Miss effie's ideal 5th grade class

First I going to describe my classroom. It is located near the middle of the school, ideally not far from the library, lunchroom, water fountain, rest rooms and the back door leading to the playground. I have decorated the room with many colorful posters about math facts, spelling tips and creative writing ideas. I have many exiting books for the students to browse through about science, social studies and other topics. I have many childrens literature books available for the students to read at their leisure. The students desks are arranged in a big circle around the classroom. I feel like this set up encourages team work and a unified group of students.
My students are from many different cultures and backgrounds, as well as varied socioeconomic status. I feel this is an ideal situation because it promotes more tolerance and understanding among students. Most of the students are well behaved and range from normal to advanced in their academic development. I do have a couple of students who struggle, one with a learing disorder, who attends a resource classroom a couple of hours a day, but spends most of the time included here in our classroom. Another, has ADHD and needs extra help keeping focused. Most of the parents are actively involved with their childrens education, but I am aware of a few who do not have such parental involvement. I try to offer a bit more help for these students so they don't fall behind. My colleagues and I regularly collaborate and come up with meaningful experiences to enhance the students learning. We try to organize 2-3 educational fieldtrips a year which are both fun and exciting for the students, and also educational. We also rotate the students daily between our classrooms to have them experience a broader perspective as well as exposure to a different teacher each day. We each teach our own students reading, writing and math, but rotate science, social studies, health and art. That way, each teacher prepares one curriculum to be taughts each group of students for each quater.
I am a strong advocate of a student learning atmophere. I feel like I am a great leader in teaching but that ulitmately, the students benefit more by learning hands on. I promote student tutors and encourage my students to be leaders in their strengths. When we learn a new topic or concept, I try to organinze labs for the students to experience the new concept and discover as much as possible.
I upkeep a class website as well as a blog spot for our classroom. I do not require any students to participate due to the possibility that some students may not have access to a computer and/or the internet. However I am aware that most students do have such access and this promotes class unity. They can participate in the blog where they discuss homework assignments and upcoming events. I provide a classroom computer for students to use if they don't have access to one elsewhere, so they can utilize the blogspot if they feel like it. I encourge all students to access our classroom sites whenever they can, so they can become more familiar with technology.
I hope to teach a wide variety of curriculum content to my students. They are just discovering algebraic concepts and its facinating to see them understand. They usually come to my classroom with many fundamentals of writing, but its fun and rewarding to see most of them really take off and become creative in their writing. I have a 4 part system to help them master their ability to adaquately write an essay on a given topic. I have a very extensive library of appropriate and exciting books that I have acquired through the years. I realize that not all of my students are at the same reading level or have the same interests, so I try really hard to help each student find books that truly engage them in this wonderful pastime. In the rotations I teach social studies. One of the reasons I chose to teach 5th grade, is I love American history and I want to try to instill a love for our American heritage by helping these students attain a fondness and respect for history. Since we have a variety of cultures among us, I use this opportunity to expose the students to other viewpoints of history and to include the differences of all our backgrounds and to embrace these differences. Some say we as Americans are the great "melting pot" but that would required us all to blend together. I teach we are a "salad bowl" each mingling and getting along, but respecting our differences.
In conclusion, our class goals are to show respect to everyone around us and do our best at all times. I organize a yearly service project where we as a class choose some group in need and orchestrate some sort of act of service to help out where we are needed. For instance, this year we are going to raise money for children in Africa who are in desparate need of certain immunizations. My students decided that they would collect donations from friends and family according to how many pages they read during a month. This promotes their reading ability as well as raising money for these less fortunate children. I am very proud of my students for their sincere efforts to help others. I feel very lucky to have such a great group of young people that I am able to help mold into strong, educated and responsible citizens.