Classroom Environment

The feel of a classrooms environment will either open up or close down lines of communication with you and your students. The way you set up your classroom, the physical attributes, like: bulletin boards, signs, etc will effect how your students learn. When a child walks into a classroom, their first impression of you is going to be of how the classroom is set up. You truly need to plan out and play with the setup of your classroom, it's a balancing act, too much or too little is going to take away from learning.  A teacher is also responsible for the daily "climate" of the classroom, whether it be positive or negative. Each and every day when you enter your room to start teaching young minds, you NEED to put on a bright smile, whether you feel like it or not. Those students can tell when you aren't excited about a lesson and that will rub off on them. You need to be excited about teaching them, no matter what the subject is. If you are excited it will make the classroom environment so much for fun and the students will want to and be able to learn so much! How do you begin to build a positive environment for your students to learn in? Well, first and foremost, GET TO KNOW YOUR STUDENTS, find out what backgrounds they come from, become familiar with their different cultures. Second, when you see a student doing something worthwhile or when they say something awesome, tell EVERYONE about it. Help the students to see one another as significant contributors to the classroom and to society. Third, when someone in the class does something fun and creative, DISPLAY it. Fourth, allow room for all types of learners, some students need interaction to learn, some need it to be quiet. There should be times in every school day to allow each student to learn the way they do best. Fifth, encourage students to get to know one another, this is where MORNING MEETING comes in handy. Lastly, celebrate success, if not every day, every week! Have students volunteer to share positive things they have seen in the classroom or on the playground. This is just a small snippet of what you can do in a classroom to encourage a positive climate where maximum learning can take place. You want your students to be excited to come to school, so making the environment they walk into friendly and welcoming should be on your top ten list of things to do!! I honestly feel that every single one of these things is essential for a classroom to run effectively, in order to produce successful students. I also think it is well worth mentioning, that although you are the adult in the classroom and trained in education, the classroom is not just yours, it belongs to all of your students as well. I think it is extremely important to make sure that each student knows that you are all part of a team and that it is EVERYONES responsibility to make the classroom better. This shared responsibility makes everyone accountable.  I think allowing students to have this type of power and challenge in a classroom is very effective to contributing to how well they learn and makes their learning experience that much more memorable.