Episode 2: Getting to Know Your Students and Host Elizabeth Morphis

As teachers, it is important to learn about the students in your classroom and for the students to learn a little about you. This helps build trusting relationships, which are essential for students to learn and for teachers to teach effectively. This episode does just that!  

I introduce myself so that you learn about me, my current position as a professor, and my teaching experiences. In the Spotlight Segment, I share a few activities that I use to learn about my students and who they are as individuals. 

Here’s what I recommend to develop trust, inclusion, and motivation:  

1.   Spend some time getting to know the students before and as part of the lessons.

2.   Let the students get to know you as well. It’s hard for students to learn from teachers they don’t trust.

3.   Help students make connections between the curriculum and the students’ interests. 

I’ve always loved teaching and in today’s episode you’ll hear my first experiences in the classroom and how I developed my expertise around literacy. I have had some unique teaching opportunities as well. I spent a year on the National Broadway tour of Annie. It was my job to make sure the children in the cast kept up with their class work between performances.  

Bringing the curriculum to life is important to me and I’m sharing some of the ways I tried to do that for y students.  

While working with Sesame Workshop I created curriculum for students in Japan to learn English with the Sesame content. As part of the project, I went to Japan, and had the opportunity to work with teachers there and I realized how much I enjoyed working with other teachers.

 Teaching new teachers at the college level is rewarding. It’s wonderful to work with others who have a passion for teaching. 

In the Spotlight I’m sharing some of my favorite activities to do with students to get to know them better.

·       Me bag exercise.

·       My Map Book by Sarah Fanelli

·       The Best Part of Me by Wendy Ewald

·       Looking Like Me by Walter Dean Myers

These are great activities for parents, and I’ve enjoyed doing them with my girls who are enthusiastic readers.

If you’re a teacher or a parent looking to help children enjoy reading, any of these ideas are a good place to start. Learning to love reading can happen in a variety of ways and I’ll share more ideas on the next episode.

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