmas was not a myth for me.
Yet, I survived. I survived because the relationships I had built with my students allowed me to get up every day and push for a better one. At the end of the school year, I had one student tell me that I was her second Miss Honey. As an avid Matilda fan, the moment made the whole year worth it. That being said, since the school year has ended, I have had a lot of time to reflect on what the basis for change needs to be next school year. What do I care about most for my students, and how can I ground these changes in something tangible? In relation to the CURR 501 framework, I wondered: what do I want to change, what beliefs are influencing this, and how will I do it?
I noticed that while my relationship with students stood out to me as a strong point of the year, fostering relationships between students felt like an uphill battle. Lack of community made it hard to have whole-class discussions, pair new groups together, and create a consistent environment. There were a lot of unkind words exchanged, moments where expectations were breached, and an overall sense of defeat. This is something I cannot accept next year. It is a top priority.
I was thinking over the last few weeks, how can I create this community that I have a vision for? This class came at the perfect time! Taking this course has allowed me to reflect on my fondest memories in school. They all had one focal point: connection and collaboration. Classes with a focus on community allowed me to learn best as we bounced ideas off of each other and embraced discussions. This was not my accident. These teachers facilitated intentional connection.
I know that next year I want to make it an explicit goal to commit to enriching social and emotional learning (SEL) in my classroom in a way that fosters community. I observed a few classes in my first year from veteran teachers. Successful classrooms always had the same elements in common: high expectations and a strong sense of meeting SEL needs. Whether it be standing by the door each morning and naming each student by name or celebrating birthdays - there was a sense of care and support. And it was collaborative. With a cohesive environment, discussions can deepen, learning can expand, and communication skills can improve. I understand that without a stable environment, the rest of the year cannot function in a way that supports all learners. Students learn best when their SEL needs are met, and they are in a safe space to let their guard down. I believe students learn even better when the whole class commits to this vision too.
Heading into this final project, I knew I wanted to create a digital tool to foster SEL and bring students closer together. At first, I was thinking of using a Padlet to create a discussion board. I worried about moderation and feasibility. After some discussion and ideas from fellow CURR 501 classmates, I landed on Mentimeter. Mentimeter is anonymous platform and is a great tool to poll how students are feeling and get to know who they are outside of the classroom. While it is a working progress, I have created 30 slides to start the year with. Questions involve categories such as getting to know you (ice breakers), classroom expectations, and scenario-based questions about how they would respond to others in a particular situation. The program offers a variety of ways for students to answer such as word clouds, polls, and open-ended responses. I may find I will need to adjust the questions to each class’s needs as I begin to learn more about them, but I am happy to have a basis to start with for now.
According to Scott Noom’s 4-Tier Model of Teacher Training in Technology, I have positioned myself as a techno-constructivist to change how I approach intentional SEL moments. I want to set aside specific class time to implement this digital tool. Typically, I would consider myself as techno- traditionalist in the classroom. This past year, I was very against tech in my science class due to impulse control and the frequent damaged Chromebooks. After the first quarter, I used it strictly for slideshows, assessments, and simulations. I also used it personally to store lesson plans, communicate with families, and for the gradebook. However, a majority of my class flipped to pen and paper. With this in mind, I may even find that I may need to display the Mentimeter questions and have students use sticky notes/whiteboard to answer. This would erase anonymity, but that may be the right move considering the point is to build community.
I truly believe students long for connection and belonging. At middle school age, everything feels so huge and deep to them and since their perspective is their world - it is that deep. Moments of middle school hysterics present learning opportunities. Students are figuring out who they are, and that is a lot to internalize and process. I need to provide a space where they are comfortable (within school appropriate guidelines) to be who they are. More importantly, I need to provide a space where they feel comfortable and respected by their peers (as they learn about science and natural phenomena too, of course)!
This class has enhanced my new understanding of how digital, and media influences our perceptions of reality in front of us on a day-to-day basis. Between our guest speaker’s (Brittany Richer Ahnrud) presentation and Linda Christensen’s article about stereotyping children’s media (“Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us”), my outlook on digital media and stereotypes has surely been updated to fit the current state of pop culture. As Christentensen comments, "The stereotypes and worldviews embedded in the stories become accepted knowledge" (page 176). To get into the pop culture of a current middle schooler for a second - What is tralalero tralala and Ballerina Cappuccina saying about our culture? What does it say that one of the only “girl” characters in Italian brainrot is wearing a pink tutu? That is a gender stereotype. Some people may not think it is that deep, but it can be if we look closely enough.
In all seriousness (brainrot aside - sorry for the redirect, teaching middle school changes a person), it is important to consider how the media our students consume influences the way they see themselves and each other. In general, I also learned the importance of understanding one another. If we start to learn about each other’s stories, as Dr. Michael Wesch discusses in his TED Talk, we start to create a better sense of how these plays into our learning experiences. We need to ask each other questions. He says it best in his ted talk: “Asking questions, making connections, and taking chances took us down from the trees and up to the moon” (5:02). I do not want my students only worrying about when their test is. I want them to learn from each other. By taking this project initiative, SEL can be embedded with the science content as I continue to curate my questions to my classroom context.
If we ground our beliefs and express who we truly are things start to feel easier. If we learn our students and learn their whys, the way we interact with them and support them becomes easier. By understanding my why, I am committing to enhancing the classroom environment next year. I hope to see progress. I know it will not be perfect overnight. That is another takeaway from this class: we do not have to have it all figured out. But if we can try something new, apply it, and watch how it may transform something - that is progress and progress creates sustainable change.
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