Standard 4 - Learning Environment – The competent teacher structures a safe and healthy learning environment that facilitates cultural and linguistic responsiveness, emotional well-being, self-efficacy, positive social interaction, mutual respect, active engagement, academic risk-taking, self-motivation, and personal goal-setting.
I created a mock website as a resource to students in my class along with their parents. The website included an introduction of myself along with my contact information. I have a page for the rules and expectations for my classroom in order to promote positive behavior. One page is about my teaching styles and strategies to give parents an idea of the way I teach. I also designed page dedicated to the rewards and consequences used in my class that will also promote positive behavior. These guidelines and expectations will ensure a safe and healthy learning environment for all students.
Teaching is about more than providing an education, it is our role as teachers to make sure that our students feel safe when they walk into our classroom every day. I chose to include this artifact because it aligns with Standard 4. I will make sure that my classroom is a safe and welcoming environment that promotes learning as well as positive relationships. This website project gave me a new understanding of ways to connect with students and create a positive environment. I realized that it is much more than the way the classroom is set up or what posters are hung on the walls. It is about promoting kind behavior, independence, responsibility, respect, and more.
A class website can provide parents information on the teacher, classroom setup, and the type of teaching used in the classroom. It is so important to provide parents with as much information on their child as possible, so that they can feel comfortable about their child being in your care. Creating healthy relationships between students, teachers, and myself and the parents is essential to fostering a positive learning environment.
This is an artifact produced for the course AEDU216, Introduction to Exceptional Children. It is an essay about teaching strategies that are beneficial for students with an emotional disorder. Some of the strategies included are ways to help prevent a student's emotional disorder from interfering with their day, as well as ways to better understand the struggles this population of students deal with.
As teachers, it is our job to create an environment that makes students feel safe, welcomed, and encouraged to learn. Standard 4 clearly connects to this essay because it states that the competent teacher will acknowledge their responsibility to ensure a safe environment. It is crucial to create such an environment for students, because it is the only way they can effectively learn. Without a safe learning environment, students will not fully engage or open up in class, and full learning cannot occur. This is especially true in a class with students who deal with emotional disorders. This population of students can be easily overwhelmed, anxious, or triggered if their environment does not fit their needs. Some of the examples provided in my essay include helping students stay organized to reduce stress, as well as offering break time to prevent students from becoming overwhelmed. These strategies can also be beneficial in a class of typical learners.
Through this assignment, I learned the importance of a safe environment to promote effective learning in the classroom. The research I found clearly connects student comfort and accommodations to better learning. I will be sure to create a safe environment for all of my students to fit their diverse needs.