As a teacher, I am studying and learning every day. This part of the web site is going to be dedicated to activities I do in my classroom (and can also be done at home) that benefit my students.

I have studied many strategies to promote literacy engagement and skill mastery in my classroom, and my favorites are called Social Stories and Video Modeling. What I found when using social stories in my classroom is that students retain information and create meaningful connections when I used pictures of myself and their classmates. They developed a connection to themselves and reading through the social stories.

Similar to social stories, video modeling uses videos in order for students to gain and practice skills. It has been used to target a variety of behaviors across many areas of functioning including language, social behavior, play, academics and adaptive skills. It is so awesome to see and hear my students saying “look, that is me!” or performing a skill that we didn’t even know they had acquired after seeing themselves, their friends, or teachers on video.

I use social stories and video modeling to educate my students not only about academic and social skills, but also about social and environmental justice issues. Teaching is my passion, along with gardening and advocacy, so using these strategies helps me incorporate all my loves, while reaching students at the levels they can. Technology is a tool, and can be used for some great change in the world - and I use it as such.

You will be seeing lots of Miss Rara's Teaching adventures here!