Domain+2+-+Classroom+Environment

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2e - Organizing Physical Space
==== T o the right is a Classroom Management Plan that detail rules, procedures, and a classroom layout that help aide in managing the day to day events in the classroom. Below you can also find pictures that demonstrate this setup in my classroom where I completed my student teaching. ==== include page="HTML_div_close" include page="HTML_div_rightcolumn"

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include page="HTML_div_leftcolumn" ==== I strongly believe that integrating technology within the classroom is important when setting up my classroom. I believe technology such as the ELMO, SMART Board, and SMART podium (which I personally own and plan to integrate into my own classroom) all can help reach the diverse learners I will have in my classroom. During my student teaching I used these resources as a tool to help students visualize concepts, which allowed them to make connections much more rapidly.==== ==== T o the right next to the SMART Board you can also catch a glimpse of the Homework Chart we had implemented within our classroom. Besides having the homework written on the whiteboard for the whole week next to the objectives, we used the homework chart as way for students (and myself) to stay organized and have a chart of past homeworks to refer to. As detailed in my classroom management plan above, this all went to help maintain an orderly classroom where students knew as soon as they were in the classroom, where they needed to go to find missing assignments and work when they were absent. ==== ==== T o the right are examples of my objectives and classwork/homework pocket chart. Both of these helped keep the flow of the classroom moving; and ensured that students knew what they needed to be doing from the time they came into the classroom to the time they were dismissed. Students were expected to write the objectives and homework before they left the class; having the objectives for the day and week held students accountable and gave them no reason to give the excuse that they didn't know what work was expected from them. The pocket chart was instrumental in minimizing downtime in the class. Instead of having students who were absent disrupt me while giving instructions or become sidetracked when they were suppose to be working, students who were absent knew that they needed to copy notes from class notebook or friends and get any missing work from the pocket chart. Having a system such as the pocket chart is one of the ways I could reduce disruptions in our learning environment. ==== ==== P art of what makes for a positive learning environment within the classroom is displaying student's accomplishments and work around the classroom. Recognizing their success publicly in the classroom goes a long way in affirming students as mathematicians, and establishes, within the classroom, a culture of learning. These artifacts are examples of how displaying students work around the classroom created a positive learning environment, during my time student teaching. Under the Shining Stars board we displayed students' weekly homework which we believed deserved recognition because of the hard work and effort that went into completing it (which was reflected in the grade they received for the assignment). Notice that not all homeworks are A's, but rather, recognizing each students ability level and what they are capable of, we recognized those students who did well. ==== ==== Another way to inspire whole class effort and pride was to award students trophies each week for their Warm-Up/SOTW Post Test. We would post class growth percentages from the SOTW Pre-test and Post-tests, and give a trophy to the class with the highest percentage growth. The prize to the class for having the most trophies after a set amount of weeks would be receiving doughnuts on the next Unit Test day. This motivated the students to do their best as a class, and to take pride in their work and class. ====