TWS 9

Learning Environment

Abby Land

TWS Standard
The teacher plans for a structured, positive learning environment where students feel safe and
valued as contributing members of a learning community.
Task
Create a plan and explanation for how you will create a positive, safe learning environment
including the behavioral expectations, consequences and rewards as well as non-instructional
routines and procedures.
Prompt
A. Classroom Management:
Describe and explain activities that you will implement to create a positive climate
where students will feel like valued members of a learning community.
My first activity would be a morning meeting. This activity takes place each
morning shortly after announcements and morning work. This consists of 4 different
components: greeting, students sharing, a game, and a message. Greeting ideas could be
rubbing elbows with their neighbor, handshakes, or rolling the ball to someone as a
greeting. Every teacher has their own ideas and ways for students to greet each other.
This component is essential to start the day and for the students to get to know their
friends day by day. Next is student share time. This is the opportunity for students to
share anything they would like with the class like their birthday, a new pet, or what they
did that weekend. This component is important because students can get out what they
would like to at that time instead of during class time. It also gives them the chance to be
in the spotlight for a little bit. The third component is playing some type of game. It can
be anything from dividing the students up the middle of the floor and playing volleyball
with a beach ball, playing last man standing using numbers, or even some kind of name
game. This time gives students the chance to get their jitters out and start the day on a
positive, fun note. The last component is the message. What I would do is have a letter
written to my students each day on the board explaining what we would be doing that
day, or asking them what our sight words were for the week, or what activity we go to
that day. Sometimes, I would have problems for the students to come up and fix. This
component can be broad to different teachers, but also an effective way for the teacher to
greet the students and get the day started.
My next idea would be to have a star student for each week. Students can be the
star student more than once per school year based upon their academic performance,
behavior, and overall attitude. Each Monday, the star student will be chosen and they will
get to wear a representative button each day that week. Once chosen, that student will get
the chance to tell the class some things about them like their family, favorites, best
friends, etc. Each day during morning meeting, that student will also get to sit in a special
chair, they will be the line leader for the week, and get a special treat from teacher. This
activity is good for students to get the chance to feel special and have a week focused on
them as the leader.
Lastly, I would like to assign classroom jobs at the beginning of each week via
tree poster on the wall. There would be teachers assistants, line leader, door holder,
messenger, room inspector and technology helpers. Ive seen this strategy used in
classrooms before and it always works well. It gives students the opportunity to have a

TWS 9

Learning Environment

Abby Land

daily job to complete, which children love to feel like adults.

List the 3-5 behavioral expectations or rules for all students in your classroom.
1. The first rule would be to always treat others as you would like to be treated.
This rule goes for any setting, but something that needs to be enforced. Students
will be aware of this rule, as well as the others, from day one. This rule covers the
issues with bullying, being disrespectful, or unkindness.
2. Next is the rule always try your best. This rule is important because any times,
we find students giving up or losing interest in an assignment. Sometimes they
feel like they cant do it or dont want to, but this rule means to try your best,
not just accuracy.
3. Lastly, to always have good behavior. Every class struggles in some part of the
day whether its the classroom, the hallway, activity, etc. But this rule covers the
possibility of bad behavior and encourages students to always be their best self
in all different environments.
List the hierarchy of consequences that you will follow when infractions of the rules
occur in the classroom.
To encourage and promote good behavior, I will do the clothes pin behavior chart.
Each day, each students begins on ready to learn. If they are doing good work, they can
move up to going for gold. If they are making poor decisions, they will move down to
warning. If they continue making bad choices, they will move down again to note
home. Each student will have the opportunity to redeem their self throughout the day. If
a student moves to great job every day of the week, they will get a treat and a phone
call home for praise. If a student moves down to stop and think by the end of the day,
they will have a consequence (silent lunch, loss of computer time, etc.). If a student
moves down to note home by the end of the day, they will get a note home from the
teacher in their calendar and a consequence. First offense is moving to stop and
think. Second offense is note home. If bad behavior continues, the third offense
would be a phone call to the parent.
If a student puts themselves or anyone else in danger, they would be removed
from the situation immediately and escorted out of the room to the principals office. The
students parents would be notified and reinforcements would be made immediately.
List the types of intrinsic and extrinsic reinforcements that you will utilize in the
classroom.
Positive reinforcements will always be made in my classroom. If a student has a good answer
to a question or makes a good academic choice, I will tell them to kiss their brain. If they are
staying on task and making good choices, they will get to move their clip up or earn a starbuck.
If they perform good on homework or an assignment, I will take time to display that students
work to the class and give them praise. I will also use the Dojo point system. This system can
serve as an alternative to starbucks. If a student is working quietly, following directions, or doing
something positive, they will receive a dojo point. After so many, the students with many points,
receive different prizes. One example is a coupon to bring a stuffed animal to school. These
reinforcements will hopefully encourage the other students to do the same.
Extrinsic reinforcements will be made occasionally throughout the week if the students allow
so. If a student works up to good job each day, they will get a treat from my box of goodies on
Friday. If the class as a whole has a good day, I would try to give extra recess or center time to
them on Friday of that week.

TWS 9

Learning Environment

Abby Land

B. Non-Instructional Routines and Procedures

o How will you ensure your students are appropriately supervised and safe during
emergency situations? (e.g. fire and tornado drills)
Before students enter the room, I will place their morning work at their seats. As they
walk in, I will record lunch choices, take attendance and they will place their folders in the
basket, unpack, hang up their bags, and go to their seats to begin their morning work. When they
are finished, they are expected to read a book from their bags or study spelling words. When the
announcements/pledge come on, students will abide by their seats. After a few minutes, I will
announce to clean up, and students will go to their spot on the carpet for morning meeting.
To end the day, students will put all work up, and by table, be called to get their bags and
sit quietly. Students will then be called by car/bus/van riders to line up to dismiss.
For activities that require lots of materials, I will have the materials already placed out on
each students desk. This will most likely take place when the students are not in the room, like
during planning. If an activity does not require many materials, I will ask the teachers assistants
to come collect the materials for their table.
Student-wise, my classroom jobs will be assigned at the beginning of each week after
morning meeting. Each job is listed above. The star student would get to help pass out papers,
cut things out, etc. For the teacher assistant, I would like for them to help with pulling small
groups for various activities. I would also like for them to help with any student that comes in
late or is having trouble completing assignments.
Each group has a cup full of pencils. If one point breaks, they are to just grab another one
out of the cup and place the broken one in there too. I or the teachers assistants will sharpen
them at the end of the day. This prevents instructional time being taken away. Students have a
signal that if they raise their hand and wave it, that means they need to go to the restroom and the
teacher just signals them to go. This way, it does not waste time or disrupt the class. In the
hallway, student will be expected to walk quietly and calmly to the destination. I sometimes ask
them to check their feet, hands and eyeballs to make sure they are facing the front and walking
on the colored line with their hands by their side. If noise is an issue, I will ask them to put a
bubble in their mouth to keep from talking.
At the beginning of the year, I will cover rules and drills that will be happening
throughout the year. I will explain what each drill is and closer to the time, I will warm the
students that it will be happening and what to expect. Before the actual drill, we will practice all
of the drills together as a class to ensure a smooth reaction to the actual drill. I will also explain
to them the importance of staying calm and ready during drills or if the event actually happened.