I. My Foundation:
A classroom needs to be welcoming and inclusive to all students. Each child needs to feel like a valuable part of the class and have a role in the dynamic of the class. Therefore, my classroom will be based off the Responsive Classroom model because I believe that the five components of responsive classroom are essential in creating a community where everyone feels like they belong and are comfortable to take risks.
Fourth graders tend to have plenty of energy and are beginning to enjoy socializing with peers. Therefore, creating a safe and caring environment is essential for the psychological needs for the children. They need to feel excepted and feel like they are needed. Having the students get involve in their education
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It teaches students work habits and social skills, which are just as important to the academic material of school. Furthermore, allowing students to make choices in their learning will show them that learning can be fun when you enjoy what you are learning about. This provides students the ability to learn in ways that they find comfortable, most rewarding, and interesting. In addition, it provides them with the power to control their own learning process instead of having an authority figure demanding that they learn in always that are not enjoyable to the student. Every student is different and learns differently. Providing academic choices allows students of all developmental levels find a way of learning that is most effective for themselves. Cooperative learning groups will also encourage positive interdependent amongst the students, help students work on face to face contact, help students work on individual and group accountability, interpersonal and small group skills, and group processing. Therefore, students learn how to work with others as well as individually, two important skills students need to learn while in
In order for effective cooperative learning to occur five essential elements are needed; positive interdependence, face-to-face interactions, individual accountability, social skills and group processing. (Johnson, 1999, p. 70-71). Social skills being the foundation to achieving all other elements required, without this set of skills the individual learner will find it difficult to cooperate with others. Thompson (1996) “social skills are paramount to applying cooperative learning to academic tasks” (p. 84).
In a classroom, the class is a single unit, and teachers teach to the class’s needs, rather than to each individual students’ needs. I enjoy being able to work individually with students in order to cater my teaching toward each one’s specific needs so that I can instill them with passion for each subject.
In my class, we respect ourselves and take care of one another. I will encourage my students to try their personal best in every situation they find themselves in. I will remind students that your personal best effort does not look like your neighbors. I will structure my classroom environment so students can easily collaborate and form positive relationships with one another. The structure of my classroom environment will be full of warmth, patience, and humor creating an environment that is welcoming, safe, and fun for my students. We will look out for another and help one another reach our fullest potential individually, academically, and socially.
The space and area in which a child is learning must be accommodating to all of their needs. A responsive environment is a space of any size that is set up and presented in a manner that promotes social-emotional development, physical development, spiritual development, intellectual/cognitive and language/literacy skills. It is important that the class or room promotes a healthy learning environment which allows the children to be independent while still pushing their skills and abilities. Environments are able to shape and direct a child’s learning experience, “We now know that the environment is a valuable teacher if it is amiable, comfortable, pleasing, organized, clean, inviting and engaging…This is true of floor space, ceiling, and wall space” (Krentz, Emerita, & University of Regina, 2013, p.44).
These strategies assist both teachers and students to attain an inclusive classroom
Furthermore, I intend to exemplify this through articulating a past experience and expand on what effect this scenario had on how I saw the classroom. Following on from this I will expand on what adaptability looks like in the classroom. To conclude I will reflect on how my views and thinking have changed in doing this assignment and evaluate what impact being adaptable can have on a classroom and the school environment both positively and negatively. Adaptability for me is a vital trait that all excelling teachers should possess as they must take unexpected classroom management situations and making sure they find
Classroom management plays an important role in effective teaching by providing a desirable environment which promotes better learning and student growth. The most important effect that classroom management has on student behavior is that it promotes better learning because students can better focus when their environment is free from distraction and conflict. When a teacher provides a well-organized and controlled environment, student’s academics interest and performance increase while behavioral issues decreased (Pope, 2010). One classroom management technique I plan to use in my future classroom setting will include the use of cooperative learning. According to Maher (2010), cooperation learning leads to higher group and individual achievement, higher-quality reasoning strategies, more frequent transfer of these from the group to individual members, greater metacognitive skills, and more new ideas and problem-solving. Students will be assigned heterogeneous groups with a mixture of high achievers with low achievers. Groups will also be created to ensure diversity between gender and ethnicity.
As a new teacher preparing to embark upon what I hope will be a long-lasting, rewarding career in education, I want to create an inclusive, stimulating and collegial climate in my classroom. I plan to make sure that all my students feel valued, and contribute actively to the knowledge, interactions, learning and interests shared by the class. However, I appreciate that as a new, inexperienced teacher I could encounter or unintentionally create barriers that undermine my vision of an inclusive classroom. Although systems will operate in any school setting that can help or hinder inclusive practices, I believe it is my responsibility to ensure that every student in my care has high aspirations, and experiences success at school regardless of the school context.
During my Professional Seminar II and Field Experience I observed in Mary Doe’s 4th grade classroom. During this observation I witnessed the effects of a learning environment that was designed by the students for the students.
I believe it is equally important to have a classroom that is student-centered. I do not imagine my classroom arranged with rows of seated desks all facing the front of the classroom. Instead, I think that students should have the opportunity to work amongst their peers in small groups, studying a wide array of topics. Students will not be required to focus their attention on on...
This is a time of rapid physical growth and development. Primary grade children are very active and have difficulty in sedentary activities during the learning process (Snowman, McCown, & Biehler, 2012, p. 80). Think about when you have seen children out at recess in the primary grade level. These children look like they are running around like wild animals. They have so much energy built up and need to release it. When children participate in sedentary activities they must release energy and a lot of times it is in the form of nervous habits. This could be for example pencil chewing, fingernail biting and just general fidgeting and being antsy (Snowman, McCown, & Beihler, 2012, p. 80). You will want to try to avoid these behaviors, because they may become distractions for the student, other peers, or even you while the learning process is going on (Madsen, Hicks, & Thompson, 2011). Try to avoid situations where students are just sitting at their desks for long periods of time. At this age children need frequent breaks and time to get up and move around (Howell, Sulak, Bagby, Diaz & LaNette, 2013, p. 16). This could even be done by having students take items to your desk or baskets, just something to get them mov...
Strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in learning allow the teacher to help students who struggle to become involved in class and who struggle to engage in the learning material. Finally, organisation of the classroom and providing directions to learners managing challenging behaviour is highly important to create a positive and creative workspace that allows students to want to learn and to reduce bullying in the class.
My goal as a teacher is to improve my student’s education and help them grow knowledgably. I like to see students at different levels develop with each other and learn. I want to challenge the students and watch them grow to their highest level of education. Therefore, having the students in groups is the best educational strategy I like to use a lot. I want my students to have freedom with whatever creativity they want, and to allow them to express themselves at any time. With this freedom students will be able to experiment with likes and dislikes and be able to figure their weaknesses and strengths. Education is for everyone and it’s a right by low for all; teachers, on the other hand, should do their jobs very honestly and effectively.
“A good teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary” (Thomas Carruthers). Before we can consider ourselves professional teachers or even an expert teacher, we must first understand the way in which our students learn, how they are motivated to learn and what kind of environment would support their best learning. These questions have long been pondered by psychologists and teachers alike. As a pre-service teachers, I believe it is important for us to also begin considering these questions and take them into account for our future teaching practices. Moreover, in order for meaningful learning to occur and remain relevant for our students, we need to create a safe and inclusive learning environment. I believe this environment of safe and inclusive education is created through three key areas. These areas consist of the different facets of a child’s motivation and the idea of scaffolding particularly in regards to information processing.
The application of collaborative learning strategies is a process in which two or more students work together. Collaborative strategies will be used in planning, translating and reviewing the education process to form student learning through group-oriented activities. This source will also be useful in lesson planning to help explain how collaborative learning strategies in the classroom will help students in the learning process improve by interaction; how positive interdependence of collaborative learning leads to common responsibility; how collaborative learning builds students’ self-esteem, and confidence in students. This application recommends that collaborative learning strategies can be implemented with Jig-saw technique as well as in learning technology which can be accessible to all participants working in cooperative groups (Iqbal, Kousar, and Ajmal, 2011).