4. Learning Environment

The artifact I selected to represent the standard, is a PowerSchool seating chart. This is a program utilized in high school that allows me to rearrange seating charts based on student needs, disciplinary actions, and behavioral issues. It was produced at the beginning of my student placement at Reavis High School, in order to better understand the needs of the students as well as understand any disciplinary issues that the students might’ve had prior to me entering the building.

The importance of the artifact is that it allows me to better “understand the principles of and strategies for effective classroom and behavior management.” (4A) by allowing me to have access to setting carts that allowed me to have the ability to rearrange student desks, based on any disciplinary issues that had arisen, while my time student teaching. It allowed me to set clear standards for the students to follow, based on behavior, and management allowed me and the students a way to hold ourselves accountable.

A take away from me with this artifact, is the importance of setting clear and precise, classroom management and behavioral management skills with students. It serves as a way to hold a student accountable based on any actions that take place in the classroom. The artifact allowed me to Rearrange seats based on students' responses to behavioral issues and served as a way to hold a student accountable. Being able to rearrange seating organization is something that I will definitely bring into my classroom and serve as a way of behavior management within the classroom. It holds a student accountable based on any actions they may have done and provides evidence for the student on why certain actions have been taken. With this artifact any time that I didn’t need to rearrange seating students knew exactly why, and there was no real pushback on why the actions took place.

The artifact that was chosen was a poster that I had made two weeks into my high school placement. Many of the students continually had issues with cell phones and headphones, being observable throughout my lectures and lessons. This served as a distraction for my students being able to comprehend the information that I was trying to relay to them.

The importance of the artifact is that it demonstrates to the students, “the laws, rules and ethical considerations regarding behavior, intervention planning, and behavior management.” (4F) it does this by setting clear classroom expectations as well as consequences if those expectations are not to be followed. Within the artifact, I go on to list consequences for the students to observe if these rules are filed within my classroom.

As an instructor, a major thing that has been learned was the importance of clear and precise classroom rules and expectations. After I had placed this poster within the classroom door, students now understand the rules as they are entering the classroom. It allows me to hold them accountable and serves as an Example of why the student is receiving a strike based on their actions. It is easy to read and understand so that students now cannot argue or push back on the rules. These types of artifacts are something that I will look to include within my future classroom because it’s such a clear and precise expectation on the students when they walk in