Portfolio of Jan Abernethy

2a Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport 

 

The first day of every year I show my new class the Power Point below with the fish and the heading, "To Mrs. 

Abernethy's 5th Grade Class..." Each slide contains a slide show of a former class going all the way back to the

class 1999/2000 (the first year there were digital cameras.) Each former class chose a name and each class did a service project or something to change the world. The last slide shows an "Under Construction" slide and challenges my new class to give themselves a name and asks them how they will change the world. This year's class named themselves after one of the pets in our classroom. They called themselves the Fantastic Ferrets, and they didn't just do one thing to change the world; they did many!!!!! 

 

This year, my class and I discovered Kid President. I embedded one of his videos below. It is perhaps the video that had the biggest impact on our class. Kid President said that we should treat everyone like it is their birthday, and he also said that, "Everybody deserves a parade." We took him literally that day, and less than two hours later we gave Deb Radar a parade. What really made the parade special was that the student that chose Deb to be the recipient was actually disciplined by her the day before at lunch because he was disrespectful. It proves that given time, kids will usually come around and do the right thing!