Classroom Management
Dr. Elsass
Investigation Inquiry
I have seen some great strategies for creating a culture for learning during my
field experience observation. One thing in particular that I believe my mentor teacher
does a great job of in her classroom is informing the students of the importance of what
they are learning. She will start each lesson by telling students the goal and writing it out
in form of an I can statement on the whiteboard for them to refer back to. She will
explain the importance of the content by making some sort of personal connection or
giving a real-world example of the material for the students. For example, when they
were discussing the different continents, she would show each continent in relation to
where we are in the United States on the globe. Allowing students to interact with the
globe and manipulate it themselves helped them to better understand what they were
learning and how it connects to their own lives. She also discusses how certain activities
or lessons connect to the future learning they will be doing in first grade. She encourages
students by saying things like You all look like first graders when youre taking your
spelling quizzes! This always gets students excited and further engages them in the
lesson.
My mentor teacher also uses the knowledge of her students likes and interests to
create lessons that are intriguing and meaningful to them. This is critical because
individuals with a strong interest in a specific area are intrinsically motivated to succeed
in that area of endeavor (Girmus, 2011). When students enjoy what they are learning,
they show higher levels of engagement in the lesson and take more pride in their work.
Students in this Kindergarten classroom show that they care about the work they produce
as they always take their time during independent practice. The teacher hangs their work
in the hallway and displays it around the classroom, adding to students motivation to
work hard. My mentor teacher makes uses of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators in
the classroom. It is important for teachers to use a mixture of both of these as there is an
emerging consensus that both components of motivation play an important role in the
classroom, and that the two interact to determine student engagement (Girmus, 2011).
One of the ways students are intrinsically motivated is by discussion of being bucket-
fillers. This is something that we have discussed in class and is also used school-wide at
Reagan Elementary. An extrinsic motivator being used in their classroom right now is
tickets that students receive for working hard and showing good behavior. When the
teacher notices, she puts a ticket with the students name on it and they are entered to win
a raffle for their field day coming up in a few weeks. I have seen firsthand how
Lastly, I have enjoyed seeing the different ways in which my mentor teacher
promotes a culturally responsive environment. She sets high expectations for all students
and communicates them through explicitly stating them in class as well as posting them
around the classroom. Make sure that you let each student know that you expect them to
engage, perform, and achieve at a high level, rather than making excuses in your own
mind for some students who dont participate at optimal levels at times (Kozleski,
2010). I believe that this is a really important tip for all teachers to be reminded of
because I think that sometimes we do this unintentionally without really noticing. This is
concerning because we have discussed in class how our expectations for our students
directly affects how they will perform. It is essential for us to hold high expectations for
each and every one of our students and help them to reach their full potential. My mentor
teacher also encourages class discussion, an important factor when cultivating culturally
responsive environment. It is critical for students to feel that they are able to use their
voices and learn to be comfortable in doing so. She uses the higher-level thinking