GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

Plan for Managing the Learning Environment

Sarah Beck Martin
1. Classroom Culture and Climate: Write a reflection on what you think constitutes a
positive classroom climate. List 3-5 strategies that you would like to try in your own
classroom. The strategies should rely on professional learning communities and address
the physical, social, and emotional needs of the whole child.

Classroom Culture and Climate

Reflection:
I have been teaching in a classroom for nearly nine years. In that time, I have witnessed and
participated in very positive and safe classroom environments, and some negative and unsafe
classroom environments.
The best environments I taught in were ones were as a class we practiced respect,
responsibility and positive reinforcement from teachers and students. Those classes revolved
around not just the students’ academic success, but their emotional and physical well-being
as well. Students were encouraged to talk amongst themselves and with the teachers when a
problem came up. They knew if they were struggling with a subject, our doors were always
open to talk with them.
I think a positive classroom environment incorporates a few norms and skills that build into
one big one: respect. To have respect, we have to practice patience with our students, our
peers, and our friends. To have respect, we need to be active, especially in listening. When
we listen to the concerns of others, we learn to work with them to address those concerns. In
a positive classroom environment, respect and responsibility play a huge role. Both the
teacher and the students are held to similar standards. An ineffective and overbearing
teacher will not have the same welcoming classroom as a teacher that respects and listens to
their students when they can.

Strategies for Positive Classroom Climate

● Be an active listener: When my students know that I listen to what they are saying,
and am paying attention to their interests, their concerns, and their personal
achievements they are more inclined to be a participant in the classroom.
● Rituals: Starting and ending the class in the same way each time can help signal to the
students when it is time to get ready to both start and leave the classroom. For
example, I currently do a touch base and journal entry with my fifth-grade students.
They know to have their notebooks ready and the categories written down when we
start class. Our last question is always how are you doing today? It also helps to have
lesson rituals and expressions that are often used to signal to students when we are
transitioning to new activities.
● Encourage and model personal responsibility: The teacher needs to model and teach
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responsibility in the classroom. This means the teacher is prepared with all of their
own materials, is on time, and remembers promises made with the class. Students are
expected to show up with their materials, homework, or projects.
● Build confidence: Every child has a strength they bring to the classroom. Some are
great communicators, some are great writers, some are great at delegating work. In
ESL, confidence is an important tool to use the classroom, because the affective filter
(the level of anxiety in using new material/language) can be high. As a teacher, I can
show my students that being perfect isn’t the goal (I make many mistakes in Korean
and I let them show me how to fix it) but putting forth the effort is the goal. By using
positive reinforcement and encouraging their peers to do the same, I can build
confident students. And, a confident student will participate more in the class.
● Respect and responsibility: I believe respect is earned, not given. And I want my
students to demonstrate respect for themselves as individuals, for their teachers, and
to their peers. One strategy that has worked well for me, especially with older
students, is to have them involved in classroom norms. They help design what the
classroom climate will be and are expected to hold each other and the teacher to
those norms. In the past, my students wrote up the norms like a contract, and each
student signed it. When one student went against a norm, even their friends pointed
out that they had agreed to the contract beforehand and were expected to adhere to
it.

Strategies or Modifications for Virtual Learning Environment

All of these strategies are very easily moved to an online learning environment.
Being an active listener: Teachers and students keep their cameras on and microphones
muted when someone is talking. Also, using the “raise hand” function on programs like Zoom
can help students pay attention and take turns. The teacher can use the beginning of class to
check in with the students who can respond to questions or ask their own verbally or using a
chat function. The teacher can encourage active listening by asking students to reiterate
instructions or summarizing what a peer states.
Rituals: Just because a class moves online doesn’t mean that rituals cease. Instead of a
physical time to write in a journal, students can instead respond to a prompt by the teacher
and when the teacher says it’s time-answer. Rituals can also still take place in the form of
instructions and transitions. Using thumbs-up and thumbs-down to answer, expressions to
denote transition times (pencils down, hands off the keyboard, etc).
Encouraging personal responsibility: The teacher models the behavior by having materials
ready: links are live and ready to copy paste, making sure their internet is secure, and the
class is secured. The students are responsible for making sure they have their materials at
hand, or to at least inform the teacher if they aren’t ready.
Building confidence: If some students feel uncomfortable being on screen, let them create an
avatar and ask them to be more participatory in chats. This way the teacher can see they are
being active in the class while acknowledging they might not be as confident as they might be
in a physical class.
Respect and responsibility: Students are discouraged from group chatting on other platforms
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while the class is going on, and are encouraged to use positive language verbally and on the
chat.

2. Classroom Norms and Behavior Expectations: Classroom norms are the foundation of a
safe, engaging, and student-centered learning environment. List 3-5 clear, concise, and
positively framed norms and expectations that will guide the learning environment.
a. Universal and Simple: Focus on some themes or big ideas that might include
respect and integrity. Do not include every possible rule or policy you might
need; rather generate a few overarching norms that encompass many rules.
b. Positive: Norms are positive statements about what students and teachers do in
order to learn and collaborate effectively. Avoid negative norms (i.e. “Do not…”
“No…”).
c. Collaborative: Involve your students in developing and discussing norms and
expectations. This allows them to contribute and gives ownership of the class.

Classroom Norms and Behavior Expectations

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Strategies or Modifications for the Virtual Learning Environment

3. Routines and Procedures: Clear and consistent routines and procedures assist teachers
in managing their learning environment effectively. List out your top 3-5 routines and
procedures that you would implement in your own classroom. Following a routine lets
students know what to expect each day in class. While moving away from the routine
periodically can be effective for special days, doing it often causes students to be
unprepared. (Add more rows as needed to the table.) Include modifications that you
would make for situations when students don’t adhere to a particular routine or
procedure.
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Clear Routines and Procedures

Situation Steps (and Modifications, if any)

Example: Entry Routine ●

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Example: Exit Routine ●

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Routines for the Online Classroom:

4. Transitions: Plan your transitions with a step-by-step process in the table below, and
model with students within the first weeks of school. Review and practice these
transitions with students after extended breaks, midyear, and anytime you add a new
student to your class. Include specific instructions you would use with students with
special needs and English language learners.

Transitions

Situation Steps

Example: Whole group to small group ●

Transitions ●
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Example: Bathroom Transitions

Transitions for the Online Classroom:

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5. Responding to Traumatic Stress: Create a data gathering exercise to understand

students’ backgrounds and identify if any of them have experienced traumatic stress.
Tip: Previous teachers are sometimes a good source of information. Complete the chart
below with possible strategies that you would use for specific types of trauma.

Response to Traumatic Stress

Trauma Symptoms Response Strategies

6. Technology Tools: Technology can improve the way you manage the learning
environment by helping save instructional time, track trends in student behavior, create
lines of communication with families, and even empower students to take leadership
roles. Integrate some technology tools for managing the learning environment in a
physical and online classroom into this planning document and explain how you plan to
use each.

Management Technology

Technology Rationale and Use

Technology for the Online Classroom:

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7. Communicating With Families: Use the box below to describe tools that you would use
to communicate regularly with families about students’ progress, achievements, or
behaviors?

Family Communication

Tools for Regular ●

Communication: What tools will ●
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you use to ensure that you
regularly communicate students’
progress, achievements, and
behaviors to families?

Reporting Requirements for

Suspected Child Abuse: