Background info: I have been teaching here at PLMS since 2017, although I did go to school here for 7th and 8th grade when I went to school in Lee's Summit! I graduated from LSHS in 2013 and then went on to get my degree from the University of Central Missouri in Special Education with a minor in Child and Family Development in May 2017. I also went back to UCM and graduated with my Master's of Science in Educational Technology in May 2020. If you have any questions or need to contact me, my e-mail address is jonathan.barr@lsr7.net and my voice-mail number is (816) 986-1499 ext. 7966.
A little more about me:
Gallup StrengthFinder Survey:
Top 5 Strengths
Restorative, Arranger, Positivity, Relator, and Individualization.
Belief Statements:
Because I believe students should be in charge of their own learning, I act mostly as a guide for students and rarely have students just sit still in their seats and listen to me lecture.
Because I believe that students need to be motivated to be on task and learn, I will promote positive behavior and reward students who have stayed on task and worked hard during class. I will also strive to use positive language instead of reprimands (saying I need you to... instead of stop doing that). I will try to have 5 positive reinforcements for a student to every redirection or consequence.
Because I believe students learn best from the use of many different learning strategies, you would see multiple learning strategies used in my classroom every day, and that I am willing to try just about any strategy to help a student learn.
Because I believe that students need to feel safe in the learning environment, I encourage them to share all emotions in my class, whether they are happy, sad, angry, upset, or somewhere in between.