4. Learning Environment

Description: This is a picture from inside my gym where I am student teaching. We use this board often throughout the day as needed, but always with our check-in students and Special Ed classes. On the board there is different color zones which have a description of connected attitudes and feelings. We ask students to tell us which zone they are in when they start their day as a form of a check-in and to help them verbalize how they are feeling on a given day.

Connection: This board connects to performance indocator 4i which talks about creating a safe and helathy learning enviornment to maximize student learning. Helping students identify how they are feeling and how their feelings may change throughout the day helps me as the teacher better understand my student and support them properly so they can learn well.

Explanation: From doing this activity with students daily, I have learned good questions to ask to help them think and reflect about what they are feeling. Having the board in my gym also allows me to walk students through different behaviors by having calming behaviors pictured for them to look at.

Description: This is another picture which is posted in my gym. The poster has classroom expectations listed with examples in words and pictures.

Connection: This image connects to performance indicator 4j which discusses creating clear expectations as well as procedures for communication in order to enhance and maximize the learning enviornment. The poster has three categories, respectful, responsible, and caring, then images which depict behaviors that would fall under the given character trait. 

Explanation: Having this up in my classroom has helped me learn the importance of clear expectation in creating a positive learning enviornment. I often find myself refering to this poster when both redirecting students and pointing out positive behaviors. Students also seem to benefit from having this poster clearly represented in the classroom to refer to as needed.