Having a sense of community and truly knowing my students are very important aspects of my teaching philosophy. My students are more than just students, they are my kids. I love each of them and want the best for them. With these thoughts in mind, I spend a great deal of time at the beginning of the school year learning about each of my students. This year, I had my students make a list of 100 things they love. First, the students made a list of 100 things they loved. They did this in their interactive notebook. I plan to refer to these lists throughout the year for writing topics. After the students completed their list they made a poster of their 100 things that they love. Students were encouraged to be creative! Some students wanted to use a website like taxgedo or wordle to create their poster. I allowed them to do so, if they printed it at home.
I love the way the students' posters turned out! This is just a small sample of the great work the students created. One thing I would do different next time is have the students make a list of 100 "favorite things" instead of 100 things they "love". Some of my students got stuck on the word "love", which made this assignment more difficult for them. Once I explained that it could be favorite things, such as a favorite person, movie, song, food, etc. They seemed to find this task much easier.
