To Whom It May Concern,

I am a passionate educator and a self-directed, continuous learner.

I teach to create a safe place for students where they are known, empowered, and loved. One of my goals is to share my enthusiasm for learning and to inspire a desire to become a life-long learner in my students. I consistently create pathways between parents and guardians of students and the world of education, and place importance on engaging with families outside of an 8:00 am- 2:15 pm school day in order to make them feel valued. At the end of the day, I want my students to walk out of the classroom encouraged, knowing that they have classmates and teachers who are on their team.

I believe in teaching students accountability and responsibility for their actions, providing students with ownership over their learning, and giving students space for critical and creative thinking within the environment of a democratic classroom. I have experience monitoring student progress through planned formative assessments, scaffolded instruction, and student self- assessments.

I value data that drives my instruction, authentic assessments within the classroom, and collaboration with colleagues through both vertical and horizontal alignment of grade levels. I believe that I have expertise in innovations in curriculum to bring to an educational environment, and at the same time my colleagues will have expertise in other areas that I can learn from as well. I have learned how to ask for help when approaching different situations after working multiple solutions myself in the classroom first.

I am passionate about integrating arts, science, and technology into lesson plans because I believe that it molds kids into well-rounded students. I am skilled at delivering instruction in unique ways that integrate core concepts. I believe that kinesthetic learning promotes the formation of new connections within students’ brains, and therefore I integrate movement as much as possible into my instruction.

I plan to emphasize the importance of providing students with standards-based lesson plans within my classroom that incorporate real-world connections in order to make content purposeful and relevant to their lives. Education brings a greater awareness to the student of the world around them and instills in them a passion and a purpose to grow to become effective democratic citizens.

I believe that I have developed excellent classroom management skills through my diverse experiences in different grade levels, and base my classroom management techniques on the strategies of the practice of Love & Logic. I strongly believe the best classroom management comes from rewarding positive behaviors rather than punishing incorrect behaviors.

I bring strengths that include communication and organizational skills, a seamless ability to work with varying ages and developmental levels, and a passion for integrating technology into the classroom to any collaborative teaching team.

My bottom line in education is that students will walk through my classroom door every morning knowing that their teacher values them as an individual and excited to express their creativity and uniqueness throughout the school day.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know me!

With joy,

Tiana Grap

teaching joys

keeping my thinking visible

Controlled Chaos?

The other times that I have been with my Special Pal so far have been in her mainstream class, which she goes to after her SDC in the morning. I unfortuately have to do most of my volunteer hours during this time, since all of the ITEC classes are in the mornings up until her lunch time. It is a 5th grade class, with approximately 30 students, one of whom is in my Special Pal’s SDC with her in the mornings. My Special Pal and the other SDC student seem to not do much work in the mainstream class, and don’t even engage with the other students. While the other students are doing work for their class, my Special Pal is usually drawing at her desk, reading to me when I am with her, or sitting at the computer playing math games. Although I understand the benefits of an immersion classroom, it seems that my Special Pal is not getting any of those benefits because she isn’t really a part of the class due to her not joining in the work that the other students are doing-not even a modified version. A good majority of her time is spent on the computer playing math games, but from what I have observed the moment she runs across something she is not familiar with or cannot figure out, she quits that game and looks to find another one that is easier-one that doesn’t challenge her. While I am with her I try my best to help her with problems and try to keep her in more challenging games, but oftentimes she doesn’t want to listen to me. This is not helped by her wearing headphones to hear the music and talking that occurs in the online games, which provides an added barrier when I try to talk to her. There was some reward with one game, where I was able to help her understand one of the concepts and then she played it several times over without my help which demonstrated she understood what I had helped her with. One other challenge I have faced with her is that she doesn’t understand that even though she is not doing any of the work that the other students are doing, when the teacher stops the class to give directions she needs to be quiet as well. I have had much difficulty in explaining this to her as a concept of respect and practicing listening, but hopefully the more time I spend with her the better she will become at this.

Posted 702 weeks ago

Mrs. Tiana Grap

teaching joys