I could develop a perfect lesson plan for each lesson throughout my day. I could meet all the state requirements, I could appeal to all learning types, and present the class with meaningful homework. All of these exemplary qualities and the hard work required to bring it to life, could all be in vain if I have not created the proper learning environment. As I look forward to designing my lesson plans and establishing my own classroom, I can think of five areas that I will focus on to do so effectively.
Physical Environment:
I should make every effort to create a classroom that is physically conducive to learning. Desks should be arranged in such a way that students can safely maneuver. I should try to eliminate all areas in the class in which students could potentially use to get off task. During lecture I should place desks in neat even rows, while during class discussion I could arrange them in a semi-circle to better facilitate, and during group work I could allow the students to move desks. I also think it is important to maintain a neat and orderly class in order to demonstrate that I take pride in my class.
Good Relationships
It is important to develop good and proper relationships with your students. I can do that by demonstrating that I respect my students opinions and their diverse situations in life. Establishing a good relationship with each student will not only make class time more productive, but I will also be in a better position to meet certain needs of my students that I ordinarily would not be able to address.
Classroom Community
I want to develop a sense of classroom community within each of my classes. It is important to allow students to have self-autonomy and self-competency. One way for me as a teacher to do that is to ensure each student as a role in the class and can contribute to the overall classroom activities. I can also give my students the ability to make some decisions for themselves. For example, I can ask my students which date they would like the end of the semester project to be due.
Setting Proper Limits
Teachers also need to dictate a few simple limits to their students, and they need to do so early. It will be important for me to make these limits to eliminate the possibility of major disruption to student learning, in addition to removing the likelihood of physical or psychological threats, such as bullying. These limits should be applied consistently and incrementally depending on the severity of the transgression.
Taking Differences into Account
Students come from a wide variety of ethnic, economic, and cultural backgrounds. While these demographic differences often enhances the learning environment better, it can present unique challenges for teachers. For example, students from different cultures often require different interactions with their teachers. It is important to understand these differences and use that knowledge to make each student feel comfortable and welcome.
I really like your comment about arranging the desks in rows during lecture. From experience, I know it's just so hard to take notes sitting sideways from the chalkboard!
ReplyDeleteI really like the layout of your blog! I also think that it is important to demonstrate neat and orderly behavior for students, but it is something that I know that I will struggle with. It is also hard to just pick five things - hopefully we will use all of the strategies that we learned, not just five. I don't know that it will be possible to eliminate all areas where students can be off-task, but it is worth a try! :)
ReplyDeleteIt is so important to the students that you yourself are showing discipline and structure. If you are late returning papers, careless in grading, slack on presentation or are not prepared the students feel as though they dont have to give full effort as well. Great point!
ReplyDeleteMatthew, I agree with the areas in which you would attend to in creating an environment conducive to learning. I especially liked the way you introduced these areas by explaining how you could spend all this time creating perfect lesson plans but if you don't pay attention to the "learning environment" it could all be in vain. That is so true and it also calls us to be balanced and aware of so many different aspects of our students, classroom and role as teachers. The only area that I may question (and I think it may depend on the age in which you are teaching) is arranging your desks for lecture and then rearranging them for small group discussion. That may be difficult to do unless you are dealing with older students. :)
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