Chapter 13 Questions to Consider

The classroom environment that I hope to establish in my class is one of respect. First and most importantly, I feel that respect is key to having a successful classroom learning environment. If I don't show the students with respect throughout the school year then how will I expect them to respect me. "To get respect you must first show it." I think that if I respect the students and they respect me, then we will have a great year. Yes there will still be some trouble makers, but we will address that later. Another thing that I feel is important for a successful learning environment is open communication. As the teacher we have to be open to communicate with our students and let them know that we are there to help them succeed and allow them to feel comfortable communicating with us. I think that preparedness on the teacher's part is also going to play a huge role in the child's learning environment. If the teacher isn't prepared for class then they wont get much work done within class. My main goal is for the children to feel welcome and that they are there to have fun but to also learn. Because I will be working with deaf elementary students, I feel that for a successful learning environment, that I should often break up the students into small groups to work. I think that by doing that they all get a feel for each others methods of learning and can not only learn the material but also can learn about each other and make friendships.

I liked the high school video and how the girls gathered in a circle to talk about their issues. Sometimes girls just get mad but never approach the other girl calmly to discuss the issue, so I think this approach could work well for high school girls. For my specific case of the third grader that is misbehaving, I think I could handle that situation in a couple different ways. I think the first way I could handle it would be by taking the child aside privately and discussing the issues with them. I think that way would be effective because I'm sure something else was possibly going on to make them behave that way. Another way I could handle it would be by giving the student a choice. Like we discussed in class, giving them a choice is always better than just telling them what to do. In the book it mentioned how when working with an adolescent you should try to find a solution that allows the student to maintain credibility with peers (488) so I think that I could try to deal with the situation that way.