week+4-classroom+culture


 * __Creating Classroom Culture through Theory__**

 In order to create a classroom culture that creates the most positive learning environment, the students themselves must play an active role in their own learning. The students experience thus far, has been passively watching videos and filling out work sheets. My goal as their new teacher is to create an environment where the students feel comfortable to become actively engaged in their learning process. To do this I will mix Piaget's model of Constructivism and Vygotsky's idea of the "zone of proximal development".

 Constructivism states that, "children actively build systems of meaning and understanding of reality through experience and interaction with their environment." My classroom will provide students the opportunity to create projects, conduct experiments, and ask questions in a safe environment. The activities planned will be within the children's "zone of proximal development". This way students are not given tasks that seem impossible and left to figure it out for themselves, because this lack of support would lead to student's becoming discouraged and frustrated causing them to simply give up.

 Lessons will be presented to the class using scaffolding. I will demonstrate an activity or concept, then lead the entire class in guided practice. Then the students will complete an activity in smaller groups, and then they will have an individual assignment. This provides students with plenty of opportunities to become comfortable with the material. They are able to learn from me, learn from their peers and learn through hands on exploration. They receive less and less assistance until they are then able to master the concept alone. This makes students feel more comfortable, supported and confident. Also, it provides me will plenty of opportunities to monitor the student's progress and make decisions on what to re-teach or clarify and where to provide further assistance.

__**The First Day**__

Then next day when the students return they find the classroom has been changed. The desks are arranged in new groups, bulletin boards have been replaced, and the teacher’s desk is in a new position. The kids come in quietly, whispering to one another, wondering, “what is going on?” I greet the students and tell them how excited I am to be their PREMANT teacher for the rest of the school year. And just as the rooms has changed, so will their experience within it.

The first thing I want to do is get to know each and every student. To do this as a class we will each develop our own Acrostic poems using our names. I model my poem first so the students see what is expected and are able to get to know me. Once the poems have been completed, each student stands in the front of the class and introduces him or herself by reading their poems.

After we have gotten to know one another, we shift focus to the rules we will have in our classroom. I present the students with a giant poster board with “Community Rules” written across the top, but the rest is blank. The students then are broken into smaller groups where they are to discuss what they think is the most important rule to have in our new community. Once each group has agreed on a rule, we share them with the rest of the class and discuss why we think each is important and what each rule looks like in action. The final list is added to the poster board and hung in the front of the class. I then ask, “We came up with these rules as a class, can we all agree to follow them for the remainder of our time together?” The students all agree that they can.