One thing that my classroom mentor emphasized since the first day of school is the importance of building a classroom community within each individual class as well as across all of the classes she teaches. Her main focus was to establish a supportive, positive space for students to enter each day. Because math can be a subject with very polarized opinions about it, my mentor took time on the first day to discuss that she understood this with her students. However, she relayed to them that she wanted to use this year as a time for students to put aside any negative feelings they may have towards math from prior experiences and to move forward this year with a more positive attitude. I think that by having this conversation from the start, the students were able to see how my classroom mentor genuinely cares about their experience in the class and how she wants them to be successful this year and in years to come in math.
Not only did my mentor focus on creating a positive environment for students to work in, but she wanted to emphasize the idea of student mindset. She felt it was very important to establish a community that is constantly working to put their best effort forward and work to improve their skills. Students were encouraged to always enter the classroom with a positive attitude and ready to learn each day, and they understood that they are able to take a break to get back on track if they feel they’re struggling to be positive. I think that bringing this conversation of attitude and work ethic into the classroom not only improves classroom culture and community, but it also enforces the expectations my mentor has for her students. All students know that they are expected to give 100% effort at all times, and it is their responsibility to try to meet this expectation each day. Because my mentor has taken time to establish themes of positivity in the community through expectations of each individual, I feel that my mentor has shown her students an ethic of care. By taking the time to create this space for her students, she has demonstrated some of the ways she is willing to support them within her classroom. I think demonstrating this care is what good student-teacher relationships should look like in schools. Being a supportive teacher does not mean that you are best friends with your students or that you are going easy on your students to scaffold their learning; in my opinion, a teacher who has supportive relationships with his or her students institutes high expectations for the students to achieve and is there as a resource in scaffolding their journey to meet these expectations. Creating a positive, safe, and challenging environment has seemed to create immense respect in the relationships between my classroom mentor and her students, and these types of relationships are something I want to try to emulate as a teacher in my own practice.
1 Comment
As a high school student, I never considered just how much time and planning a teacher spends on his or her room design. In many of my classes, I was seated in rows usually with my desk isolated from others; however, in some classes I may have been seated at a table with one or two other students or even a grouping of four desks together. I can remember for the most part, I was seated in a group in more elementary or middle level classrooms with high school having much more individualized seating arrangements. This year though in my classroom, the students’ desks are arranged in tables of four, with each table angled in a way that all students can easily view all boards in the front of the classroom (see attached floor plan). Initially, I was worried that this arrangement might be detrimental to student learning because of the ease in which students can communicate with each other. I definitely believe that peer collaboration is excellent for student learning, but this setup could also open the door for distraction and side conversation during class time. During my first two weeks of observation and beginning to become more involved in the classroom, I have made sure to pay particular attention to how the physical setup of the room effects student learning and participation in the class in both positive and negative ways. Setting up the classroom in the days leading up to the first day of school, I was considering both sides of our room’s layout. The groups of tables promoted student collaboration on both assignments and group projects, and they would allow for discussion and help amongst peers. The spacing between groups of tables also allowed for the teaching team to move easily amongst the tables to listen in on conversation, provide help to students, and simply walk between groups. These aspects, in my opinion, are crucial for a positive classroom environment. On the other hand, this setup can give students the ability to collaborate and talk with each other when it may not be appropriate. Students sitting this close together can be a distraction even when the basis of an activity is group work (like one group member being off task). After two weeks in the classroom, I have seen both the positive and negative aspects of this seating arrangement occur. My classroom mentor really pushed the students to learn from each other, and she has established a very strong collaborative environment. So I think the way she wanted the classroom laid out is perfect for this purpose. Unfortunately, I have also noted instances of student learning being disrupted due to students interacting with each other when they should not have been talking. Whether this is due to the physical layout of the desks or the personality of the students, I am not entirely sure, but I would infer that the setup does make it a bit easier. The spacing between groups did make it easy for any of the teaching team members to address the students involved and get them back on task. Because my classroom mentor emphasizes student collaboration, I believe that this layout is very valuable for students despite the potential negatives. Although it has only been two weeks of school, the positives from this physical space seem to already far outweigh the negatives that could arise. The students in the room have easy access to each other as well as the teaching staff when they need help with individual and group work, and they are able to direct their attention to the boards at the front of the room when they need to. Along with the arrangement of seating, our classroom is full of displays of student work around the walls and bulletin boards. I think these displays are great for showing students examples of expectations and also providing guidance for various tasks. There is a round table as well as a couch in the back of the room that allow for different workspaces other than student desks. I think the addition of these seating areas is great for the times we split the students into differentiated group work, and I definitely think this type of room design is something I will incorporate into my future classrooms. Now that I have seen the teacher side of what goes into the physical space of the classroom, I am interested to continue to observe other classrooms and see how their layouts help or potentially hinder student learning.
This year, I will be student teaching in both Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 classrooms mostly comprised of ninth and tenth grade students. The first few days of class were spent discussing classroom procedures, expectations, and general policies, with a large emphasis on classroom culture and community. While I expected all of these topics to be covered within the first few days of class, I was not sure what to expect in terms of how in depth these classroom policies would be covered for each subject and grade level. In the Algebra 2 class, consisting of mainly tenth grade students, there was an explicit review of the syllabus in order to explain the procedures, expectations, grading policies, etc. However, with the ninth grade students in Algebra 1, there was no formal discussion of the syllabus as a whole; the information would be presented to them on a “need to know” basis, and they were encouraged to review the syllabus brochure on their own. It surprised me that the students who were newest to the school were given the least structured explanation of the classroom policies, while the older students had a more regimented review. Initially, I thought that it would have occurred in the opposite way with the more experienced and older students being expected to review on their own while the newer students would have a more focused explanation. After discussing with my mentor, I understood exactly why she had chosen to review policies in the way that she did. As first year students, the ninth graders were probably being bombarded with new information in every class on their first few days of school; thus, introducing policies based on what the students need to know at that given time allows them to process and remember the policies better. This idea really resonated with me because as a first year high school and even college student, I wish more of my teachers had this mentality in order to prevent overwhelming students with a wealth of information all at once. This “need to know” introduction to classroom procedures, expectations, and policies will definitely be incorporated into my future practice. One aspect of the classroom that was discussed in detail in all classes during the day was the expectations for the students. These expectations, at a high level, related directly to the three major school wide expectations: respect yourself, respect your peers, and respect the school as a learning place. Many of the more specific classroom policies fell within these parameters, which I feel is very helpful for the students to see how each individual classroom and the specific procedures within each one make up the school’s learning community as a whole. By following these three major expectations, the students should then be able to excel in each classroom as well as within the school. Within these categories, attendance and attitude expectations were discussed in more detail indicating their importance to the teacher and learning environment. In terms of attendance, students learned that they are expected to be in class each day and be on time; by not being prompt, students will be missing out on important information as well as disrespecting each other and the teacher. As I observed this conversation with the students, I noticed that my mentor did not have these expectations posted anywhere in the classroom, but they could be found in the syllabus handouts. I felt that this tactic can be very successful with students in that they are being entrusted to remember these expectations and abide by them instead of having a poster hung on the wall that they may or may not pay attention to. Another critical aspect in the expectations for the classroom was the discussion of daily routines and procedures students should follow. Upon entering class, students were expected to enter with a positive attitude, greet each other and the teachers, and make their way to their seats to begin the daily warm-up problem. My mentor placed a lot of focus on the students’ attitudes and mindsets while they are in math class during the first few days of school. Students completed an activity that categorized the type of mindset each student has, between either a fixed mindset or growth mindset. The goal of this activity was to show the students that while not all aspects of math class throughout the year will be easy for everyone, having a growth mindset, where continuous effort and positive attitude will result in progress throughout the year, will be beneficial for the learning community. My mentor emphasized that if at any point the students feel that their mindset is fixed, i.e. they cannot do or succeed in a particular activity, she encouraged them to step out of the classroom to take a breath and refocus into the correct mentality. By cultivating an environment that encourages positivity and effort-based success, I look forward to seeing how students approach the classroom and their work this year.
|
Author20 something year old. Pittsburgh native. Pennsylvania explorer. Graduate student. Aspiring teacher. Archives
March 2016
Categories |