The teacher works with learners to create environments that support individual and collaborative learning, encouraging positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self motivation.
Artifact: Case Study
Standard: Standard 3- learning environment
The artifact I chose was the Case Study. In this assignment, we were given a case study about a teacher’s classroom and were tasked with critiquing their teaching through recommendations of how to make it better. This ties to the Maine Common Core Teaching Standard number 3, titled Learning Environment. The standard says that the teacher “creates environments” that are best for student’s learning and wellbeing. This artifact is a perfect example of that because we were tasked with evaluating a description of the environment another teacher made. In making a good classroom learning environment, teachers should create standard operating procedures so that routine is created, a code of cooperation and shared vision so that students feel safe in the classroom, and have clearly laid out schedules for the students. Through these tools, teachers make sure the environment is taken into consideration through both the physical environment and the mood set in the room. In the standard section 3K, it states that teachers should “establish and monitor elements of a safe productive learning environment including norms, expectations, routines, and organizational structures.” In the Case Study, the teacher does not do this well, but through my evaluation in the assignment, I give critiques and options for the teacher to improve. This makes the assignment fit perfectly for standard 3 because it helps me understand and envision what a classroom that has good “norms, expectations, routines, and organizational structures” looks like.
This assignment helps me in becoming a teacher in the future. The what if style of the case study scenario made me evaluate what my reaction and actions would be in the classroom and think about what exactly I need to do to prevent myself from doing the same in the classroom. In the reflection part of the assignment, I was able to decide how I would run my classroom better, relate it to fieldwork I have been in, and realize how important what we are learning in class really is. I will remember the chaos the teacher in the case study experienced through her style if I have a classroom in the future and make sure to use her example as a ‘what not to do.’ In short, this assignment is helpful because it makes the information we are learning in class more real and helps me understand the big picture of what a classroom should and should not look like.
