Standard 5:
Learning Environment
Teachers create learning environments that promote high levels of learning and achievement for all students
5.1 Teachers treat all students fairly and establish an environment that is respectful, supportive and caring.
I am passionate about treating all students in a fair and compassionate manner. I do not tolerate discrimination or the sharing of hateful and hurtful opinions. I set the tone for acceptable behavior in my classroom at the start of the year when I go over my rules with students. We talk extensively about the right to voice your opinion and the right for others to feel safe and welcomed in the learning environment. Here is an example of a syllabus I have used in the past. It shows that I set the tone right away and I do not tolerate misbehavior.
5.2 Teachers create an environment that is physically and emotionally safe.
I have participated in ALICE training. Each of my classes practices our threat procedures several times throughout the year. I always keep a fire drill sign and a map of the building posted in my classroom. I also keep my door locked (at the request of school administration) to help in the chaos of a potential attack against the school. Aside from these physical procedures, I create a classroom where all students feel welcomed and loved. I go out of my way to get to know each of my students as people. I love learning about their lives outside of school and their interests. When I connect with my students on this level, they feel safe to take the risks I ask them to take in the classroom. I am passionate about creating a learning environment with autonomy in the classroom. It’s not unusual for me to give students options on how they would like to complete an assignment. When students feel they have some control in the learning, they feel safe because they feel valued and important. The attached document here is an example of a final project that I gave my students after reading Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Students could pick the types of projects they completed and even come up with their own projects to show their understanding and appreciation of different aspects of the play.
5.3 Teachers motivate students to work productively and assume responsibility for their own learning.
I love putting students in the driver’s seat for their education. I believe providing autonomy for students is the best way to motivate them to work their hardest. I will frequently send students in the right direction for information I want them to learn about while allowing them to come to their own conclusions and make their own points. One way I show this is through my Spring 2015 Midterm for students.
When students arrived to class, I told them I had a very important announcement. I revealed that I had been elected as the newest US Congresswoman representing West Virginia. I told them I had a very important meeting tomorrow and one of the topics on the agenda was Do Violent Video Games Make Children Violent? I let them know that there was no way I could prepare my stance before tomorrow with everything on my agenda as a congresswoman. So, I needed their help as my chiefs of staff. They were to take the five articles I provided them and use them to form my stance on violent gaming. They had one class period to crunch the data and annotate the sources. They had one class period to write their response/stance for my platform. The students got behind the idea quickly, but I assured them that as a US Congresswoman, my stance must be rooted in evidence and fact. Not just their opinion!
5.4 Teachers create learning situations in which students work independently, collaboratively and/or as a whole class.
There were times that as a new teacher, group work intimidated me. Now, I utilize group work frequently in my class without problem because of my classroom management skills. I like to do assignments where students may start the initial phases of a project with a group (like research) to help lighten the burden. Then I like to move on with the project having students work on their own to complete the final step of the task, to ensure their work is really reflective of what they can do. After reading The Book Thief as a class, I knew I wanted the students to reflect upon the duality of humanity shown in the novel. Student worked in groups to complete a characterization guide for each of the characters in the novel. The organizer helped them explore the “ugly” and “beauty” in each character. Students could work in groups and collaborate to come up with ideas and find the research which best fit each character. Then, students worked independently with the research to create an essay which connected the characters and drew a conclusion about the author’s intention when showing the duality of the characters.
This allowed me to get a feel for exactly where each independent student was with their writing skills, but still let them work together while brainstorming and coming up with ideas to maximize creativity.
5.5 Teachers maintain an environment that is conducive to learning for all students.
I have participated in the adoption of new text books for the 2016-2017 school year. I was approached to review the two text book options and give my honest feed back on which would work best for our students. I sat down with each series of books and provided an analysis of what books would work best for our students and why.
I also have voted yearly on scheduling and calendars for my district.