KSA #7: CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENTS
"Teachers create and maintain environments that are conducive to student learning."
I strive to know to meet students' needs for physical, social, cultural and psychological security while knowing how and when to apply a variety of management strategies that provide for minimal disruptions to learning.
LEARNING EXPECTATIONS POSTERS
The images above are expectations posters created by students in ELA 10-2 and 20-1. I used the online program PollEverywhere and had students respond to the the question: What is one learning expectation or rule that we can all share as a class?. Students texted their answers to a live poll on the smartboard. After all responses were received, I used the online tool Tagul to generate a word cloud that enlarged the most frequent words in students' answers. For example, a large majority of responses in the ELA 10-2 class included "Come to class on time", "Come to class prepared", etc. which the wordcloud summarized with the word "Come". Respect was a key expectation in the class, as well as valuing time. In the ELA 20-1, it was interesting to see different expectations- students in this class emphasized the importance of listening when someone was speaking as a sign of respect.
Before generating the word clouds for each class,the students and I discussed all of their responses to foster a positive and mutual agreement to such expectations. The word clouds were then enlarged and displayed on the wall as class posters. These simple but effective posters held students accountable for their actions and improved classroom management . Students knew what the expectations were, recognized if they weren't followed, and sought ways to respect 'rules' they created themselves.
Before generating the word clouds for each class,the students and I discussed all of their responses to foster a positive and mutual agreement to such expectations. The word clouds were then enlarged and displayed on the wall as class posters. These simple but effective posters held students accountable for their actions and improved classroom management . Students knew what the expectations were, recognized if they weren't followed, and sought ways to respect 'rules' they created themselves.