Activity 4: Reflection on Classroom Climate
I’ve learned that the key to creating a positive
classroom begins on the very first day of class. Whatever rules that we set, the
expectations that we convey to the students, and how we respond to our students
and interact with them lays the foundation for how the students will behave for
the rest of the term.
I know that when I first started teaching, I was a
bit lax with my students and just wanted them to like me on the first day. Huge
mistake. It’s easier to be strict in the beginning and generally become more
lax than to go the other direction. When you start out lax and then try to
become stricter later on, the students become confused and frustrated since you’re
changing the world as they knew it. According to cfchildren.org, “Having classroom rules
helps you create a predictable, safe learning environment for your students.
Rules give your students clear boundaries and opportunities to practice
self-regulation and make good choices” (Key Factors, 2014).
Another
thing that I have learned and that I have become very strict about is making
sure that students respect one another and treat each other kindly. As cfchildren.org notes (Key Factors, 2014),
we need to promote positive peer relationships by responding when the students
exhibit positive behavior among themselves, and also carefully keeping track of
which students get along, which ones seem to be getting pushed to the edge of
the class, and which ones seem to fight the most. And then it’s up to us to
discretely patch up the relationships, point out positive things about certain
students, encourage leaders of the class to work with less-popular students,
etc.
An article from Edutopia also makes a good point
about how we should never say the word “wrong” to our students (Building, 2014).
We can ask them, “Maybe. Why do you think that is true?” (whether they give us
the wrong or correct answer). We can say, “Let’s look at your work/this
word/this problem again and go through the steps. There may have been a mistake
somewhere.” But when a student raises their hand and bravely volunteers and
answer, if we just say, “Wrong/Nope!” and move on to the next student, there’s
a good chance that that student, and other students in the classroom, will feel
less comfortable volunteering answers in the future if they’re cut off like
that and their idea/opinion/answer isn’t appreciated.
I also agree with cehd.umn.edu when they state that
making positive statements is very important, as is joining in with students
when they play games (Positive Classroom, 2014). I think we sometimes forget
how children see us – as teachers – and we don’t realize how important our
opinion is of them.
A positive remark or comment, either given quietly and
personally, or announced in front of the entire class, can make a student feel
like they did something really well, and that their teacher actually cares
about them.
Another way of showing this is by joining in activities with your
students. I love playing ball games with my students and they always seem to
have so much more fun when I’m playing as well. Even when we are writing
stories and passing them around in a circle, my students are more engage and
seem happier when I’m sitting in the circle with them and writing stories as
well. They look up to us and love spending time with us – if we build the right
rapport with them – and we can use that influence to help guide them into
becoming better, nicer people….if we would only take the time to think about how
each comment that we make and each look that we give affects our students, and
then try to improve every day in how we treat them as well.
References:
Building a Positive, Trusting Classroom
Environment. (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2014, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/building-positive-trusting-classroom-jose-vilson.
Key Factors in Creating a Positive Classroom
Climate Committee for Children. (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2014, from
http://www.cfchildren.org/advocacy/about-us/e-newsletter/articletype/articleview/articleid/7934/key-factors-in-creating-a-positive-classroom-climate.aspx.
Positive Classroom Environment and Student-
Teacher Rapport... preventing challenging behavior in the classroom. (n.d.). Retrieved
November 15, 2014, from
http://www.cehd.umn.edu/ceed/publications/tipsheets/preschoolbehavior/posclass.pdf.
No comments:
Post a Comment