Learning Environments
“The teacher works with others to create environments that support individual and collaborative learning, and that encourage positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self motivation.”
I felt as though I did a decent job at meeting this standard. I knew very early on that I would need to work on motivating students and encourage them to work collaboratively. I have always felt that in order for students to succeed they needed more motivation than just grades. I remember when I was in high school, the classes that I succeeded in were the ones that I was motivated in. Whether I was motivated through a bond with a teacher, or through classroom activities these were the subjects I wanted to do well in and I did. This is a big reason why I am interested in teaching math and history. Those classes that I was motivated in had a ton of collaborative learning. This was something that I knew that I wanted to incorporate in my teaching from the very beginning. You can see this in my metaphor to the right. It says that I see the classroom as a field. I am the coach but it is up to each in individual as a part of the team to succeed.
I continued to make this an emphasis when I started my internship. We did many activities that required collaboration. On the first day we did a role-play in which I was the king and all of the students were members of parliament. They all had roles and I was making the point that even though they had a legislature there were things that I, the king, could do in order to control them. Other types of activities that we did that forced the students to work collaboratively were jigsaws and simulations. We also did a group project in which the students were required to make a campaign ad. During one of the simulations, in which students got to make laws for the classroom, they decided they did not like the way the seats were arranged. I was inclined to agree with them and signed the bill into law. I decided to stick with the idea of a collaborative environment and had the students sit in two semi-circles so that they could see each other. This arrangement was much more convenient for the type of class I want to run.
The one assignment that stands out from my classroom management classes is an assignment where I was asked to come up with a list of three to five rules that I would have in my classroom. I came up with one and my one rule was “You waste my time, you owe me time.” I thoroughly believe in this rule because it truly encompasses all other rules and if one student is acting out all you have to say is, “Are you wasting my time?” I will be sure to use this in my classroom next year.