Reflections on Classroom Climate

My mother started working as a school psychologist when I was a toddler and continued to do so for the next 30+ years.  Growing up in my house, we did a lot of "processing" our feelings. While other kids played Monopoly or Sorry on game night, we played the "Ungame" where advancing in the game required answering questions like "Do you ever feel lonely?" or "Describe a happy family".  Growing up, I was nurtured with a sense of self-reflection and an ability to talk about my thoughts and perceptions.  As I reflect on my path in education and life, I now know that these are skills that have helped me to be a better student, friend and parent.  

When I think about creating a positive classroom climate, I think about ways to nurture the development of the social and emotional skills of my students.  In 1943, Abraham Maslow wrote about human development in regards to a hierarchy of needs (Wikipedia, n.d.)

According to Maslow people need to feel nurtured physically, emotionally and socially, before they are capable of respecting themselves or others, and more over to push themselves to grow, learn and be creative. When applied to a classroom model we see how important it can be to create an environment where boundaries between teacher and student are clear, expectations of classroom behavior have been set and students are given the space, language and time to understand themselves and each other (Guditus, 2013).

Creating routines and systems that facilitate such opportunities takes planning, consistency and an investment of time.  Systems, as noted in this Prezi, include class agreements, individual and whole class incentive systems, clear and consistent deadlines for assignments, etc.  Routines include daily greetings, opportunities for physical activity/movement and regular calls or newsletters home to families.  Strategies outlined by Robert Maslow in the Art and Science of Teaching (2007) range from keeping an objective tone when interacting with students to integrating students' interests into lessons.

For me, the community circle is one of the most dynamic ways to create connections and set a tone for the classroom climate.  The circle time can be used to practice simple social skills, like introductions and greetings. The circle can be used to practice idea sharing and listening. Students can talk about their life, culture and families, cultivating respect and understanding. As students get older, circle time can be used as a safe space to process their own thoughts and feelings.  Check out this amazing community circle in an Oakland, Ca high school:

Similar to the Smart Hearts and Be an Ally videos we watched for our Activity 2, we can see that giving students opportunities to reflect on their own experiences and empathize with the experiences of others results in a more peaceful and positive community.  While it will take some time to make such connections and create a sense of emotional safety, I think it will be as important to the learning environment as well structured lesson plans and instruction.

Sources

Friedman, C ( October, 2012) Restorative Justice in Oakland Schools: Tier One: Community Building Circle. From YouTube. Retrieved on March 26th, 2014 from: http://youtu.be/RdKhcQrLD1w

Guditus, S (Feb, 2013)  Maslow Hierarchy of School Needs. Google image search. Retrieved on March 26th, 2014 from: http://sguditus.blogspot.com/2013/02/maslows-hierarchy-of-school-needs-steve.html

Marzano, Robert J. (2007) The art and science of teaching : a comprehensive framework for effective instruction. Alexandria, VA; Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Need. (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved on March 26th, 2014 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

Using Digital Tools in the Classroom

I have been creating learning content at Playworks for almost a decade, without any formal training on content design.  One of the benefits of being involved in the organization in a period of rapid growth was the opportunity to be creative and involved in the professional development of our program and staff.  The flip side of that coin was learning (sometimes the hard way!) that creating lessons or trainings with vague objectives and/or poor assessment of understanding did not lead to long term learning for the participants.  Often managers were dealing with reoccurring issues for which people had already (sometimes recently!) been trained.

A few years after I took on a leadership position, we received a training on Bloom’s Taxonomy and objective writing.  It was at that point that I learned the difference between a vague objective  - Participants will be able to understand the value of group management techniques – and clear objectives with a demonstrable assessment – Participants will be able to name four group management techniques; Participants will be able to demonstrate one group management strategy to engage a distracted group. 

Needless to say, a better understanding of the purpose and strategy of objective writing made it much easier develop trainings. Identifying the learning needs informed the objectives and identifying the objectives informed the learning activities.  The process is the same when thinking about incorporating technology into lesson plans. If I am asking learners to memorize a process, I might ask learners to use a mind- mapping tool like X-Mind to demonstrate a process flow.   I would not ask learners to demonstrate a process flow using YouTube videos, as that tool does not best meet the needs of the learning objective. 

When selecting digital tools in a lesson plan, it is essential to reflect on the needs of the learner and the objectives being sought by the lesson.  Digital tools can be versatile as well as tremendously distracting so it is important to figure out if a tool not only addresses the learning objective, but is also a high quality method of meeting the learning objective.  As an educator, keeping learning objectives in mind, I imagine there will also be times when I will need to actively investigate new digital learning tools to assess their useful application in lesson planning. There may be times when relying on traditional teaching methods to meet a learning objective is easier and more accessible. With the intention of cultivating students with robust 21st century skills it may be the case that I will need to actively seek a new digital tool to support a learning objective. I look forward to the challenge!