Classroom Environment Plan

Classroom Environment Plan Lamia Ghannam Grand Valley State University

Classroom Environment Plan As a teaching assistant at Michigan State University, I always started the semester by telling my students that in my classroom, the most important thing is respect. If you respect yourselves, respect each other, respect me, and I respect you, I know that we will have an excellent semester together. Now, as a teaching assistant in middle school and high school, I tell my students the same thing. I truly believe that as long as there is mutual respect in the classroom, there will be a lot fewer problems with discipline and behavior. It also helps to create a safe environment where my students will feel safe to take risks, make mistakes, learn from their mistakes, and grow. I will create this environment by stating my policy on respect on the first day of school, writing it in the syllabus, and posting respect posters around my classroom. In French, we are lucky because we usually have students who chose to be in our classes. Because they are not forced to take the class, we do not have as many behavior problems as other classes. When I do have a student who is misbehaving, I try to talk to him/her to see why he/she is misbehaving. If we can find the root of the problem together, it is a lot easier to find a solution. By talking to the student instead of immediately punishing him/her, it shows that I value and respect him/her. Harry and Rosemary Wong write, You are important to me as a person is a message that we all need to convey to our students and our colleagues every day (64). Sharing that message, I believe, it will minimize future problems. Having established a safe and respectful environment will help to keep a learning culture in the classroom. When kids are not worried about making mistakes and being laughed at, they will be more likely to take risks and learn from them. Keeping a learning environment is a necessary aspect of every class. In French, as in other subjects, learning can sometimes be

Classroom Environment Plan boring. Repeating vocabulary words and taking grammar notes everyday will not stimulate learning. That is why I often incorporate music, videos, games, and a variety of activities into my lessons. By varying the types of activities throughout the hour, my students are more engaged and that creates a learning culture in the classroom. Technology is an important part of my learning culture. I often use the computer and projector to play songs and videos. Sometimes I use PowerPoints for presenting new material. When smart boards are available, I use them for games and activities as well. My district uses Power School to post grades for students and their parents. This allows them to see if they have missing work to turn in or a test that needs to be made up. As a teacher in Forest Hills, I am able to give students opportunities to use technology outside of the classroom since I know that the majority of them have computers and internet at home. I would use Coursesites in my high school classes to share articles, videos, and other sources with my students, especially in higher level classes such as AP. If I teach somewhere that is not as wealthy as Forest Hills, I would not do that because I dont want to put those students without access to computers at a disadvantage. Organization is another important part of my classroom environment. I have noticed that posting classroom procedures for the students to see every day helps keep everything organized and flowing smoothly. Wong and Wong write, The effective teacher has the assignment posted daily, posts the assignment in a consistent location, informs the class where to find the assignment, is a leader in promoting schoolwide procedures (130). That is something I will always do in my classroom. Besides that, my desk must always be organized otherwise I am worried that I will lose lesson plans or students assignments. I will have shelves

Classroom Environment Plan separated by hours for students to hand in assignments and different ones for extra handouts. Finally, my desks will be organized into groups. Because we do a lot of group activities in class, it is a lot more efficient to keep the students in groups instead of individual desks or rows and having them move each time there is a new activity. I have read many authors and educators ideas on classroom management. There are three that I feel really connected with me. The first is Robert Marzano. While reading the article, Art and Science of Teaching/Classroom Management: Whose Job is it? I came across a line that touched me more than anything else I had read up to that point. Marzano wrote, To provide an atmosphere that challenges students, the teacher must behave in a way that indicates that he or she expects all students to accomplish great things intellectually. Teachers can do this by asking all students challenging questions and using student answers as fodder for delving into and honoring each student's thinking (85). When I read this, it made me really step back and think about how Ive been teaching. Am I honoring each students thinking? I was not. After having read that, I now make sure that I give every student the time, thought, and effort he or she deserves into my feedback before moving on. By doing this, I have already noticed a positive change in my teaching and my students learning. Corwin and Mendler are two others who have influenced my teaching. Their philosophy of discipline with dignity is one that I use in my classroom. Curwin and Mendler point out that students with chronic behavior problems see themselves as losers and have stopped trying to gain acceptance in normal ways. In order to maintain a sense of dignity, these students tell themselves it is better to stop trying than to continue failing, and that it is better to be recognized as a troublemaker than to be seen as stupid. Students try to protect their dignity at

Classroom Environment Plan all costs. Teachers must take pains, therefore, to keep dignity intact and bolster it when possible (124). By keeping in constant communication with these students and keeping trust between us, I can ensure that they keep their dignity while also learning in my class. If they trust that I am there to help them and I keep that trust by always providing positive motivation, we can keep a safe learning environment. One example of discipline with dignity that I have used in my classroom is with one seventh grade student. I will call him Mike. Before every quiz the class has had this semester, he has asked me questions like How low of a score can I get and still pass? or made comments like I dont know this, I am going to fail. I spoke with my mentor teacher about this. I told her that he seems to lack motivation and self-confidence. She said that its not so much that he lacks self-confidence, it is more that kids think that its cool to be dumb. He would rather keep his dignity and act like it is okay to fail a quiz than admit to not understanding the material. When teachers recognize this and follow Curwin and Mendlers plan for discipline with dignity and positive motivation, this type of situation can be greatly reduced if not completely eliminated. It is what I intend to do in my own classroom one day. One last author whose methods I would like to include in my classroom environment is Linda Albert. Her article, Discipline Through Belonging, Cooperation, and Self Control discusses methods to keep discipline in the classroom. She writes that discipline occurs best when teachers and students work together to establish a classroom that is safe, orderly, and inviting, provide students with a sense of connectedness and belonging, and turn all behavior mistakes into opportunities for learning. Albert uses her Three Cs method to keep discipline in the classroom: I can, contributing, and connected. She also provides us with some strategies to avoid and defuse confrontations such as her Six D conflict resolution plan. There

Classroom Environment Plan are many strengths to Alberts method. It gives the students responsibility for their actions while also keeping the classroom a safe place. She also makes sure that when a student is misbehaving, the teacher is to focus on the behavior and not the student. Her methods are practical because they address discipline and misbehavior in a way that is fair and easy to understand for the student and easy to implement for the teacher. I can see myself using this in my future classrooms. I like how it includes the student in the discussion of their behavior. This allows the student to see exactly why he/she may be in trouble rather than just sending them to the principals office or talking to their parents. As I mentioned above, it also shows the students that they are valued and respected. With mutual respect, strong relationships, discipline, technology, and organization, I am certain I can maintain a happy, safe, and comfortable environment for learning to take place. I continue to learn more and more every day and I hope that I can become a teacher that my students will remember forever.

Classroom Environment Plan References Albert, L. (2008). Building Classroom Discipline (pp. 93-99). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc. Retrieved October 6, 2013 Curwin, R. L., & Mendlar, A. (1988). Discipline with Dignity. Retrieved October 14, 2013 Marzano, R. J. (2011, October). Art and Science of Teaching/Classroom Management: Whose Job is it? Educational Leadership, 69(2), 85-86. Retrieved October 14, 2013 Wong, H. K., & Wong, R. T. (2009). The First Days of School: How to be an Effective Teacher (pp. 64-130). Mountain View, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications.