PERTH AMBOY — Lauren Marrocco starts each day in her fourth-grade classroom at Edward J. Patten School in Perth Amboy with a morning meeting where students interact, shake hands and learn to make eye contact, then share information about their home lives to work through any problems.
“Having a focus on character building has made a huge impact on how my students relate to me and one another,” said Marrocco, who got the idea for morning meetings from a colleague’s professor. Marrocco embraced the concept and found that it helped build healthy relationships.
“Unless you make a personal connection with each and every child in the classroom, the desire to learn won’t be as intense because students respond to relationships that are meaningful for them,” said Marrocco, who considers her day-to-day interaction with her students to be her greatest career accomplishment. “Every day allows me to build rapport with each of my students, leading to positive, productive and trustworthy relationships.”
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