INTASC 3. Learning Environments

The teacher works with others to create environments that support individual and collaborative learning, and that encourage positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.

 

     It is critical for a social studies teacher to create a learning environment conducive for learning. It is important for teachers to create a learning environment that is safe, fun, and accepting of all viewpoints. An effective learning environment has to accept people from different cultures and promote students working together. It is also important for teachers to maintain a learning environment that has effective discipline, but not so strict that it hinders student learning.

     I learned about how to promote an effective learning environment within a classroom during my time in the educational program. I learned in Educating Exceptional learners that it is important to have a good learning environment through both effective discipline and making accommodations as necessary. In that class I learned about discipline strategies like proximity control, greeting students at the door, and flickering the lights to calm a class down. I also learned in that class it is important to accommodate learners with visual and hearing impairments. My group presented on that topic at the end of Spring 2013.  I was responsible for talking about some of the technologies and strategies available to help students with hearing disabilities (See Evidence 1). In my Spring Methods class I learned about maintaining a short number of class rules to five or six. I had to develop my own class rules in the Spring, when I was struggling with maintaining order in the classroom (See Evidence 2). After I implemented those rules, classroom behavior improved dramatically and the classroom became a more suitable environment for learning throughout the rest of the semester.

     I will continue to work making sure I have a learning environment that is safe, fun, and effective. In the Spring I tried to give students a fun learning environment through watching videos, doing a group project, and review games (See Evidence 3). Those are activities I will continue to use in the future. I will also continue to maintain a learning environment that is accepting of all viewpoints and cultures. It is important for a teacher to promote students to ask questions, make comments, and share their views as long as it is not extremely offensive or incites violence. I believe in the First Amendment and believe as a social studies teacher that my classroom should create a learning environment that lets students practice that right.

 

Evidence