I create in my classroom a learning environment which fosters, nurtures, and sustains the process of knowledge acquisition. Within the expectations established at the district and administrative level are made manifest my own expectations within these parameters. These expectations are then communicated effectively not only with students, but also with their families.
This standard begs the following questions: how does one support individual and collaborative learning? How does one facilitate positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation?
To begin to answer these, I present my first artifact, which is to state my first priority: to make my classroom warm, friendly, and student-focused by prominently and proudly displaying their work. My supervising teacher stated to me many times, teaching is parenting with content. As teachers, we are considered quite literally under the law, in “loco parentis”–obligated to take on some responsibilities and functions of a parent in the context of the classroom. Despite how adolescents developmentally are pulling away from the need to draw approval from significant adults and drawing predominantly approval from their peer groups, they are still children no less…who are still deeply desiring the approval from adults who guide them. And I witnessed this so many times during my student teaching experience…a student would bring me a piece of work, I would review it while they stood in wait, and then offer them an exclamation of authentic praise. I will never forget the way it felt to see their faces light up with joy. Even though they were striving to be so independent, so nearly grown…the child in them still thrived on the approval of an adult authority figure. So this is why you see as you look upon the photo above the look of excitement and pride on my face as I am hanging up these masks… I am indeed this excited and this proud of the work they have completed. And I know my students feel that. My students need to feel that, every single time they walk into my classroom. Their work will be displayed with pride. They will see the joy and excitement I have for being their teacher and experiencing the large and small successes they have in my classroom reflected to them from the four walls they inhabit. This reflection of the genuine pride and joy I have in their accomplishments is the foundation of all else. All positive social interaction, active engagement, individual and collaborative learning, and self-motivation begins with a classroom environment that (as is the case in good writing) “shows” students that they are so very loved, valued, and I am overjoyed to be their teacher.
So first, the environment. And then, rapport. From the first day, students will enter into a warm, joyful environment. And on that first day, I want to present myself as someone they can know.
I created this presentation that I used for my classes during student teaching to share a little about myself, my life, my children, my interests outside of school. I allowed them to ask me any (school appropriate) question they wanted. They were amused by this, and hands flew up left and right…what was my favorite flavor of popcorn? What kind of music did I like? And…where did I come from originally because I had a funny accent? They were genuinely curious, and providing this opening allowed them to know me better and see me as a friendly, kind person who was real and present with them.
At the end of the presentation, I offered them the opportunity to share three things they would like me to know about themselves:
“I love retro games; I listen to 60’s, 70’s, 80’s music; I love to look into the dark origins of Disney”
As they were curious to know more about me, they were likewise eager to share themselves with me.
A simple exercise, an investment of 15 minutes of classtime…this is the second core building block of establishing a positive learning environment in which learning can be supported, positive social interaction can be achieved, and self-motivation can be sustained.
Upon these elements the finer points can be established. The next area of importance in achieving this type of learning environment is in the layout of the room. Again, referring back to Gardner’s Theory, in any class there are going to be a mix of interpersonal (extroverts) and intrapersonal (introverts). There should always be a variety of activities to cater to each of these intelligences in intervals. As such, it is my preference to establish seating in pods or groups:
This is a sample layout of a seating chart I will use (the secondary teacher desk provided in the event I am so fortunate as to have a co-teacher). In this seating arrangement, both individual and collaborative learning can be supported. Positive social interaction is also a natural consequence; students are free to exchange ideas with one another during interpersonal-focused projects. I observed students in this particular set up in my supervising teacher’s classroom experiencing a greater and more active engagement in learning, and a higher degree of self-motivation than in classrooms I have experienced where desks were set apart in rows; in this set up, students appeared as if islands all alone, and being an island all alone in the midst of a subject area they might find very intimidating is quite a hindrance to productivity.
My Classroom Management Plan provides a detailed philosophy of how I create a demanding and responsive classroom environment. My use of the word “philosophy” here is intentional. I am at this time outlining my philosophies upon which my direct and indirect strategies for classroom management will be based. I have declined to include at this point any previously drawn up rules and stipulations or any that I may draw up based on my student teaching experience. For one, this is because every school is a unique entity with unique administrative expectations. I have been in one school where they had their own reasons for there being no restrictions on student cell phone usage whatsoever. I have been in another where cell phone usage was more strictly regulated. I want to first consider what the administration expects before designing rules. Secondly, I want to learn from my colleagues how they implement rules in their own classrooms, what they have found works and doesn’t work. I wish to bring the establishment of my expectations in alignment with that of the administration as well as the colleagues in my department. I feel that I would be erring in charging into a new environment with preconceived ideas of the specifics of the ways things should be done without considering how they are expected to be done by my superiors, and how they are currently being done by my colleagues. Allowing myself to flow into my new environment will best facilitate all that is expected to be upheld by this standard.