Domain 2: The Classroom Environment
An effective teacher's classroom should be a place of respect, positivity, empowerment, equity, and acceptance. It is the teacher's role from the very beginning to create an environment that is conducive to student learning. It is crucial for students to feel safe, welcome, respected, and cared for in order to have successful student learning. Therefore, it is my goal to ensure that students understand that these concepts are the foundation of my classroom environment and guidelines. It is important to me that I can make every student feel confident in their abilities, knowledge, and what they contribute to my classroom. An accomplished educator must be able to manage their classroom procedures, manage student behavior, and organize the classroom space.
2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, 2e
2a (Creating an Environment of Respect & Rapport),
2b (Establishing a Culture for Learning), 2c (Managing Classroom Procedures), 2d (Managing Student Behavior), 2e (Organizing Physical Space)
These guidelines and expectations were from the dance class course overview and syllabus introduced to my students at the beginning of the year. We went over what these meant thoroughly and made sure everyone understood them. Setting up these guidelines from the very start helped make my classroom management and student behavior much more organized and successful.
Before each class period I had, I would post a "Do Now" up on the projector screen. I did this so that when my students entered the classroom, they would have an activity to jump right into. It typically involved warming up the body properly as well as a review of a movement or concept they have learned, which I used as an assessment. Below are a few examples of "Do Now's" that I have implemented.
After leading a portion of class, and giving the students the instruction on what they were doing that day, I would post up the daily focus on the projector screen. This was so that the students could have a visual aid readily available to reference when necessary throughout whichever activity or project they were working on. Below are a few examples of these daily focus instructions that I have given to my students.
In my dance classroom, the students often engage in a lot of discussion and verbal communication. In order to give positive, effective, and constructive feedback to their peers, as well as to receive feedback from their peers, I have given them these guidelines to follow. This template of sentence starters, concepts, and questions gives the students the necessary language and knowledge of how to give feedback to their peers in a classroom setting. Below is the document in which the students utilized for this component of my dance class.
My classroom management plan: