Creating a Learning Environment

There are so many ways that a teacher can help create a learning environment that is conducive to learning, and to go along with that there are many ways where a teacher can, unknowingly at times, detract from a conducive learning environment. One of the ways we talked about creating a successful learning environment is having good classroom management. When I am a teacher, I believe one of the number one things to help towards this is organization. This is organization in many areas: teacher’s desk, papers, students seating, class materials, books, etc. If you are organized, then you know where things are and the day will go a lot smoother when you can find everything you need. Also, students will see this and it is a great way to teach them organization skills. At my placement in a third grade class, the teacher bought a binder with dividers for every student. She teaches them how to set up a binder and keep it organized. At the end of the year they have all the important materials needed to study for the TCAP as well as a great resource for the future. She said that she believes it is important to teach them these skills, especially before middle school, because no one else may teach them.

Another way to help create a great learning environment is to have limits and rules but not too many. If there are a bunch of strict rules that are heavily enforced, they will not be able to remember them and will be so worried about messing up that they won’t feel comfortable to take risks and make a mistake. This is one thing my placement teacher is really good at. Her class has simple rules such as respect one another. She can share stories with her class and be silly, but when it is time to focus, they listen to her. At one point during the day, the students were at centers working in groups. The room was noisy but the teacher said she didn’t care because they were working together and learning. They were doing what they were supposed to so why should she get onto them for not always whispering. I thought this was a great way to manage the class. I could go on and on about ways to create a learning environment that is conducive to learning, but these are my big top two ways.

This is a great website of classroom management ideas. If you explore on the site, you will find so many organization ideas, team management, and other classroom management ideas.

My CSEL case study is for elementary education where Lisa is causing a disturbance in her group. At this point, the behavior does not seem to go away and just ignoring it would not be a good thing to do. I believe that I would being with giving Lisa cues that I am watching what she is doing whether it is by staring at her to let her know I am aware or by going over to her group and standing by them. If the behavior continues, I would pull her aside and address the situation. I would ask her what is going on, is there a problem I am not aware of, and remind her of her role and duty as a group member. I would tell her that I need her to do this job and explain we have to rotate jobs. I would explain to Lisa why it is important to be a member of a group and how it is something you will always have to do, even when you are a grown-up. I might even include a mini lesson for the whole class about group work and participation and conflict resolution within a group.

 At this point, I might send her parent an e-mail just making them aware of the situation if behavior had not improved. If after this Lisa was still not cooperating, I would find a form of discipline that would work for her by telling her I need her to do this or you will/will not have….. (silent lunch, independent work, recess, behavior marks, etc.).  If a discipline was not effective enough and the behavior kept continuing, I would call a parent and see if her parent might be able to come in for a conference with the student and we would be able to talk about her behavior and the reasoning behind it. 

Mighty Motivation

In class, we discussed intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is when the student is self-motivated and is doing it in order to satisfy an internal goal. Extrinsic motivation is when a student is motivated by outside sources such as a reward.

For me, it depends on the subject and class on whether I am intrinsically motivated or extrinsically motivated. In a class I really enjoy and see the benefit of learning the material, I am intrinsically motivated. For example, in my education classes, I am very intrinsically motivated because I want to learn how to be a great teacher and am interested in doing well. I am motivated to learn because I know the material covered in these classes will be to my benefit in my future teaching career. The teacher doesn’t have to give me any kind of reward because I am motivated by internal means.

On the other hand, if I do not enjoy a class and do not see how the material covered will benefit me, then I am not motivated to learn at all or may be extrinsically motivated depending on the circumstance.  If I am rewarded for the effort and work I do, such as a good grade or an extra credit opportunity, then I am more likely to be motivated. This has occurred in many of my General Education classes and Spanish classes. In my Spanish classes, I did not see the point of learning old age poetry and did not see how it would benefit me.  I was not at all intrinsically motivated. The only reason I was motivated was to pass the class and receive at least the C that I needed to pass.

Having experienced both of these types of motivation helps me better understand my future students. There may be some subjects that students are really interested in and are motivated on their own, while other subjects or material may require some type of extrinsic reward.  As teachers, we need to learn how to make students intrinsically motivated by sparking their interest and keeping the curiosity alive. In addition, letting students have some control over their learning, as in choosing project topics or help create classroom rules will help students be intrinsically motivated. For the times when students are not, a reward may need to be given. As we discussed, the teacher needs to make sure these are unexpected and help keep the students motivated.

There are many ways to motivate children, whether it is intrinsically or extrinsically. As teachers, we need to find the balance and find out what works for each student. We need to know our students and figure out what motivates them and what makes them unmotivated. If children seem unmotivated, maybe the teacher needs to come up with a way to make the material more interesting. Students who are more motivated will learn better.

This article from Vanderbilt is a great resource for an overview of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. It  details some of the advantages as well as disadvantages for each type of motivation. Also, you can check out this short video that helps you see the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and how to help children become intrinsically motivated.

Welcome to Ed Psych 401!

Today was the first day of Educational Psychology 401 and it was great! I was very nervous going into the class since we had homework before the first day of class, but once I went all my worries went away! Anne seems like she is going to be a great teacher and really has a passion for this class and teaching. I am so excited to learn more about all the topics.

My personal objectives for this class are to learn how to better help my students. I see that we will be talking about classroom management, classroom assessments, personal and social development as well as many other topics. These are the topics that interest me the most. I hope to gain more insight to how my students will grow, learn, and process and why they may have certain behaviors. In some previous psychology classes, I have found the topics difficult, but I have a feeling this class will be able to provide me with practical use in my classroom. 

As I mentioned above,  classroom management, classroom assessments, personal and social development are the topics that catch my interest at first glance of the syllabus. I want to have a comfortable, and safe classroom environment and will strive to learn all I can to help create it. At this point, I don't have too many concerns. It always takes a week or so to get into the swing of things and learn each teacher's routine. I think once I get a handle on how everything works, I will be just fine! I am very excited for this class and am happy to know now that it is nothing like Ed. Psych 210!

In class, we learned about quantitative and qualitative research. Quantitative can be easily converted into numbers where as qualitative cannot. We also touched on action research which includes finding out how you can work more effectively in your school.

If you want to find out more about what makes quantitative different from qualitative research, visit this website.