Domain 2: The Classroom Environment
Domain 2 of Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Professional Practice is The Classroom Environment Domain. In this domain, a teacher reflects on his or her interactions and relationships that occur outside of academics. This is where a teacher examines the classroom atmosphere and how it is conducive to or hinders learning. I believe classroom environment is of the utmost importance, and it is something that I view as a priority.
Component 2a: Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport
Creating a supportive classroom environment is so important to student success. This is the part of teaching that I absolutely love—getting to know the students and building the relationships.
Artifact Description:
One of the ways in which I have worked to create an environment of respect and
rapport is through morning meetings. As the students arrive in the morning,
they have approximately 10-15 minutes to work on bell-ringer activities and get
organized and ready for the day. After this time, I call the students back to
the morning meeting spot in the back of my classroom. We gather in a circle,
and I give quick directions for the students to greet one another. The greeting
is different every day; sometimes it is “hello” in a different language,
sometimes it is a simple “good morning” or “happy Friday.” Students must stand and greet everyone in the
class then return to the circle. This begins the sharing time, where students
are given a prompt to share with the circle. Everyone participates including
myself. After the sharing piece, comes the activity portion of the meeting.
Sometimes we play a game and sometimes we do a team building challenge.
Artifact Analysis and Link to Domain: During morning meeting, the teacher is interacting with students and the students are interacting with one another. Each component of morning meeting helps the teacher learn about the students and create a sense of belonging and power within the students.The activities can function as an avenue for fun and/or for communicating classroom rules and procedures.
Reflection: Morning meeting has changed somewhat since the beginning of the school year. At the beginning of the school year, I really focused on the community-building piece, especially in regards to the activity portion of the lesson. I also focused on making sure that I had the students saying their names as much as possible during this time, both so I could learn their names, and so they could learn their classmate's names as well. Since then, morning meeting has changed so that we aren’t saying names as often, except during the greeting. I see morning meeting continuing to evolve to meet our needs as we experience different challenges and successes throughout the school year.
Artifact Analysis and Link to Domain: During morning meeting, the teacher is interacting with students and the students are interacting with one another. Each component of morning meeting helps the teacher learn about the students and create a sense of belonging and power within the students.The activities can function as an avenue for fun and/or for communicating classroom rules and procedures.
Reflection: Morning meeting has changed somewhat since the beginning of the school year. At the beginning of the school year, I really focused on the community-building piece, especially in regards to the activity portion of the lesson. I also focused on making sure that I had the students saying their names as much as possible during this time, both so I could learn their names, and so they could learn their classmate's names as well. Since then, morning meeting has changed so that we aren’t saying names as often, except during the greeting. I see morning meeting continuing to evolve to meet our needs as we experience different challenges and successes throughout the school year.
Component 2b: Establishing a Culture for Learning
Creating a classroom environment that is conducive to learning is a necessity. The student should feel proud of his or her work and have a large part in the decisions made within the classroom.
Artifact Description: During the first week of school, my students created their own mission statement. As a class, we brainstormed ideas of “who we are” and “why we are here.” After the ideas were brainstormed, the students were placed into small groups and their group was responsible for making a mission statement using the sentence stem: “We are ___________, and we are here to ___________.” We then read the sentence stems and the students voted on a favorite. We then tweaked the chosen statement to fit our needs.
Artifact Analysis and Link to Domain: The students viewed this as their purpose of being here and working through 5th grade. It helps guide them to be focused learners and I especially like the part where they think towards the future. By doing this early in the year, it helped to set up the expectations for learning and achievement. It was especially powerful because the students came up with it themselves; I gave no input. This artifact also demonstrates student pride in work; they were very excited to make it. Deciding and compromising on a statement helped bring them together as a community of learners.
Reflection: Since creating the mission statement, the students have grown as a classroom community and they strive to meet the expectation that they set for themselves. I would like to build the reading of our mission statement into our morning meeting time. Another idea is to build in time for reflection at the end of the day, where the students are to think about how they demonstrated the mission statement and helped to move towards their goal.
Artifact Description: During the first week of school, my students created their own mission statement. As a class, we brainstormed ideas of “who we are” and “why we are here.” After the ideas were brainstormed, the students were placed into small groups and their group was responsible for making a mission statement using the sentence stem: “We are ___________, and we are here to ___________.” We then read the sentence stems and the students voted on a favorite. We then tweaked the chosen statement to fit our needs.
Artifact Analysis and Link to Domain: The students viewed this as their purpose of being here and working through 5th grade. It helps guide them to be focused learners and I especially like the part where they think towards the future. By doing this early in the year, it helped to set up the expectations for learning and achievement. It was especially powerful because the students came up with it themselves; I gave no input. This artifact also demonstrates student pride in work; they were very excited to make it. Deciding and compromising on a statement helped bring them together as a community of learners.
Reflection: Since creating the mission statement, the students have grown as a classroom community and they strive to meet the expectation that they set for themselves. I would like to build the reading of our mission statement into our morning meeting time. Another idea is to build in time for reflection at the end of the day, where the students are to think about how they demonstrated the mission statement and helped to move towards their goal.
Component 2c: Managing Classroom Procedures:
Managing classroom procedures is an integral part of teaching. When students aren’t sure what to do and clear procedures are not established, behavior problems occur.
Artifact Description: I created a classroom procedures PowerPoint that I shared with students on the first day of school. I printed off the slides and hung them around the room. I had the students complete a scavenger hunt to fill in the blanks on a worksheet outlining the procedures. The procedures included entering the classroom, what to do when a student has finished an assignment, what the teacher does to get students’ attention, how the students should leave the classroom, use the bathroom, turn in homework, etc.
Artifact Analysis and Link to Domain: For the first month of school, I left the PowerPoint slides up around the classroom and we would revisit them from time to time. I also reteach and remodel the procedures to students as needed—especially the attention-getters.
Reflection: Managing classroom procedures is always a work in progress. Procedures may need to change in response to student behavior. Students must know the procedures, respect them, and show automaticity by completing them without prompting. The strengths of this artifact are that the expectations were explained clearly and presented in multiple ways. As for areas of improvement, I have already seen that I have altered some of the procedures since the first day. For example, not ALL homework gets turned in every day. The procedures could continue to change as the year progresses and I anticipate them changing the longer I am teaching.
Artifact Description: I created a classroom procedures PowerPoint that I shared with students on the first day of school. I printed off the slides and hung them around the room. I had the students complete a scavenger hunt to fill in the blanks on a worksheet outlining the procedures. The procedures included entering the classroom, what to do when a student has finished an assignment, what the teacher does to get students’ attention, how the students should leave the classroom, use the bathroom, turn in homework, etc.
Artifact Analysis and Link to Domain: For the first month of school, I left the PowerPoint slides up around the classroom and we would revisit them from time to time. I also reteach and remodel the procedures to students as needed—especially the attention-getters.
Reflection: Managing classroom procedures is always a work in progress. Procedures may need to change in response to student behavior. Students must know the procedures, respect them, and show automaticity by completing them without prompting. The strengths of this artifact are that the expectations were explained clearly and presented in multiple ways. As for areas of improvement, I have already seen that I have altered some of the procedures since the first day. For example, not ALL homework gets turned in every day. The procedures could continue to change as the year progresses and I anticipate them changing the longer I am teaching.
Classroom Procedures PowerPoint- September 2014
Component 2d:
Managing Student Behavior
Rewarding positive behavior and redirecting negative behavior is very important to classroom management and the learning environment. I use a combination of both in my classroom. I try as much as possible to front-load the students by outlining my expectations for them.
Reflection: Managing student behavior is something I am constantly thinking about as a teacher. I want to correct and redirect negative behaviors and reward students who are behaving appropriately. Consistency is always something I’m concerned with and I strive to be sure to apply the same expectations on all students.
Reflection: Managing student behavior is something I am constantly thinking about as a teacher. I want to correct and redirect negative behaviors and reward students who are behaving appropriately. Consistency is always something I’m concerned with and I strive to be sure to apply the same expectations on all students.
Component 2e: Organizing Physical Space
Organizing the physical space helps the classroom feel inviting for the students and the teacher. The classroom should be arranged in a way that utilizes the space and provides areas for independent, small group, and whole group work.
Artifact Description: This is a picture of my classroom reading corner. Students are assigned a day to sit on the couches and read during independent reading time (the couch schedule), otherwise the couches are open to partner work or group work as well. Students enjoy sitting on the couches and cannot wait for their opportunity to sit there. This is actually a Hoover tradition in which all 5th grade classrooms have couches.
Artifact Analysis and Link to Domain: Having the couches in the classroom helps to give a place to make reading, as well as partner and small group work, efficient and enjoyable. They are accessible, arranged in a way that is visible from all vantage points in the classroom, and create a secluded area in the back of the classroom.
Reflection: Arranging the classroom to utilize space is sometimes a challenge. When I first saw my room back in August, I thought it was a huge room. Then, after moving all of the furniture out from the center of the room, it was amazing how much the classroom shrunk. I utilized the space as much as I could creating a reading area, utilizing storage carts, creating my desk space, allowing room for a large group meeting place in the back of the classroom, and a small group meeting place around a kidney table in the back. I may move my desks into a different arrangement and move the morning meeting spot to a different place in the room, allowing more space for my small group table in the back of the room.
Artifact Description: This is a picture of my classroom reading corner. Students are assigned a day to sit on the couches and read during independent reading time (the couch schedule), otherwise the couches are open to partner work or group work as well. Students enjoy sitting on the couches and cannot wait for their opportunity to sit there. This is actually a Hoover tradition in which all 5th grade classrooms have couches.
Artifact Analysis and Link to Domain: Having the couches in the classroom helps to give a place to make reading, as well as partner and small group work, efficient and enjoyable. They are accessible, arranged in a way that is visible from all vantage points in the classroom, and create a secluded area in the back of the classroom.
Reflection: Arranging the classroom to utilize space is sometimes a challenge. When I first saw my room back in August, I thought it was a huge room. Then, after moving all of the furniture out from the center of the room, it was amazing how much the classroom shrunk. I utilized the space as much as I could creating a reading area, utilizing storage carts, creating my desk space, allowing room for a large group meeting place in the back of the classroom, and a small group meeting place around a kidney table in the back. I may move my desks into a different arrangement and move the morning meeting spot to a different place in the room, allowing more space for my small group table in the back of the room.
Goals and Alternatives:
1.) Provide better management and motivation for smooth student transitions.
2.) Create and post anchor charts for procedures within the classroom.
- Implement a point system that would be connected to a reward (i.e. extra break time, additional brain breaks, game time, etc.). Students would compete as table groups and as a class to earn points.
- Consistently use a timer to speed up student transitions.
2.) Create and post anchor charts for procedures within the classroom.
- Make an anchor chart for transitions.
- Make an anchor chart for Words Their Way time and Guided Math Procedures.