2.B.1: Safe Learning Environment
About the Element
It is necessary for teacher candidates to use rituals, routines, and proper responses that build and maintain a safe physical and intellectual environment. Students need to feel comfortable taking academic risks and most behaviors that interfere with learning need to be prevented.
A safe learning environment is crucial to students being able to learn in a classroom. The atmosphere of a classroom allows for students to have a space to reach their fullest potential, where they are not afraid to make mistakes and can access high-quality learning. Students must have the physical and mental comfortability in the classroom environment, which is built through appropriate, positive, and clear classroom management and expectations.
Classroom Management
In the remote schooling environment, classroom management was altered. Instead of accounting for factors, such as a backpack in the aisles and food allergies, the pandemic and quarantining brought us considerations for times, such as when students were kicked out of Google Meets because of poor Internet access or had to leave the computer to watch a younger sibling. Students were not required to have cameras on; so, teachers would not know what was truly happening on the other side of the computer screen. Being in school from home, brought the mix of private life to the classroom, and some students lost a safe, open space that they had typically found upon entering the school building. Teachers could not control what happened on the other end of the Google Meets; physically, the best that could be done was encouraging students to find a quiet place to focus on their work, if that was at all possible.
However, other adjustments to classroom management that needed to be outlined, included interactions in the Google Meet chat and what to do if you wanted to ask a question. Prior to Google Meets adding a "Raise Hand" feature, we encouraged students to send their questions in the chat or simply unmute to ask their question out loud. If chat discussion was not questions, other comments and conversations were emphasized to being positive and respectful. Since it was typically rare for students' microphones to be on, the unmuting to ask a question worked well in also pausing me to address the question or concern. Once the "Raise Hand" feature was added to Google Meets, even though we did not address it, some students reverted back to previously learned classroom expectations and used that button before posing a question.
During class, while students were working on the Pear Deck slides, they were receiving direct feedback from me on their work. As I learned from a few, this could make them nervous if they had made a simple mistake. I had not used a system of cold-calling due to the possible anxieties that can produce, but this method of calling student names to address their work may have been perceived in a similar fashion. To mitigate this, I reassured students that it was okay to make mistakes, especially as they were definitely not the only one to be making that mistake. Also, on multiple choice questions where one or two students had answered incorrectly, I made broad, general statements to get them to re-evaluate their choice instead of calling them out for their errors. When students did correct steps, I made sure to provide a verbal message of positive feedback (e.g., "Outstanding!," "Great job!," etc.). This helped to bring confidence to students in taking academic risks while trying to solve examples. I used this method on students' homeworks as well and found that students began anticipating a message that conveyed that they had did good work.
Physical Setup of the Online Classroom
While we were not in-person, we were limited in the ways we could setup the classroom. However, steps that could be made to enhance learning were taken. As previously mentioned, students were not required to have their cameras on, but I made sure to keep my camera on, as did my Supervising Practitioner (when Internet connections allowed), to allow for face-to-face interactions to still occur. Students were still reading my facial expressions and feeding off of them, even if I could not read their faces. I became a recognizable face, yet I still do not know some of the faces of my students since I never saw them.
Students were on the Pear Deck application every class. As a new application still being updated, for a period of time Pear Deck was not designed for use by multiple teachers. So instead, both my Supervising Practitioner and I were logged into a separate Google Meet, and I (as the leading teacher of the lesson) would share my Teacher Dashboard of Pear Deck, which I was viewing to provide live and direct feedback to students. It was not until the final two weeks of my student teaching practicum, in which Pear Deck received a new update where the Teacher Dashboard could be shared and interacted with by multiple teachers simultaneously. Once that update arose, I re-addressed the current system to the students. Now, I would provide feedback out loud, but to improve efficiency, my Supervising Practitioner could also provide feedback through the chat. Students were encouraged to listen for their names or check the chat for quicker feedback.
On the technical side of things, my setup was a single computer screen, split-screen into the Google Meet and Pear Deck Dashboard. While students watched the instructional videos independently, I could flip to different computer tabs as necessary (e.g., for if I needed to take attendance, etc.). My Supervising Practitioner was able to use two computers, one for the Pear Deck and one for the Google Meet, but often my computer and Internet was stronger and faster.
Classroom Expectations
At the start of class, students were expected to come to class, log into the Pear Deck through the link in the Google Classroom stream or Google Meet chat, and begin the warm-up example. Throughout class, students were asked to attempt each example and get started working right away, aiming to be the first person to start a new example for extra participation points. If a student or teacher got bounced out of the meeting due to Internet issues or computer difficulties, they were expected to re-join the Google Meet as soon as possible, but we also, would check-in with the student, especially if they kept were constantly being kicked out and were starting to become frustrated. Students found if they were having technical difficulties and could not make it back into the virtual class, they would automatically text a friend in the class to let us know what was happening. All of these adjustments to the remote setting were a team effort; the major classroom expectation being clear communication between all. Additionally, students were expected to complete four assignments each week, two homeworks due the following day after class at 9:00pm, at least one topic from the textbook program ALEKS by Thursday night, and the Friday assessment check between Friday and the end of the weekend.
Surrounding: Pear Deck slides examples of student work. For attempting the problem, even if the student had not completed the problem and/or if their were errors, they would still receive the participation points for their efforts and activity in class. Students were expected to make adjustments based off of the feedback given to them as well.
Below: Examples of student homework are shown. To the left, is an example of a student's completed homework that was turned in on time for the full score. The student received a message of positive feedback, even though not every answer was correct. Additional feedback on changes that should be made was included as well. To the right, is another example of a student's homework. While every step and answer is correct, the homework was turned in late; so, some points were deducted, but the student still received a comment of positive reinforcement that their work was correct.
Anna Eng
WPI Teacher Preparation Program
aeeng@wpi.edu