5. Learning Environment: The teacher fosters and manages a safe and inclusive learning environment that takes into account: physical, emotional and intellectual well being.
Before the first few days of my internship, I anxiously awaited the start of the first day. It wasn't so that I could meet all the new students; instead, it was because my "freshman" were about to encounter their no nonsense 10th grade teachers. Standard 5 asks that each teacher create a safe environment so that students can focus on learning instead of on other factors. This includes monitoring behavior, establishing expectations, and transitioning smoothly. The previous year, the freshman teachers were very lenient of our 9th grader's behaviors. I walked into classrooms many days and most of the students had their phones out. I was grateful for the opportunity to work with them again this year, but nervous to see their reaction to a much more structured classroom environment.
My mentor teacher and I planned and assessed for our strategy toward our classroom environment. Our plan was to explain our classroom expectations throughout the first week and explain why. So on the first day of school, all our students came to class. And throughout the first week, all of our rowdy freshman became tenth grade scholars.
The first week, my mentor teacher and I explained our expectations for every task that we would do in class. Our students surveyed our expectations for entry task, individual and group work, assessment and exit task, and they explained them to us. We created a place where student's did not need their cell phones because of how quickly they had to finish everything and how much work there was to do. While our students were expected to do many things differently than in their freshman year, we also showed them how they would be supported. We expressed that by having two teachers, there would be more support. I was able to help my mentor teacher monitor behavior in the first few weeks and participate in teaching students what our expectations were.
The expectations and structured environment helped our students to focus and grow tremendously. We set our classroom up with a culture of error, but expressed that in order to learn, we all needed a safe classroom; each day we are working to also add a culture of better. Our culture of better stems from demanding positivity, encouraging risks, and holding students to exemplary work. We also tried to establish a culture of respect by going back to the amount of learning that needs to happen, state tests that students must pass, and reiterating that our classroom must be used for learning. We explained how the classroom environment must allow for students to learn and produce results that we as teachers needed.
While my mentor teacher and I have created a safe classroom with high expectations, we still have room to grow. If I am answering honestly, our students struggle to have a growth mindset. I have recently spoken with my mentor teacher about this. Many of our students were not challenged last year, and therefore did not master grade level standards. This means that they have extra work to make up in order to achieve at grade level. Often, if I try to have a student stretch their answer, they leave defeated that their response is not good enough. I need to continue to strategize with my mentor teacher to help students know it is better to take a risk and to try than to not try at all.
Our students also struggle to take ownership for class activities. They do the class activities, but now that each class is in the flow of things, they have forgotten the purpose of each step or activity that we do. I know this because of how I see students treating their entry task (not answered) or in how they listen to instruction (distracted). My mentor teacher and I need to repeat and review the purpose of these class procedures and our expectations until students can repeat them to us.
As this year continues, I hope to be able to use the skills of transition and reiterating my expectations so that students are constantly engaged as well as aware of what they are expected to do. But I already know as I become the primary teacher, I will need to set expectations each time I begin to teach because of my relationship with students from last year. I know I will need to be very firm the first few times I am the primary teacher so that students transition well to me being the main teacher.
These 10th graders are very smart. Any space for transition or even natural transition (change of teacher) allows them a chance for distraction and disengagement for learning. My mentor teacher and I must be firm about our expectations but continue to state them when we do each learning segment (entry task, activity, exit task). This will allow our classroom to continue to be a safe and effective place for learning throughout the year.
