Personal Statement: Classroom Environment

Classroom Environment I plan on teaching at the Elementary level specifically first grade. I think that the first day of school is critical in establishing classroom environment. Creating a positive learning environment is believe is done through establishing classroom rules and procedures and then following through with them. In Charles (2014) Wong says that by creating rules and procedures for students to follow and then enforcing them, you are providing “a safe and effective learning environment” (pg. 120). On the first day of school I plan on greeting my students at the door, immediately creating a relationship with my students. I want my students to know that I care about them, I believe that if students know that you care about them …show more content…
As a teacher this shows me that I will have a very diverse set of students from a variety of backgrounds and cultures with a multitude of interests. As a multicultural teacher it’s important for me to include all of my students in a lesson. It’s important to me that my students see themselves in the content I teach them. In first grade, books are often used to start off a lesson or to guide students to a deeper understanding of a topic, I want to make sure the cultures of my students are represented in these books. When my students get to do silent reading, I want my students to be able to choose books that include people from all over the world, representing a vast amount of cultures. On the first day of school, I plan on reading a book, a book that represents my students and their culture, to the students about accepting each other’s differences. I think that addressing race and culture on the first day is important. We all have differences just as we all have similarities, but we shouldn’t judge others by what we look like or what we believe in. I plan on sending home a questionnaire for parents to fill out about their child before the first day of school, I plan on using this information when planning my first day activities. In Charles (2014) Glasser talks about how it’s important to not only have students do work that is useful but also make sure what is being …show more content…
In Charles (2014) Jones talks about the importance of body language such as eye contact, facial expression and physical proximity. Both eye contact and physical proximity help maintain classroom management. When students aren’t paying attention and/or are messing around often times you don’t have to say a word, instead walk and stand right next to the student or stop talking and make eye contact with the student off task. These two suggestions from Jones make it so you aren’t disrupting instruction but you are still having good classroom management by keeping students behaving and on task. I think it’s important for students to know you’re the boss, if they believe this then they will look to you for many of their answers. In Charles (2014) Jones talks about how you carry your body. He talks about how students can see how confident you are by the way you stand and talk, if students sense you are nervous or afraid they will act on it. Students will also look at your facial expressions when you are talking. If an upcoming lesson isn’t that great and you say it’s going to be fun but your facial expressions don’t back it up your students will see that. I believe that your students will be a mirror of yourself. If you are excited about something, they’ll be excited about it. Same goes for the