The Importance Of Teachers On The Classroom Environment

As every individual is unique, getting to understand the students’ characteristics, knowledge and cultural background are essential requirements for encouraging their development and learning (Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer, 2012). In order to achieve the above requirements, a strong and positive relationship with students is the effective way for teachers to build up a holistic picture of a student (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le Cornu, 2015a; Nixon & Gould, 2005). The various recorded interactions and observations between teachers and students made during the professional experience, have helped me to understand how students learn and have strengthened my ability to plan and implement lessons (Arthur et al., 2012).

This notion and method of getting to know your students is supported by Craven (n.d., para. 4) in which she states “good things for students to share are information about their families, hobbies and interests, and any other fun facts… [in] building your classroom community”.

This essay contemplates my individual development, skill acquisition and exploration of teaching approaches; throughout and beyond the International Teacher Training Organisation (ITTO) program. The problems I encountered will be discussed; and their relation to establishing where my wealth of primary teaching experience aligns with English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching approaches. For example; efforts to reduce my teacher talk time compared to primary school education was important, correcting pronunciation in an appropriate manner and correctly pacing both my speech and activities were areas of development that were observed, reflected on personally and subsequently acted upon.

I want to know my students. This way I can tailor my teaching methods to the specific needs of my students and class. This is also helpful in resolving discipline problems, which I anticipate to be few and far between. I will do everything in my power to resolve problems within my classroom, using the principal’s office and the administration as a last resort. Students respect a teacher who respects them in return. This approach allows a teacher to get to the heart of a student’s problems without involving outside forces that may alienate the child.

Wiggins & McTighe (2005) said it best “teachers are designers” and we need the right to craft our curriculum and learning experiences to meet specified purposes (Pg. 13. Ch. 1). We are all teaching different students, in different cities, in different states; all of whom that have individual strengths and weaknesses, come from various homes, a multitude of diversified backgrounds, who speak different languages and all of whom who have experienced their lives in different manners. I have been teaching for well over 11 years, and I have never once modified my teaching to meet the needs of a curriculum, I always have and will continue to adapt the curriculum to meet the needs of my students.

In order to create a positive classroom culture, teacher need to promote positive relationships between students and with students by taking an interest and have respect for each other. It is extremely important for teacher to get to know the students, their families, and their culture. When a student knows their teacher cares about them, then a relationship of trust will exist between a student and teacher. According to Sayeski and Brown (2011), “teachers who had positive relationships with their student had 31 % fewer discipline problems and rule violations over the course of the year than teachers who did not” (p. 12). In order to know more about them, I will send home a poster board where the students can fill it with any information they would like me and their classmates to know. This constructivist approach gives them the opportunity to be creative and choose what they want to share. The essentialist approach of sending home a questionnaire for the family to fill out will help collect information important to understanding the student. This is the only category where I consider myself an essentialist and constructivist due to how information will be gathered about my students, but this will allow me to build the framework for a positive learning environment for everyone. Having students create a poster will allow their peers to get to know them as an individual. Another way to create a positive environment is having students work together to keep

Making a connection with a student is one of the most important parts of being a teacher. What forms of meaningful connection are critical? First, it is important to know and understand the interests of our students. “When we’re interested in what we’re learning, we pay closer attention; we process the information more efficiently; we employ more effective learning strategies, such as engaging in critical thinking, making connections between old and new knowledge, and attending to deep structure instead of surface features.” (Paul, 2013). Talking about the most recent movie in the theaters, the music and food that they like, among others, are helpful to make a connection with our students. According to Paul (2013), the interest that students have in something is a powerful predictor of future choices of

The type of classroom environment that a teacher creates and encourages affects a student's ability to learn and feel comfortable as a member of the class. Such an atmosphere is one in which all students feel enthusiastic, comfortable, included, valued, and respected. Implementing a few strategies can help teachers to develop a strong sense of community in their students and encourage positive interaction. For this, they need to broadly focus on two areas:

The curriculum and lesson plans can be too challenging for some student, the student(s) can

When I think about my role as a teacher, one of the most important things I consider is the relationships I build with my students, parents, colleagues, and community members. In the classroom, I need to ensure that I create a safe, loving, and positive learning environment. In order to make all students feel welcome, I get to know their names, the correct pronunciation and spellings, learning their culture and background, and their

As a teacher, I believe that I play a crucial role in the success of every learning process. To guarantee that learning will take place, I make sure to create a learning environment that is relevant to the students’ background. Throughout my teaching experience, I learned how to love my students,

Paramount to my teaching philosophy is building strong relationships with students. By illustrating that I care for their needs and desires, I hope to become approachable and produce a sense of belonging. In my opinion, students possess an innate need to belong to social groups, and the development of positive relationships is imperative to students’ satisfaction of this need. According to Dreikurs, ‘students can often appear to be complicated and confusing to their teachers, most of them simply want their teachers to take the time to ask questions, tell stories, and be genuinely interested in who they are beyond the classroom’ (Daniels, 2011). It is essential that I build positive relationships with students, through a supportive,

All four processes- collaboration, consultation, teamwork, and co-teaching, as they occur in the school context, involve interaction among school personnel, families, and students working together to achieve common goals. (Dettmer, Dyck, Thurston, 2005, p. 7)

As a future educator, it is extremely important to prepare for what is in store for each year. Every single class is different, and will bring something different to the table based on the different students in each class. It is extremely important to have a classroom management plan for a group of diverse learners for several reasons. From reading Wong’s book First Days of School, How to be an effective teacher, he states that after doing research in a study reviewing 11,000 pieces of research that spanned 50 years, three researchers determined that there are 28 factors that influence student learning, and the number one factor is classroom management. This is very clear that research backs up how important classroom management is. It is what allows teachers to be effective teachers for their students and are able to keep the students on track. Classroom management also offers organization in the classroom. It refers to all of the things a teacher does to organize students, space, time and materials so that learning can take place (Wong 1998). Without classroom management the entire class would be out of control and very little to no learning would take place.

Can I modify my curriculum? I thought I had to teach the class as is. Our Content Team works to build curriculum that will help to provide a high quality learning experience for each student. We will never be able to build a curriculum that is appropriate for each student and meets the individual needs of every student in a course. Teachers teach students and meet their individual needs using the content that is provided. If that content needs to be adjusted in order to meet those individual student needs, then the teacher should make the adjustments that will help the student best meet the standards and objectives covered in the course.