Classroom+Management

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Trying to discover the kind of classroom that you want to have when you become a teacher is probably the most difficult task that any teacher will go through when they start their teaching career. Every person has had different experiences in their education and teachers need to try and develop a classroom that is a positive learning environment for all of their students. By looking at the layout of the classroom, the development of clear rules and expectations, and the personal relationships you create with your student, I have begun to understand what I want for my own classroom to help ensure a constructive learning environment for all of my students. =====

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Creating clear expectations and rules is important in order to create a classroom that is safe and welcoming. The students and I need to work together at the beginning of the year to create expectations for the classroom that are appropriate and reasonable. By developing them together, everyone in the class understands what the rules are and the consequences that we have deemed fair if someone is not following these rules. I will model the appropriate behaviour that I want to see within my classroom so the students understand that not only are they expected to behave by certain expectations within the classroom, but I am expected to do the same. Rules that teach everyone about respect and listening are tools that every person should develop and starting these ideas off in my classroom is an excellent way to help the students develop skills that will help them in and out of the classroom. =====

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Being respectful and listening to your peers are skills that are crucial when students are working together within the set-up of my classroom. There are a lot of debates as to how a classroom should be arranged in order to have the most positive impact on the students. The arrangement that I think is the most beneficial is arranging your students in rows of two. Placing your students in rows of two allows for both individual work and group work depending on what is happening within the classroom. By having a “shoulder partner”, the students are able to collaborate together to problem solve and critically think about the problems that they are given. If a larger group is needed within the class, the rows of two can join up with another two people to make groups of four. There are many different learning styles in our classrooms, and I believe that setting up your classroom in this ways allows the students who work well independently, with a partner, or in a group the ability to succeed in my classroom. =====

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Each student in your classroom has specific needs, interests and experiences and I need discover what interests my students to help them develop their strengths. Developing a personal relationship with the students and allowing them to have an opinion or input about the classroom is the best way to see how the students want to learn. Getting to know my students and finding out what interests them will not only allow me to develop an appropriate relationship with my students, but can help to create lessons that will be interesting to each individual student. If the students are interested in what I am teaching, they are more likely to pay attention and understand what is being taught to them. Finding out the things that my class would like to know, as well as varying the techniques in which I use, allows my students to be excited about the things that they are learning. =====

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It may be easy to explain in theory the steps that I am going to take in order to have a safe classroom environment, it is a lot harder to take what you want and put it into practice. There are both good and bad things that I can do for my students, but I believe I will take all the helpful things that I learned from my own experiences and incorporate them into my own classroom. The atmosphere and setup of my classroom, the collaboration amongst the students and my personal relationships with my students will continue to help me develop a classroom where both my students and I are excited to enter into. =====