Standard 4: Learning Environment

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.

Class Website

The artifact that I have designed is for a Physical Education class ranging from 9th-12th grade using Wix. The website contains a multitude of pages ranging from rules and expectations, awards and consequences, class procedures, and diversity within my classroom. The reason I made this website was to keep parents informed on what their child will be learning for the academic school year and to help develop an open communication of trust among teachers and parents. Within this website, you can also find my teaching style and strategies that I believe in as an educator. I developed this website in the Spring of 2020 for my General Methods class at Trinity Christian College. I believe the reason for the making of this website is to make me aware of how to design my classroom models in the future when I become a teacher.

This project has helped me realize the importance of structure and planning when it comes to organizing a classroom. I believe that this project perfectly summarizes what standard 4 says about a teacher doing all that they can to ensure students are in a safe and positive learning environment (4G). Standard 4 also states "emotional well-being, self-efficacy, positive social interaction, mutual respect, active engagement, academic risk-taking, self-motivation, and personal goal-setting." My main goal for my students is to provide a safe, structured, class where everyone is respectful of others' differences.

Along the way of making this website, I learned a lot about myself when it comes to developing classroom rules/ expectations guidelines. I have realized after making this website how important it is to have a classroom that has procedures, and the teaching strategies that come with it. Developing this website has also made me aware that not all families will have internet access to the technology that is being used in class. That being said, I have created a letter summarizing my website if parents are unable to access it via the internet. This classroom website will help bridge the gap of communication between home and school. This website will provide daily announcements and what to expect in the upcoming weeks of class and what can be looked forward to. My website will also contain additional resources for students if they need help in a unit we are covering in class that they might not understand.

In meeting with the Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 4: Learning Environment, the second artifact I created was a Flexibility activity. This activity contains a game that is called "Yogi says..." almost like Simon Says. The students are able to tell their classmates which yoga poses they want them to complete. This is a game that I researched and asked different opinions from other P.E. teachers at the elementary school level and they thought it would be a great idea.

Throughout creating this artifact it was important to stick close to the Illinois Professional Teaching Standard, "Learning Environment". One way I accomplished this goal was by relating the topic to section 4K, which states, "the competent teacher uses strategies to create a smoothly functioning learning community in which students assume responsibility for themselves and one another, participate in decision-making, work collaboratively and independently, use appropriate technology, and engage in purposeful learning activities;". The artifact above goes with this section of the standard because the activity allows students to interact with one another and participate in decision-making on their own terms.

While writing this artifact I learned that allowing the students to have their free will of choice throughout an activity made them want to engage in the activity that much more. This is the type of learning that is important for my future as a teacher because it allows me to see what type of teaching styles work for my students and it will help me to broaden.