Mathematical Sciences, Secondary Education
SAFE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
In order to exemplify this element, I must strive to "use rituals, routines, and proactive responses that create and maintain a safe physical and intellectual environment where students take academic risks and play an active role -- individually and collectively -- in preventing behaviors that interfere with learning" (DESE CAP). I must also aim to model this element.
FOURTH ESSENTIAL ELEMENT
Providing a safe learning environment for my students was one of my top priorities throughout my practicum. In order for my students to truly open up and to feel as if they can show me what they have learned without fearing my judgement or that I may correct them, I needed to establish trust and camaraderie in the classroom. This was particularly true for each of my classes in different aspects.
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My sophomore Inclusion students were mostly on Special Education IEP and 504 Plans, which often caused them to see themselves as sore thumbs and as easily judged, as well as had spent the prior year learning from my mentor teacher and had spent a few weeks at the beginning of my practicum becoming re-accustomed to his teaching and question response styles. Thankfully, these students had previously had a student teacher for the prior semester during their freshman year, and this was not their first year in high school in general, so I was able to gain some leeway when trying to guide them and to gain a bit of credibility in their eyes. Although each of my two classes of sophomores had vastly different personalities and class sizes (especially as some students switched to honors throughout the semester), they each progressed in their trust of me at a somewhat equal, steady pace. Eventually, students who had not really responded to my quips in class as much as others and who did not always obey or complete their work when I asked them to do something became more comfortable with piping up during class, with volunteering answers or board work, and with complying with my requests when I attempted to steer them and the class back on track (see My Students).
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My freshman English Language Learner (ELL) students came into the school year with my mentor teacher as their main guide for about half of the practicum. However, I made sure to walk around the room and to help them as often as I could during lectures and during practice activities, as well as constructed a spreadsheet of each of their different home languages and countries so that I could consciously begin to relate to them in as many aspects and experiences as I could throughout the year. I used alternative vocabulary on the board or maybe even made a joke in Spanish (as many of the students in my class hailed from countries that recognize a Latin dialect as their first language) to get a few giggles and to break down some small walls. By the time that I was leaving my students for the year, many of them were asking me questions in class and individually more so than they were asking for help from my mentor teacher, even if they were questions about material that we had covered a long time ago, and there was always laughter and a light spirit in the classroom during even the most complicated lesson.
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Both sections of my "it's-day-two-and-they-already-have-senioritis" seniors, as I once described them, seemed to warm up to me more quickly than I expected them to, considering that it was their last year and that they were all budding adults with highly refined skills in their shops and with a bit of a cynicism toward math. The topics that I was teaching to them were all topics that they had seen before, and I myself have a sort of baby face and would often get mistaken for a student in their class, so I had to find a balance between thoroughly teaching them the material and not causing them to see me as condescending or as pompous for my "age" (although all of my students seemed to think that I was 26, even though they knew that I go to WPI, so this did not seem to turn into too much of an issue). I made sure to relate the material that I was discussing with them back to real experiences as much as possible, both to have them see me as credible and as somewhat wise, but also to make them more receptive to the material and thus more likely to question it, to apply it to their shops, and to inquire for advice in how to move from that point forward. Some of my favorite moments were when a senior asked me about college or about applying a new math topic to finances and loans (as I often talked about how my mother is a financial advisor and raised me to think about money) or even just asked about moving around and how to support themselves (as they knew that I am from Chicago, IL and have a lot of travel and Navy Life experience to share with them as they may be preparing to travel post-high school or to join the military). Either way, my seniors seemed to trust my opinion and often listened attentively when I spoke in class or requested that they get to work.
MY LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
Getting students to feel comfortable and trusting in a classroom can seem a much easier task than it is. A teacher's job is not solely to teach. Students come to their instructors for all sorts of issues and situations at home or in school, often confiding in their comfort or asking for advice or simply searching for some assurance and praise. Thus, even remembering a student's name early in the school year or recalling information about their in-class preferences or their activities outside of class can make a student feel welcome and supported, and thus more likely to open up in class and to accept their teacher's offer to help them to learn and to grow each day in new ways.
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Early on in my classroom, I made sure to not only learn each student's name by the very first day and to recall where they sat when passing out papers before class even started (to save time), but to make it a mission of mine to call on or to receive a response from at least 75% of my students during each lecture. Over time, this evolved to observing who was less participatory in the class by my own gauge and creating a goal of having at least one or two of the particularly less-open students give some input each day. Each of my lesson plans allowed for question time and kept a backup idea in mind in case I needed to review something that had previously been covered yet not yet absorbed for many students. I did this to show my students how I could respond to their needs and how I would be willing to rework a lesson and even to improvise if that is what they needed to grasp the material. I planned my curriculum flexibly and I made sure to handle each setback or unique learning situation as a growth opportunity.
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Several times throughout my practicum, I had to utilize this quite particularly and to refine my patience and four of my main Gallups® Strengths -- Command, Ideation, Individualization, and Strategic -- to guide specific situations back to the lesson effectively without detracting from the power of the comment or the learning moment and to reduce any possible embarrassment or even ridicule on behalf of my students. I kept these in mind whether I was handling a student early in the practicum who would spontaneously shout inappropriate words or references with the hope of receiving an agitated response out of me (to which I sternly told him that that was not appropriate and which I addressed with him after class where his peers could not overhear yet still knew that I was not accepting his outburst or letting it fly), or I was trying to get a group back on track during work time for our Proofs Project (see Final Reflection) and simultaneously having to keep a straight face and to explain an idiom that I had used but that a student had totally misinterpreted in a comical way, or I was responding to a students inquiry about a supposed "Left Triangle" while smoothly trying to relate it back to our notes on congruence and mentioning that the angles in a triangle can be in any location so long as they are the same (diffusing laughter in the room, especially as this student was already easily embarrassed and somewhat of a challenge to make feel comfortable in the class and was just starting to open up to me when she had peculiar questions -- see My Students). I became proud of my growing ability over time to handle situations that could have possibly ended very badly had I responded differently.