At the beginning of each school year, teachers have the challenge of creating a safe learning environment. They have a clean slate to create a positive learning environment. Each set of students may change what that safe learning environment might look like and how it might function. Creating a classroom environment that encourages student achievement should be the goal of each teacher. Student achievement is the data of teacher efforts. Some data is hard to harness or record – social and verbal. Educators usually take anecdotal notes about student social and oral achievements, such as orally composing a sentence or phonemic awareness abilities. Students thrive in spaces that have established routines and positive norms.
Creating a safe environment for students to learn and grow often takes the first few weeks of a new school year to fully implement. Establishing a plan for routines and schedules of how your classroom might function to begin the school year helps both the teacher and students to begin establishing classroom norms, during the first few days of school. The following list is some items that teachers should consider when creating classroom norms before students arrive:
- student work spaces – like library, desk, table, floor, group work, computer usage, science investigation
- how and where will students keep their backpacks, lunch, school supplies, books, etc.
- where will each student sit, during whole or small group instruction
- will students have a designated work space or free choice, etc.
- classroom routines,
- layout of classroom,
- schedule of what a “normal” school day will be (some of which is dictated by administration and your teaching team),
- at-a-glance “meeting or information spot”, like jobs or assignments, regular or daily schedule
- how and when will students go to the bathroom,
- when can students have drinks or snack.
Other things to consider when establishing a positive classroom learning environment should include pull-outs or push-ins and other items established by Individual Educational Plans (IEP) or a 504, such as needing to sit closer to the teacher or needing more breathing room. There are usually other activities that your classroom might participate in, such as library or working in the garden that affect routines or schedules. These first day plans are usually altered during the first few weeks of school when you have gotten to know student needs.
Creating a consistent, safe, positive learning environment lets the brain rest and focus on the immediate lesson. Maslow (1954) hierarchy of needs states that items of higher need for survival will take precedence over those items of lower need. Items of great concern or need may be slightly different for each student and may look a little different each day or moment. Your classroom is a community within a larger educational community (school) that is within a larger community (town or city). Things that happen in each of these different layers of student life do affect student achievement.
I discovered the following poem by Dorothy Law Nolte in a pediatrician’s office when my children were very young. I often use the philosophy of this poem to assist me in reflecting upon and improving what my current classroom positive learning environment should look and feel like.
Children Learn What the Live
If children live with criticism,
they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility,
they learn to fight.
If children live with ridicule,
they learn to be shy.
If children live with tolerance,
they learn to be patient.
If children live with encouragement,
they learn confidence.
If children live with fairness,
they learn to have faith.
If children live with approval,
they learn to like themselves.
If children live with acceptance and friendship,
they learn to find love in the world.
Teachers are assisting in the process of creating positive social environments. This usually lends to more positive working environments during adulthood. Furthermore teachers are still students, they are learning everyday how to improve their craft of educating the next generation of leaders. When we know better, we should be implementing better.
References
Maslow, A. H. (1987). Motivation and personality (3rd ed.). Harper & Row Pub.
Ray, Jennifer S. (2018). Using intrinsic and extrinsic motivational strategies in instruction.
The Literacy Brain. theliteracybrain.com/2018/07/21/using-intrinsic-and-extrinsic-
motivational-strategies-in-instruction/
