Creating an environment for learning We have spent a good amount of time thinking about what our ideal classroom would look like and surprisingly this is actually the first time I have thought about it. I have always planned on being a phys. ed. Teacher but never thought of the gym as my classroom. But I have definitely learned something’s that I feel are important to creating a successful learning environment. The first is that I would have the students moving around from the beginning of class different activities would be set up during the class for students to do while everyone is getting changed. Attendance is usually where the most time is wasted sitting around and at Henry Munro they have the dot system that help prevent that. All the students are assigned a dot on the gym floor numbered 1-90 and when the whistle is blown everyone needs to go to their dot for attendance. This saves the teacher a ton of time when you only have to check the dots that are not rather than all the dots that are. If I were in a traditional classroom I would like my class to be as active as possible with minimal sitting. I recently learned of a company that manufactures standing desks for students (see video). This will keep students active and moving while working and will keep a greater number of students engaged. Another thing that I would want in my classroom are walls that were completely covered by whiteboards or painted with chalkboard paint so that my students would be able to write a map out all their ideas no matter how big or small. This will allow for great collaboration between students and for them to be able to get as creative as they want to be rather than just sitting at their desks working individually. The problem we as educators will know doubt run into is cost, all these ideas that we will come up with will cost money and if they are not within the mold of the board then a lot of our innovative dreams will be crushed. We will need to make sure our classrooms are conducive to optimal learning for students and as we have all learned that means no rows for our students. If possible circular desks would be ideal, we could also set up single desk is groups of 4 in squares or an L shape allowing for collaborative work to be done.
0 Comments
Entre Les Murs was a very powerful movie and brought up some conflicting feelings for me and I am very happy we were assigned this film to watch. During my school life I have had two situations that remind me of situations that this movie brought to the forefront. Entre Les Murs is a story of a teacher in Paris, France that deals with a very difficult class in a difficult school. The teachers are constantly stressed by students that seem to care more about disturbing and insulting each other rather than being at school to learn. The main teacher in the film Francois struggles throughout the film trying to balance when to discipline his students and when to use it as a teachable moment, he tries his best to keep everyone engaged in creative ways but more often than not the class gets out of control and Francois loses his cool on a few occasions because of this.
When I was in Gr 7 there was a new homeroom teacher at our school named Mme Zurwinski and she was tasked with dealing with a large number of high-energy students that none of the other homeroom teachers seemed to want. Unfortunately all these high-energy students in one environment created a no win situation for our first time teacher. We overmatched her as a class especially since her way of disciplining us, as a class was quiet time so she didn’t send anyone to the office to start the year hoping that this strategy would calm us down. She became more and more stressed and more and more lost as the year went on their were constant arguments in class because there was very little structure and there were also parent complaints because the students that were actually trying weren’t learning as much the should be since we very rarely got through the lessons that were set out for us. Unfortunately as a class we broke her and after Christmas break she didn’t come back to our class we had a number of supplies for the rest of the school year including our vice principal for the last month and a half since they struggled to fill the vacancy. For the rest of the year I felt very bad for Mme Zurwinski and felt bad for the situation that I was a big part in creating. She was a very good teacher and we didn’t give her a chance, when we were sitting in the gym and everyone’s names were being called we were looking at each other knowing that the year before a lot of the students left sitting in the gym had trouble in the school with specific teachers and we felt as if we were unwanted and left to be with the new teacher and non verbally had decided that no matter what we were going to give whoever we were stuck with a hard time. The struggle for teachers in that situation is to get through to students without losing your cool and it is sometimes an impossible situation. The year after she left I was playing in a basketball tournament at Smithfield elementary school and in between games someone on the staff called out to me and it was Mme Zurwinski she had a new job at this school and she was very happy which was great to see and we talked a little bit and I wanted to apologize but could not muster up the courage and this situation definitely shaped my wanting to become a teacher. The other person who was greatly influential in me being where I am today is Mr. Paul Dias. Now Mr. Dias was my basketball coach for my last 3 years of high school but he turned out to be a lot more influential in my life than just a coach. I am not sure who my godfather is and growing up I was not sure what the whole point of being a godfather was but right now Mr. Dias is who I would consider to be the closest thing to being my godfather. He has talked me through so many situations that without him I know for sure I would not be in this situation today. Much like Soulymane in the film in my 5th year in high school I was under a lot of stress and pressure to get into university to set an example for the rest of my siblings. This stress made me have fits of anger if things didn’t go my way and thankfully teachers would send me to see Mr. Dias to talk me through what was going with me in my life. They kept going with me even when my anger got the best of me. When university applications were due I could not afford the fees associated with the applications and the money I made during the summer to pay for them I had to spend to get my car fixed so I was afraid to ask my mom for the money and the deadline was coming up. We were playing baseball in gym class and I struck out and some of the guys were messing with me but I wasn’t in the mood to joke around and I threw the bat luckily it didn’t hit anyone but this was my third or fourth incident that week. When I was talking to Mr. Dias he wouldn’t let me leave till explained to him what was going on because I was on my way to suspension which no one wanted. I explained to him my financial situation and he made me a deal that he had made to other students before me, the deal was that he would pay for my university application under the condition that if I don’t complete my degree I would have to pay him back and if I did graduate all he wanted in return was a copy of my diploma. To this day Mr. Dias and I are still friends and I can talk to him about anything that is happening in either of his lives he even sent me pictures of his last two children when they were born. The difference between the teachers at my high school and the ones in the movies is that they were actively looking for ways to keep from suspending students depending on the severity of the situation. This allowed students to work through problems we were having and we understood that were a lot of people looking to help. This is obviously not possible in every situation but it is something I hope we all strive for as educators. Francois saw potential in Soulymane especially when they did the self portraits and you can see that he wanted to help him but was unable to figure out a way to get through to him or to get the other teachers to see the glimpses that he did. It was also pretty cool to see the students doing their self portraits and them talking about the feelings they had while doing them which resembled what we discussed in class about the way some of us were feeling about the process. In these uncomfortable situations some of the most creative and inspired work is made and being out of your comfort zone helps us get connected with each other and others that have the pleasure to read our work. |
Archives
November 2015
Categories |