My students and I are on this exciting new journey together, learning how to be Classroom Champions!
While I am thrilled to be a part of this amazing program, I am also wrapping my mind around a new classroom of young kindergarteners, learning all about their little personalities and needs and establishing class expectations and routines. I was overwhelmed at the prospect of also tackling the first tasks from Classroom Champions. Thankfully I work with a seasoned Classroom Champions teacher, Robyn Thiessen, who I went to several times for reassurance and support.
I made several classroom videos, trying to get the best lighting and wanting to ensure I explained all that our room offers. Then I began re-learning how to use Animoto to add subtitles and fancy transitions, I had used it previously and needed to reacquaint myself with the app.
For the reveal, I began by discussing the Olympics and asking the students what they knew about the Olympics. A few of them had seen the Olympics this summer on television, many had no idea what they were about. I read a few non-fiction stories, explaining the summer and winter Olympics and the sports offered, they are now in our classroom library to allow the students to read them during their choice or reading period. We then discussed what sport they thought they would like to do if they chose to be in the Olympics. Many of them thought they would be fast runners, so I ran with that idea and asked if they would be interested in learning about one of the fastest track and field runners in the whole world! They were thrilled with the idea! I shared Akeem's photo and we discussed some information about him, that he is Canadian, when his birthday is, his family and then we watched his welcome video. The students were enthralled! They were waving at Akeem's video, they are looking forward to his shared ice cream idea and hope to meet him soon. My eyes were welling up as I watched how quickly they attached to this amazing young man. When I explained my student's reaction to Robyn, I teared up again! I knew this would be a phenomenal program but I had no idea how instantly it would impact my students.
We then coloured our own medals that we will use in our next lesson in goal setting!
I sent home the link to the CC introduction video and the Welcome video over that week and have had several positive comments from parents. One student, Mackayla, told her Mom that she could beat Akeem in a race if she wore her Native shoes (a brand name slip-on summer shoe)!I cannot wait to see how our journey with CC and Akeem Haynes unfolds, the positive power of influence has already exceeded my expectations and it has only been two weeks!
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