Standard 4: Create and Maintain Supportive and Safe Learning Environments
Reflective Commentary:
I am very passionate about creating and maintaining safe and supportive learning environments. As I stated in my philosophy, I view the environment as a third teacher. Whilst completing my final practicum I made sure that I achieved the criteria of this standard by implementing teaching and learning strategies to support students participation, manage challenging behaviour, manage classroom activities, use ICT safely, responsibly and ethically and maintaining student safetty.
Students, irrespective of their backgrounds, unique learning styles and interests are most prepared to learn in places where they can relax and feel secure. Their participation in learning may be constrained if they feel uncomfortable, unsafe or afraid in their educational environment. Providing a comfortable, appropriate learning environment is as essential to student's success as any teaching strategy or educational tool.
I am very passionate about creating and maintaining safe and supportive learning environments. As I stated in my philosophy, I view the environment as a third teacher. Whilst completing my final practicum I made sure that I achieved the criteria of this standard by implementing teaching and learning strategies to support students participation, manage challenging behaviour, manage classroom activities, use ICT safely, responsibly and ethically and maintaining student safetty.
Students, irrespective of their backgrounds, unique learning styles and interests are most prepared to learn in places where they can relax and feel secure. Their participation in learning may be constrained if they feel uncomfortable, unsafe or afraid in their educational environment. Providing a comfortable, appropriate learning environment is as essential to student's success as any teaching strategy or educational tool.
4.1 Support Student Participation
4.2 Manage Classroom Activities
4.3 Mange Challenging Behaviour
4.2 Manage Classroom Activities
4.3 Mange Challenging Behaviour
Situation:
As a teacher, I am constantly seeking to create a friendly, safe, secure and stable learning environment so that my students can learn more productively and develop confidence in themselves as learners in the classroom. When creating a fun, safe and supportive environment students are more engaged and motivated which helps them pay attention and enhance their learning.
Whilst my professional practicum it was a perfect opportunity to implement strategies to support challenging behaviour management and support student participation. At first I was really nervous on how to implement and find beneficial challenging behaviour strategies for the students in my classroom. Eventually as I tried different approaches to manage behaviours I finally found which ones worked and which ones didn't with different individual student's.
Action:
When I started my professional practicum my mentor teacher had given me the freedom to change the classroom, I wanted to make sure that it suited my teaching strategy and the children's needs and interests. I told the teacher at first if I could change it on the first day of my PI so it gave me time to find out the children's interest. My mentor teacher had taken off all students work that was on display and I was really excited to do activities to replace them. By the end of the first week of my PI I completely changed the class setup, it took me agers and I found it really time consuming, my teacher assistant was kind enough to help me and assist me with creative ideas.
Below is before and after pictures of the classroom, as you can see I based my activities on an "Under the Sea" Theme. (Click on the different numbers to see the next photo)
As a teacher, I am constantly seeking to create a friendly, safe, secure and stable learning environment so that my students can learn more productively and develop confidence in themselves as learners in the classroom. When creating a fun, safe and supportive environment students are more engaged and motivated which helps them pay attention and enhance their learning.
Whilst my professional practicum it was a perfect opportunity to implement strategies to support challenging behaviour management and support student participation. At first I was really nervous on how to implement and find beneficial challenging behaviour strategies for the students in my classroom. Eventually as I tried different approaches to manage behaviours I finally found which ones worked and which ones didn't with different individual student's.
Action:
When I started my professional practicum my mentor teacher had given me the freedom to change the classroom, I wanted to make sure that it suited my teaching strategy and the children's needs and interests. I told the teacher at first if I could change it on the first day of my PI so it gave me time to find out the children's interest. My mentor teacher had taken off all students work that was on display and I was really excited to do activities to replace them. By the end of the first week of my PI I completely changed the class setup, it took me agers and I found it really time consuming, my teacher assistant was kind enough to help me and assist me with creative ideas.
Below is before and after pictures of the classroom, as you can see I based my activities on an "Under the Sea" Theme. (Click on the different numbers to see the next photo)
I made sure that the classroom was diversified, stimulating, creative, colourful and welcoming for staff, students and parents. after finding out the students interests most students likes to read books so I made sure that the book area was very homey, creative and relaxing for students to go and quietly read a book. I made sure that the curtains, windows and the doors were open which allowed the children to see the outside environment and it was visible and accessible for children. A strong relationship beentween inside and outside is important because children should be able to see and sense what is happening outside allowing them to see the different weather changes, different resources, time of the day and rhythm of their community (Ceppi, G. & Zini, M. 2001)
The most beneficial change that I made was the home corner. The children loved it! I found resources from home that I used in the home corner such as t- shirts, jumpers, old hats, shoes, plastic cups and plates. The children all wanted to go in the home corner and I had children being upset because they didn't have a turn. So I had to make a home corner sign allowing only six students at a time, students need to find their name and place it on the home corner sheet.
The most beneficial change that I made was the home corner. The children loved it! I found resources from home that I used in the home corner such as t- shirts, jumpers, old hats, shoes, plastic cups and plates. The children all wanted to go in the home corner and I had children being upset because they didn't have a turn. So I had to make a home corner sign allowing only six students at a time, students need to find their name and place it on the home corner sheet.
The way in which you set up the environment is important in creating a space where children are motivated, feel safe and want to learn (McInerney & McInerney,2010). The play areas within the room are multifunctional. The spaces are strategically set up, allowing for both quiet and loud play areas while keeping these areas separated to truly embellish the atmosphere they create. An overall softness is created with the diversified resources and sensitive placement of furniture. The spaces are evident of supporting a multisensory learning environment (Ceppi and Zini, 2001). I found this supported the student’s needs; the whole child, not just their academic needs but their social/emotional and physical development.
Learning how to manage challenging behaviour was something I initially struggled with during my PI. The class I worked with were a mixture of learning types and I considered this to be a key in the mixture of behaviour problems within the class. I noticed that students who were lagging behind in most curriculum areas would loose patience quickly and extension students would become bored after finishing their work and begin to cause problems for other students still working. These student's need a personalised learning program to cater to their many needs and learning styles, and it was my challenge and responsibility as their teacher to arrange this. As such, I made sure that at the beginning of the day I informed the students of the daily activities. I allowed students to choose what activity they would like to go to once they have completed their work. This allowed students to make their own choices and allowed them to engage in activities that catered their interests. when allowing students to have the power to choose it showed me that there were no longer behaviour problems.
During my professional practicum, two of my students demonstrated challenging behaviours such as:
Another reward system that I decided to use was to give a certificate to two students at the end of the day that had lovely manners and were doing the right thing, when they got their certificates they then were allowed to choose a small prize form the prize box
Learning how to manage challenging behaviour was something I initially struggled with during my PI. The class I worked with were a mixture of learning types and I considered this to be a key in the mixture of behaviour problems within the class. I noticed that students who were lagging behind in most curriculum areas would loose patience quickly and extension students would become bored after finishing their work and begin to cause problems for other students still working. These student's need a personalised learning program to cater to their many needs and learning styles, and it was my challenge and responsibility as their teacher to arrange this. As such, I made sure that at the beginning of the day I informed the students of the daily activities. I allowed students to choose what activity they would like to go to once they have completed their work. This allowed students to make their own choices and allowed them to engage in activities that catered their interests. when allowing students to have the power to choose it showed me that there were no longer behaviour problems.
During my professional practicum, two of my students demonstrated challenging behaviours such as:
- Not wanting to do the work
- disruptive behaviours during class and play time
- Swearing and hitting other students
- Not sharing things, snatching off others
- Talking during matt time
Another reward system that I decided to use was to give a certificate to two students at the end of the day that had lovely manners and were doing the right thing, when they got their certificates they then were allowed to choose a small prize form the prize box
![Picture](/uploads/2/9/7/1/29717925/7908334.jpg?224)
After having this reward system in my class for a week, I noticed the benefits of it, the two students that had challenging behaviour had improved. They knew that for them to get a sticker they have to earn it and do the correct thing. Rhys occasianlly still chose not to do the work, his interest were gluing he loved it. So I then had to modify it and decided for him to want to do gluing he knew that he had to complete his work. This strategy worked for Rhys and there were days where I would get hi to choose what he would like to do before he did his work, he got really excited because he knew he had the power of decision and he knew that after his time was up he had to come to my table and do his work.
If the students were having misbehaving really unappripriately the school had its own challenging behaviour policy which each classroom had to follow. Luckily I didn't have to fill out the form and the most warnings students had whilst I was doing my professional practicum was a verbal warning and the name on the board.
If the students were having misbehaving really unappripriately the school had its own challenging behaviour policy which each classroom had to follow. Luckily I didn't have to fill out the form and the most warnings students had whilst I was doing my professional practicum was a verbal warning and the name on the board.
Outcome:
Student's sense of connectedness and acceptance can impact how actively and enthusiastically they engage in lessons and how comfortable and safe they feel in contributing and sharing their ideas. Fostering students’ sense of belonging in the classroom and sense of trust in me their teacher, is key to inspiring and motivating students to invest in the learning experiences I create for them. By creating an effective, fun, creative and supportive learning environment that supports children in demonstrating appropriate behaviours I maximised students engagement and participation. In my professional practicum I made sure that I always modelled appropriate behaviours and was always professional. I was really happy with my reward system and thought it worked really well, my mentor teacher was very impressed especially in getting around the challenging behaviours with the two boys.
Action Plan:
Something that I need for my future teaching is managing difficult behaviour. I am aware that as a new graduate teacher, there are classroom management professional development options, and I will undertake these. I will improve my personal folder of classroom management strategies and make sure that I have a challenging behaviour management and a reward system straight away in the beginning of the year so children understand and are used to the process.
To improve my skills in managing difficult and disruptive behaviour, I will complete a course early in 2015 , specifically designed to build teacher skills in this area.
Student's sense of connectedness and acceptance can impact how actively and enthusiastically they engage in lessons and how comfortable and safe they feel in contributing and sharing their ideas. Fostering students’ sense of belonging in the classroom and sense of trust in me their teacher, is key to inspiring and motivating students to invest in the learning experiences I create for them. By creating an effective, fun, creative and supportive learning environment that supports children in demonstrating appropriate behaviours I maximised students engagement and participation. In my professional practicum I made sure that I always modelled appropriate behaviours and was always professional. I was really happy with my reward system and thought it worked really well, my mentor teacher was very impressed especially in getting around the challenging behaviours with the two boys.
Action Plan:
Something that I need for my future teaching is managing difficult behaviour. I am aware that as a new graduate teacher, there are classroom management professional development options, and I will undertake these. I will improve my personal folder of classroom management strategies and make sure that I have a challenging behaviour management and a reward system straight away in the beginning of the year so children understand and are used to the process.
To improve my skills in managing difficult and disruptive behaviour, I will complete a course early in 2015 , specifically designed to build teacher skills in this area.
- All Teachers' Engagement strategies & skills: Turning behaviour around available through the "Behavior Management Education" body:
References:
- Ceppi, G. & Zini, M. (Eds.). (2001) Children, spaces and relations: Metaproject for an environment for young children. Modena, Italy: Reggio Children.
- McInerney, D. & McInerney, V. (2010) Educational Psychology: Constructing Learning. 5th Ed. Sydney: Pears