On this page, you will find everything from community building to cloud-based activities that I will be implementing into my future classroom. My goal for my classroom is to create an environment that is welcoming and interactive, to promote student creativity and teamwork. To achieve this it's important to incorporate ergonomic elements, that are fit to the student's physical needs as well as their mental wellness. With this in mind, there must be activities within the school day that involve movement to get students out of their seats, to release energy, and keep their minds focused. During the times when they are seated, I want to offer the most interactive assignments that digitally secure on cloud-based servers and encourage creative thinking and allow them to enjoy the process of learning along the way.

Community building is an essential part of creating a happy and productive classroom environment. It provides students with a sense of comfort and unity between them and their peers, which is important for collaborating and learning to work cohesively with one another. These are life skills that they carry with them into the real world, and it all starts in their elementary school classrooms. Some good community-building activities to implement into the classroom would be ice breaker activities, especially at the beginning of the year to help the students get to know each other better. It's also important to utilize these kinds of activities throughout the year, so students can maintain this interest in getting to know their peers.

Ergonomics is the practice of designing a workspace that both comfortable and efficient. Having ergonomic workspaces is essential for people of all ages because the constant sedentary state in which we work can start to have negative effects on our physical well-being. Creating this type of work environment doesn't have to be difficult a few simple steps to take that I will be applying in my future classroom are.

1. Take breaks. Movement is important especially for young children. Small exercises can be incorporated during this time to release energy and then return back to work with a clear mind.

2. Use textured seat cushions to relieve the stress from sitting in a chair for long periods of time. The fun textures can also be useful to students who might need something to fidget with so they can stay focused.

3. Provide good lighting. Students should not be working in a room that is not well lit. This can cause their eyes to strain, especially if they're on computers, or make them tired. Having a balance between natural light and artificial lights will create a good balance, so they can stay productive.

Movement and physical activity are important parts of a child's development. Not only does physical activity impact student's physical wellbeing but it also plays hand in hand with their cognitive development and mindful wellbeing. This is how the development of mind and body wellness came about. Even when children are in school they should be given regularly structured exercises and activities to stay active and break their routine of sedentary learning. Not only does this benefit their bodies it also improves their attention spans and ability to focus for long periods of time. During my research on mind and body wellness for students, I have found many resources that can be used in the classroom to keep students active during the school day. Here I have listed my three favorites (with links) along with the link to my Mind and Body Wellness waklete collection.

1. GoNoodle is a great resource to keep kids moving, as they follow along with fun dance and game videos that allow them to release energy before they return back to their work.

2. The Big Life Journal has an article talking about 5 interactive mindful activities for kids. These activities, such as the heartbeat exercise, can easily be implemented in your classroom to help students with self-regulation.

3. We Are Teachers offers many classroom ideas including great options for team-building, such as 4 way tug of war, that involve physical activity and collaboration between students

Here I have provided a virtual tour of my Google classroom. In this tour, I show viewers how to navigate through assignments, how I organized my work, and show a few of my favorite activities and the thought process that went behind creating them.

When technology is cloud-based it means that it allows users to use programs to store information, files, music, etc. When these sources are saved on the "cloud", aka cloud-based servers, they can be viewed on virtually any device because they are saved through a storage network that only permits access to those who possess a secure username and password. Some examples of cloud servers are Google Drive, Microsoft Word, and Facebook. Teachers will use these types of networks to store student work and activities with the satisfaction of knowing they are can only be viewed by those who were granted access. An example of a cloud-based activity is flipgrid videos because they are stored on a network that can be accessed from any device with a secure username and password. However, an example of a non-cloud-based activity server would be any public website that does not save information from users. Some positives to using cloud-based learning activities are that they can be accessed anywhere on any device and offer more storage space if needed. However, some negatives include that without any internet connection they are very difficult to access and that the security of your personal information is in the hands of someone else. Despite this, I will be utilizing cloud-based learning activities in my future classroom, specifically on Google Drive, because they are one of the safest ways to store student work to ensure they are secure, and even keep track of assignments so they can be reused year after year

Here I have linked my lesson plan outline from the Common Sense Media curriculum on the Rings of Responsibility. This lesson is designed to teach students about the responsibilities they have to themselves and others around them when it comes to their actions on the internet. This lesson offers students the opportunity to think about their behavior before login onto the digital world and see examples that assess the difference between what it looks like to make responsible and irresponsible choices. The key concepts that are addressed in this lesson are community, digital citizen, and responsibility. Students are expected to learn about these terms and define them so they can apply them to their own actions online. This is an important topic for students to learn about, as they will be exposed to more and more of the digital world throughout the course of their lives, which makes it that much more important for them to know how to use it and represent themselves responsibly.