Carrie Lee's Portfolio
InTASC* Standard 3:
Learning Environments
SUMMARY
OF
CONTENTS
EVIDENCE SUPPORTING STATEMENT
- Learning Rooms
- Closing Routine Examples Slides
- Optimistic Closing Routine Video
- Monday Mental Health Check-ins w/ Student Replies
- APA References
- Updated: October 24, 2021
- Language: English
“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,” (CCSO, 2013)
The InTASC learning environments portion of the InTASC standards is about knowing the students as individual learners, and what needs must be met to foster a classroom environment and culture that supports the growth that needs to occur in that space (CCSO, 2013). This InTASC standard applies to the space design, the norms of behavior, the consistency of the responses to behaviors. It is also necessary to recognize the individual learners as members of the classroom community with a powerful role to play in creating and supporting a healthy culture. The development of relationships between both the teacher and students, as well as between the students themselves, are crucial to crafting an engaging and rich experience (Knoster, 2013). “Students often gain initial insights about their general competence in a certain domain from their own success and failures in that domain” (Ormrod et al., 2019). Be those successes in the social aspect of the classroom, or in the academic area, I model and encourage learning from mistakes and growing. In modeling and communicating this, the classroom becomes a safe place to both make mistakes to learn from and celebrate successes for every student .
Learning environments have a tangible aspect in the actual furnishings and layout of the physical classroom and an argument could be made that should also include any visual or virtual classroom environment. The truly intangible aspect of a learning environment is more difficult to articulate. A classroom where the students and teacher have worked together to establish a climate where learning can occur, and students feel a sense of belonging and safety. In my studies on classroom management studies, I was introduced to The Teacher’s Pocket Guide for Effective Classroom Management by Tim Knoster, Ed.,D. Knoster not only has extensive experience in teacher training and higher education, but has also spent many years in schools, and more specifically in the classroom. The plain-spoken, easy-to-digest strategies are not just logical but are evidence-based. One of the pieces I took from his guide was the three-pronged approach “1. Rapport, 2. Clear expectations 3. Reinforcement of expectations” (2013). Bearing that in mind, I began building relationships with the students from the start. I was able to establish my own version in the fall of 2021 as I took the reigns of the classes from my mentor teacher. My prongs are:
- Rapport & Modeling: Caring with healthy boundaries. Shown through purposeful outreach to each student, sharing myself, expressing feelings calmly, and modeling respect and consideration (to name a few – there is a lot to this). Modeling the behavior desired.
- Communication, Transparency, and consistency. High expectations require honest communication and accountability. This includes reinforcements. Everyone knows the rules of the road.
- Predictable routines and organization, utilizing prevention strategies of classroom management, consistent and calm provide the base we can build on.
Routines and communication practices are embedded daily in the opening and closing procedures of the lessons and activities I create (see slides in closing routine to the right). This also applies to the expectations the students have the I will digital materials in the time frame promised in the predictable locations within Canvas (that we have practiced access of).
The practice of sharing with healthy boundaries and modeling some of the social-emotional learning behaviors targets for the age group is found in the design of the weekly and daily routines or framework that I craft for these classes. An example that perfectly represents the implementation of such an activity is my Monday mental health check-in (see right bottom), a weekly opportunity to share appropriately, build community, and practice skills that support both target one (self-awareness emotion identification) and four (social-awareness practice of empathy) of the Washington state social-emotional learning standards, benchmarks, and indications (Social and Emotional Learning Benchmarks Workgroup, 2020).
When students are part of the process of creating rules, they have a deeper connection to and investment in classroom expectations (Fuller, 2001). In a practice borrowed from Knoster, in the first week of class, The students are guided to discuss what the norms of the class should be. Invariably they list respect. At which point I prompt the students to describe what respect looks like to them. The students frequently narrow it down to a consideration of others.
In continuation of the discussion, I use images displayed in artifact one to demonstrate visually to the students of some of the ways their inputs are being considered and incorporated already. The physical layout of the classroom is the result of students’ choice of small groups over council (class-wide) for presentations and projects (visually represented in the second slide of artifact one). The decor of the virtual rooms incorporates multiple holidays recognized in the posters, as well as inclusive decor (artifact one slides 3-5). Choices based on insights from context for learning and inclusive of class input, Each month the virtual room changes and the students get excited to investigate the differences of our “virtual classroom” image.
As part of positive reinforcements, my students share their favorite learning games with me. Utilizing this information, I create a digital resource they can access from any device, anywhere to achieve the goal of equitable universal design even in rewards (Chardin & Novak, 2020). The resulting virtual “done early” room (artifact one, slide 7) gives the students a central location for access when allowed, and a sense of contribution.
Similarly, artifact two provides examples of the slides used in the daily routine and communication practices that I implemented, demonstrating the procedures that frame the class activities and contribute to the environment. These serve the in-class purpose of modeling the behavior I want to see and provide important reinforcements & consistency (Kern & Clemens, 2006 and Knoster, 2013). The execution of one such end-of-class routine is provided in the video clip in artifact three.
Finally, artifact four is comprised of the physical representation of one month of Monday mental health check-ins, with instructions and student responses. Being able to relate their experiences with their peers has both psychological and self-esteem benefits, as well as provides practice at the very SEL skills we are seeking to build (Berk, 2018 & Social and Emotional Learning Benchmarks Workgroup, 2020).
These are the culmination of the consistent application of these theories and are the best artifacts to illustrate the classroom environment I built with my students.