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Hi! I am Ms. Kim Tracewski. These days my main focus is doing whatever it takes to spread happiness, empowerment, and the drive for making the world better. I work closely with students to develop their passions into a practical approach for the modern world. As an English teacher, that means giving them the power to research, develop, and communicate those ideas in a clear and efficient way. My recent experiences have strengthened my ability to help students understand the nuances of words, word choice, and language development. Meanwhile, I have really committed to strengthening my emphasis on exploring literature with essential questions. This takes place in all parts of reading, but I have concentrate my efforts on improving my students ability to communicate about their independent reading through journals.
As I continue teaching, I realize how strongly it is my passion. A key aspect of that passion is the idea of learning, and not doing. Because of this aspect, I am incorporating the Standards-Based Learning mindset along with a growth mindset into my classroom. Having a Standards-Based Mindset means that rather than grading students on the completion or correctness of assignments, tasks, and projects, their grade comes from their ability to meet specific standards. That means LEARN. Learning must take place in order for students to continually reach new standards of knowledge and abilities. This also means that students must grow in order to earn they A that they are all striving for. When students transfer the language of their students into their speaking and writing, I know they are taking away the important language of that story. These words will allow them to challenge themselves, take responsible risks, and apply the lessons in class throughout their other classes.
I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. You are welcome to review my work and progress through my portfolio. However, as I continue to grow as a teacher, my classroom website is where I house most of my student learning and development. U of I taught me how to instill passion in students by meeting their needs and interests first, by examining their culture and embracing the beauty of where they come from. Connecting with and welcoming students to learning is the start of all of that.
Everything is a work in progress and I hope to add to this throughout the year. Until then, please use this webpage as a guide for what is going on in my classes and how I structure English Language Arts.
As I continue teaching, I realize how strongly it is my passion. A key aspect of that passion is the idea of learning, and not doing. Because of this aspect, I am incorporating the Standards-Based Learning mindset along with a growth mindset into my classroom. Having a Standards-Based Mindset means that rather than grading students on the completion or correctness of assignments, tasks, and projects, their grade comes from their ability to meet specific standards. That means LEARN. Learning must take place in order for students to continually reach new standards of knowledge and abilities. This also means that students must grow in order to earn they A that they are all striving for. When students transfer the language of their students into their speaking and writing, I know they are taking away the important language of that story. These words will allow them to challenge themselves, take responsible risks, and apply the lessons in class throughout their other classes.
I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. You are welcome to review my work and progress through my portfolio. However, as I continue to grow as a teacher, my classroom website is where I house most of my student learning and development. U of I taught me how to instill passion in students by meeting their needs and interests first, by examining their culture and embracing the beauty of where they come from. Connecting with and welcoming students to learning is the start of all of that.
Everything is a work in progress and I hope to add to this throughout the year. Until then, please use this webpage as a guide for what is going on in my classes and how I structure English Language Arts.