Shelly Fryer
Shelly Fryer - an inspirational educator, blogger, speaker, and author - shares advice from her 20+ years of teaching experience with future educators on her website. Immediately after reading through her first blog post, I could tell how much passion she has for showing children how empowering education can be and for teaching them to love the process of learning. In 2013, Shelly's goals of advocating for children inspired her to accept a position teaching in a third and fourth grade classroom at Positive Tomorrows, an non-profit elementary school in Oklahoma reserved specifically for homeless children. According to the mission statement found on their website, Positive Tomorrows is committed to breaking the vicious cycle of multi-generational poverty: "Children raised in homelessness have reduced literacy and vocabularies. These children are also less likely to have well-developed motor skills, and nearly half are unable to pass state-mandated testing at their grade level. Chronic stress and anxiety caused by poverty has also been linked to lower academic performance... [But luckily] the cycle of poverty and homelessness can be broken. Reducing the barriers to an education, providing family support for stable environment, and then delivering that education where the student is can lead to positive academic outcomes and pave the way for success later in life." I have such admiration for the work she has done for these deserving students, providing them with the love, attention, and resources crucial to their future success.
Shelly is now teaching a third grade class at Casady School in Oklahoma City. In her "More Similarities Than Differences" article she reflects on how although her students at the two schools come from differing socio-economic statuses, all students require their basic safety and psychological needs met first and foremost. I studied abroad in Italy over the summer and was able to volunteer in their elementary school, and I can confirm that the need for security and compassion is universal. In order to create a productive learning environment, developing that trust and that relationship with students is essential. On her blog, Shelly mentioned that there are "high levels of transition and mobility among [their] families" and one strategy that she uses to make her classroom feel more like a home is participating in the Global School Play Day. This day consists of nonstop fun and interaction with peers, allowing students to play with things like Legos or cars or dolls or any other toys they might not have access to otherwise. Shelly enjoys seeing how much creativity and imagination the students use while playing, and also seeing many new friendships form over a shared interest or activity! I absolutely love the idea of giving students more chances to play and get to know their classmates!
Keeping in accordance with the idea of making her classroom feel more like a home, Shelly mentioned how she utilizes flexible seating options throughout the year, giving her students the freedom to choose whether they wanted to sit at a traditional desk, stand at a taller table, or sit on pillows closer to the floor. I have always been very interested in the idea of flexible seating and would love to make students feel like they are more in charge of how they learn. Shelly also strongly advocates for utilizing technology in the classroom, especially after being able to have a 1:1 iPad classroom at Positive Tomorrows and finding several cool apps to incorporate into lesson plans like Opinion, Book Creator, Shadow Puppet EDU, SeeSaw, Pic Collage Kids, and iMovie. I am personally excited to explore the Opinion app some more and loved listening to a few of the podcasts created by Shelly's kiddos for their radio show "Casady News 12!" Her students also collaborated with their music teacher to create their own adorable song, "Welcome to Room 108," which is linked below! I think that incorporating all of this technology into the classroom allows students to be more creative, engaged, and excited to learn!
Follow Shelly (@sfryer) on Twitter for more of her incredible articles and classroom updates!
Shelly is now teaching a third grade class at Casady School in Oklahoma City. In her "More Similarities Than Differences" article she reflects on how although her students at the two schools come from differing socio-economic statuses, all students require their basic safety and psychological needs met first and foremost. I studied abroad in Italy over the summer and was able to volunteer in their elementary school, and I can confirm that the need for security and compassion is universal. In order to create a productive learning environment, developing that trust and that relationship with students is essential. On her blog, Shelly mentioned that there are "high levels of transition and mobility among [their] families" and one strategy that she uses to make her classroom feel more like a home is participating in the Global School Play Day. This day consists of nonstop fun and interaction with peers, allowing students to play with things like Legos or cars or dolls or any other toys they might not have access to otherwise. Shelly enjoys seeing how much creativity and imagination the students use while playing, and also seeing many new friendships form over a shared interest or activity! I absolutely love the idea of giving students more chances to play and get to know their classmates!
Keeping in accordance with the idea of making her classroom feel more like a home, Shelly mentioned how she utilizes flexible seating options throughout the year, giving her students the freedom to choose whether they wanted to sit at a traditional desk, stand at a taller table, or sit on pillows closer to the floor. I have always been very interested in the idea of flexible seating and would love to make students feel like they are more in charge of how they learn. Shelly also strongly advocates for utilizing technology in the classroom, especially after being able to have a 1:1 iPad classroom at Positive Tomorrows and finding several cool apps to incorporate into lesson plans like Opinion, Book Creator, Shadow Puppet EDU, SeeSaw, Pic Collage Kids, and iMovie. I am personally excited to explore the Opinion app some more and loved listening to a few of the podcasts created by Shelly's kiddos for their radio show "Casady News 12!" Her students also collaborated with their music teacher to create their own adorable song, "Welcome to Room 108," which is linked below! I think that incorporating all of this technology into the classroom allows students to be more creative, engaged, and excited to learn!
Follow Shelly (@sfryer) on Twitter for more of her incredible articles and classroom updates!