This ethnographic narrative follows my journey as a fifth grade teacher in the greater Los Angeles area. The purpose of this ethnography is to follow the development of my journey as a first-year teacher. In this ethnography, I explore my positionality and the levels of community, school, and classroom as ways to inform and improve my teaching practices as a social-justice educator. I begin this four part narrative by discussing my positionality and how it relates to my desires of becoming a teacher. Through this narrative, I was then able to conduct three case studies of students with different identities and needs. As I studied my students’ environments: community, school, classroom, and home, I learned of the importance that student-teacher relationships have on student academic achievement and socio-emotional well-being. This ethnographic narrative, however, was abruptly interrupted by a global pandemic as a result of COVID-19. There were nationwide school closures and schooling resulted in distance learning. COVID-19 was a true testament that a successful classroom ecology and positive student-teacher relationships are key to academic excellence whether it is in a physical or virtual classroom.
Classroom Ecology, Social Justice Educator, Greater Los Angeles, Pandemic, Distance Learning, Curriculum and Instruction, Curriculum and Social Inquiry, Early Childhood Education, Educational Methods, Elementary Education, Elementary Education and Teaching, Online and Distance Education, Pre-Elementary, Early Childhood, Kindergarten Teacher Education
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