creating an environment of respect and rapport
You may be asking yourself, "Why are there so many cat pictures on this page?" These are pictures of a few of my favorite cat shirts. Now you're probably asking yourself, "Why do you have cat shirts and what do they have to do with being a teacher?" Great question! In order to build rapport with my students, I have started an event that I call "CatShirtDay". Every Friday, I wear a shirt with a cat on it. The kids love it, I love it, everyone has a lot of fun. This has been a huge strength in building rapport with my students, and that is partly because of my happy willingness to be goofy with them. We have fun when it's time to have fun, and that helps them to pull it back together when it's time to do so. Sometimes a teacher's just got to enjoy the students and the things they love in order to feel fulfilled and to reach as many kiddos as possible. CatShirtDay is my favorite day of the week, and the kids really look forward to it as well. Who knew a couple of kitties could do so much for a classroom?