Community Supports

In order for Sangita to foster a community environment in her classroom, she relies on various members of the larger community context for support. Collaboration with teachers, parents, and her principal serves as an invaluable resource to the classroom community. In the video to the right, Sangita discusses how teacher collaboration has supported community building in her classroom.

Teacher collaboration and
community building

Parental Support

“At the end of our writing units we have publishing parties. The parents come to these sometimes and they are private parties for just our class. The students definitely have so much pride when they show their writing to their parents. The parents are a big support. I have their pieces of writing on the table. There is a comment sheet next to them. They walk around and read each other’s pieces. One thing that always surprises people is that although we have food and drinks; the students never spill anything on the pieces. They feel that they’ve worked hard on the pieces, they’re proud of themselves.”

Description of the writing unit displayed to the left is available in PDF format.

Principal's Support and Collaboration with Colleagues

The principal at PS 29, Melanie Woods, supports Sangita and her colleagues by giving them opportunities to collaborate and engage in professional development activities.

Sangita comments about collaborating with Frank Thomas, a third grade teacher at PS 29, "Melanie has given Frank and I common planning time and common professional development opportunities. We've said to her that we were more interested in learning about talk and so she supports us in giving us coverage if we want to observe each other's practice. Her making those opportunities available has been really helpful."

The picture to the right demonstrates an activity created in collaboration with Frank Thomas. His students developed math word problems for Sangita's students to solve.