Highlights From My Final Reflection Paper

* The material that impacted me the most was the book, Resilient Classrooms, primarily because it provided me with greater understanding of what resiliency is and how it can be evident in a classroom setting.

*The saying "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" is not completely accurate because resiliency is achieved with the help of other supportive and caring individuals in your life. The more accurate quote for me is "it takes a village."

*The Resilient Classrooms book is extremely practical and applicable to my career as an educator.

*I greet my students every morning and ask how they are doing.

*I get a chance to eat lunch with and talk with them everyday, which helps build a strong teacher-student relationship.

*My motto is, "If it doesn't work for the class it doesn't work", because we are a unit not individuals that occupy the same room five days out of the week.

*Our classroom is a democracy, otherwise I would always refer to it as "my classroom" when talking to my students.

*The biggest challenge I faced in terms of challenging personal bias during this course was Delpits read. I didn't agree with many of the points the article made and it was hard for not to feel offended when the entire article shined a negative light on white people.

* How I overcame my bias was through reading my colleagues response which brought in a different perspective and reminded me to keep an open-mind.

*The most significant moment of the course was presented the Social Justice Project. Why?
- It symbolized the end of a fantastic course
- I was proud to present my first graders wonderful work and ideas.
- Theories, strategies and practices I acquired in this course played out in mine and my students project.

* Creating Inclusive and Motivating Classrooms,opened my eyes of new ways to think,teach, and reflect!