It takes a change in the mind set on the part of the student to move them from a sphere of disinterest and ambivalence to place of care and concern, while this endeavour can be initiated by the teacher, it’s the student whose active participation is needed. It’s my belief that the current classroom model needs to be changed and revamped. The current model (also my model here in korea) where “students come in, they study, and leave, doesn’t create an open environment in which teachers can share their care and concern with their students. The classroom model needs to shift its focus from a place where academics is the main concern to a place where students feel more welcome, in a space of safety, security, and equality. In this setting, students can reflect on their actions and understand the consequences of their actions while engaging in the learning process. While I truly desire to cater to the emotional needs of my students the vast majority of teachers in After school English Programs(AEP) are merely there because they have a foreign face.
When talking about a positive classroom environment in which care and concern have a safe place to play, the students themselves need a safe space to interact. Here the overall classroom environment needs to be one of equality, understanding, and where students are free from any form negativity. There are 3 components required to facilitate this, but all work in concert for the final goal of establishing a classroom that creates a positive classroom climate. These individual components are, the teacher, the classroom setup, and the emotional environment in which the students engage in the learning process.
The teacher
The teacher is the leader of the classroom, and as such he has to be the final authority on interactions between the students. As the authority figure, the teacher has to maintain a level of decorum in which he or she enhance the natural flow of the class and not detract from the learning process. In activity 1, we viewed reference material that gave suggestions in which a teacher can create a positive classroom environment. In his book, “The Art and Science of Teaching,” Morzano lists 8 action steps that the teacher can actively engage in, in order to establish and maintain effective relationships with students. In order to show care and concern in the classroom and foster a positive learning environment the teacher should focus on steps six through eight.
Step 6 titled “Consistently Enforce Positive and Negative Consequences.” Morzano stresses that while there should be no fear of discipline during classroom conversation and interaction time; there are some instances that demand the teacher to use discipline as a tool. Morzano suggestions involve consistency when responding to positive and negative actions within the classroom. If the teacher is consistent with both a positive system of rewards and a negative system of consequences, the students have a clear understanding of the behavioural etiquette that exists within the classroom.
In step 7 titled “Promote a Sense of Emotional Objectivity”, and 8, “Maintain a Cool Exterior.” The reading suggests that the teacher should maintain his or her emotional control and as such the students will follow in their teachers lead. Showing care and concern towards a student’s emotional problem doesn’t necessarily require an overly emotional response, but is illustrated in the teacher’s ability to maintain emotional objectivity when handling highly stressful situations. In cases where the teacher is impartial when handling student conflicts, the student is given an insight into their teacher’s ability to show concern without having his or her opinions or emotions affect their decisions or judgements. The belief is that if the teacher leads by example, the students may enact the same behaviour inside and outside the classroom.Being in an AEP program, or more importantly the “foreign face” I’m constantly being watched by students, they impersonate me, act like me, because its fun for them. There exists the desire to be a role model, and I do with my emotions and (sometimes) attention to detail, but as a foreign language speaker I can’t be there for them emotionally, I can’t even mediate arguments very well.
Here is a video that talks about creating an emotional space, something I’d very much like to do.
The physical setup of the classroom – In reviewing tolerance.org’s, “Critical Practices for Anti-bias Education,” devotes an entire chapter to classroom setup. This classroom set up plays an integral part in creating a positive educational environment as students spend a lot of time there, and their physical surroundings can have an appreciable amount of influence over them. In the article it gives 2 different classroom setups. While each of these setups have their advantages and disadvantages, there is one that promotes interaction and engagement, while the other promotes focus on the teacher. Here we will look at Classroom decor, desk positioning, and student responsibilities.
Desk positioning – In order to create a cross cultural positive classroom environment that shows care and concern, the students themselves need the space which they can focus on themselves and each other, not just the teacher. Here the desk positioning can be utilized to focus on partners, groups, or individually. Seated separately the students have personal reflection time away from distractions, here they can come to a better understanding of how they themselves operate. Moving the desks together with a preferred partner can create a space for two students to share in some fun while working on a task. Working with desks together in groups can strengthen bonds and open avenues for conversation to an extent that other seating arrangements just don’t offer. In my school this is something I can offer, but as I don’t have my own classroom it’s a lot of work at the beginning and end of each day.
Classroom décor – Maintaining the proper decorations in class can also contribute to a positive climate. Teachers who have multiple cultures in one classroom are becoming more and more ubiquitous. Here the goal of the teacher is to try and equally represent each culture. This can be done by allowing students to hang posters of their hero’s or having maps of different countries. This can lead to students feeling like they belong and their heritage is important here. Conversely Imagine how a student would feel if a classroom was filled with posters of one culture. This can alienate the other cultures in the room and cause resentment or annoyance. Here having different cultures represented can open doors for interactions and conversations that would otherwise be missing. Not having my own room, this simply isn’t feasible.
Student responsibilities – Teachers should assign classroom responsibilities to multicultural groups when possible. This mixes students and puts them into situations where they can be active together in a variety of situations. Mixed cultural students who work together may start seeing classmates more as equals if they all engaged in similar levels of work. The idea here is that even though the students may be culturally diverse, they can all do the same job to a similar degree of success, and this similar ability may set equality in the students minds. Currently I have teams and team captains, each captain is responsible making sure their groups workspace is cleaned up.
Here is a video that speaks specifically to items in classroom and item placement
The emotional environment
When talking about a positive classroom environment in which care and concern have a place to flourish, the students themselves need a safe place for their emotions to play. In Activity 1 we learned about how to develop a positive relationship with the students, the underlying requirement it seemed was that before any of this could happen, a safe emotional environment was needed. While this was not directly stated it did seem that a lot of the theories and action steps actually take place within a safe emotional environment. This environment needs to be one of understanding and freedom from negativity. There are a few ways to go about this, but all reach the final goal of establishing a classroom that gives students respect and understanding no matter what background or racial group they’re from. Through Mutual respect and open conversation without fear of discipline this goal can be achieved.
Mutual respect – One important part of constructing an emotional environment is to establish that all students deserve the respect they need as a person. This initially is maintained by the teacher to ensure that all students receive the respect due them. Once the students understand that everyone is equally valuable and begin to put it into practice, the teacher can then begin to slowly back off and let students interact by themselves. While the teacher allows the students to interact as they see fit, he or she maintains watch that all are maintaining the required etiquette.
Open conversation, not discipline – Students react extremely well to leading questions and talking through issues. Where they don’t do well is when they are disciplined harshly. In the Pikas “Model of Shared Concern” from activity 2, bullies and victims met individually and collectively with the teacher to talk out issues. This was done under the understanding that there would be no punishment for bully or victim, they were brought together to talk out the issues. The “Model of Shared Concern” emphasized that each student would offer suggestions on how to fix the situation in question. Likewise, to promote and maintain a positive classroom climate, this method of open discourse should be used daily to foster cooperation. Open dialogue with a teacher mediating can ensure that respect is achieved during cross culture conversations, if there are any issues between the students, the teacher can step in and lead the conversation in a more profitable direction. Here, because I am teaching in a different language, I’ve very little ability to engage with them on this level
Once these steps have been followed, I feel that the classroom will become a more positive place. If the emotional environment, and physical environment are setup in their proper ways the teacher can then lead his students into mutual respect and understanding throughout their lives and not just in the classroom.
Refrences
Teaching Tolerance. (2014). Critical Practices for Anti-biased Education. Retrieved on October 28, 2016, fromhttp://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/general/PDA%20Critical%20Practices_0.pdf
Education Art The – Amazon S3. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/platform-user-content/prod-copy/get_help_resources/activity_resources/module4/The_Art_and_Science_of_Teaching.pdf
Sparks, S. D. (2016). Social-Emotional Needs Entwined with Students’ Learning, Security. Retrieved fromhttp://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/01/10/16environment.h32.html
(2012). Responsibility, Respect, and Relationships. Creating Emotionally Safe Classrooms. Retrieved October, fromhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svpsjicKRG0
(2015). Flexible Classrooms: Providing the Learning Environment That Kids Need. Retrieved fromhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cscJcRKYxA
strangeandwonderfulthings 