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.Â
The pictures in this collage were taken during my student teaching semester at Thornwood High School. These pictures are of different desk arrangements that I used throughout my classes. I would change the arrangement as appropriate to the lessons planned throughout my student teaching semester.
By rearranging the desks in my classroom to meet the needs of the lesson planned for my classes, I show that as an educator I can "modify the learning environment (including the schedule and physical arrangement) to facilitate appropriate behaviors and learning for students" (4P) and "create a safe and healthy environment that maximizes student learning" (4I). How to maximize the use of space in the classroom is essential for an educator to know so that we can make sure that students are safe and comfortable in our classrooms so that we can focus on learning while minimizing any distractions that may be caused by the physical environment due to a room arrangement that may deter a student's ability to focus, work, and learn while in our classrooms.
By rearranging the desks in my classroom to support the lessons that took place, I learned what physical arrangements were better suited for different activities. This is important since the correct arrangement helped support students in the classroom, while the wrong arrangements actually negatively affect a student's abilities to learn. When the desks were arranged in rows, this arrangement was more suited for individual assignments and when I was doing direct lecturing towards my students, which sometimes may or may not have included use of the smartboard at the front of the room. When the desks were arranged in a circle, this arrangement was more suited for whole-class reading and discussion of texts since we are all facing each other it makes discussion amongst students more authentic since we are able to see each other's facial expressions as important things occur in the text being read. When the desks were arranged into groups, this arrangement was more suited for group work/collaboration on assignments in addition to smaller group discussions.
The pictures in this collage were taken during my student teaching semester at Thornwood High School. These pictures are of student work stations that I created for an activity where the students in groups would move or "rotate" stations after a specified time frame in order to participate and complete the day's activity. At each station the students would write directly onto the oversized post-it notes that were strategically placed in a certain order in certain spots around my classroom.
By arranging the work stations in the areas that they were placed in my classroom, I show that I can "create a safe and healthy environment that maximizes student learning" (4I). I also show that I can "organize, allocate, and manage time, materials, technology, and physical space to provide active and equitable engagement of students in productive learning activities" (4M). The way I utilize and arrange my space in the classroom is important to know as an educator so that I can maximize the space I have to work with, but more importantly keep my students safe while they are in the classroom, which is shown in the collage above since all of the work stations I had set-up were kept clear so students could move about the room and work without worrying about tripping over clutter in the way or have to move stuff around themselves which cuts into their own time that could be better used while in the classroom.
By having work stations in my classroom, I learned how to utilize all of the space available to me and my students. I also learned during this activity how to create and implement an activity that gave the students a chance to move around the room, which is great for those students who find it difficult to stay seated at their desks for a full class period. Also by creating the workstations I learned a new way to increase student engagement; they had a lot of fun with this activity and all students participated without having to be asked (after the activity was over the huge post-it notes for this activity were used to decorate the room).