Reflection:

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One of my top priorities when working with students is building rapport. For example, I had my fourth graders fill out an interest survey the first week I worked with them. I got to learn more about them personally and their interests. There were two main reasons I conducted this. I had never worked with fourth graders before. I would also take this information and apply it to each and every single lesson of any subject I taught to make learning content more interactive, engaging, memorable, and fun for everyone involved. I knew these students loved to get up out of their seats and move, especially at the end of the day when their attention drifts off. They especially loved music and dancing. So, I introduced a social studies lesson at the end of a long day with a dance party that lasted for a few minutes where we could get all of our silly energy out and get the brain juice flowing. I got the song from my mentor, who used it in the past and all of her students loved the catchy tune. It contained information about the fifty states and their capitals, which is the main goal for Social Studies in fourth grade. I lightened the mood by dancing with them with my silly cowboy hat on because we were studying the Midwest. My mentor teacher even joined in on the dancing too. As educators, we were both beyond thrilled this worked out so well for the students. By having a simple dance party, I had their focus from start to finish for the shortest period of the school day.