CLassroom Climate
" The classroom should be a place where students love to learn and teachers love to teach"
- Candice
What is classroom climate?
The classroom is not just an intellectual space for students, but also a social, emotional, and physical environment. Teachers’ attention to the intellectual, emotional, social, and physical environments creates a classroom climate favorable to student engagement with the content and skills of the subject. The students most motivated to learn when they feel comfortable and connected to others in school.
According to INDIANA UNIVERSITY BLOOMINGTON: '' In terms of the intellectual environment, instructors provide content in an organized and engaging manner and give students motivating and challenging practice so that they are able to do authentic tasks in the discipline. From the emotional aspect of classroom climate, instructors create an encouraging atmosphere where students feel safe taking risks, receive support when events intrude on learning, and believe they can succeed if they put forth effort. And instructors foster approachable and supportive social interactions with students and among students so that learning is a collaborative and not competitive endeavor. With respect to the physical environment, instructors reduce and remove disruptions and barriers to learning so that all students can equally access course material."
Why is classroom climate important?
The learning environment will dictate how well or poorly a student will learn. The students should feel a sense of security. A positive environment is developing a student with the positive self-efficacy to take safe challenges. If a student scared of being shamed and mocked from peers and teachers they will avoid taking risks to protect themselves from embarrassment. A positive classroom environment brings positive students who are motivated to learn. There are some factors in the learning environment that affect students learning achievement.
1. Creating a Positive Teacher–Student Atmosphere
Smile to your students any time you see them.
An important part of creating a positive classroom is to make the students feel like you want them to be there. Teachers should talk, teach and communicate positively. Teachers body language and tone of voice will also play important roles in comforting students.Educators should Welcome the students with a smile and sometimes teachers can give students a big hug ( in high school or middle school students physical touch is not appropriate but for elementary level students this suggestion would work) and tell them how glad they are to see them.
Avoid showing anger
Students can be naughty in class from time to time and teachers can get upset easily at times as well. The key to maintaining a positive attitude is to not show your anger. Remembering that your students are still developing social awareness as well as skills should give that extra bit of patience when required. Even adults can find it difficult to keep their emotions and actions in check. No matter how annoyed you may feel with a child, stay patient and calm. Don’t expect kids to behave perfectly. As they are exploring and discovering the world, children will make mistakes and they may do something you don’t like. There is something you can do to stop the students who aren’t doing what they should. What you can do in class is to distract them away from what is distracting.
Keep oneself professional
Teachers might be moody and annoyed sometimes because of personal or professional situations, but it’s important to be aware of that separating the real-life and the school-life. A teacher can’t spend a whole hour yelling at students because he/she got some bad situation. Teachers should remember that each day that you spend in the classroom as a new opportunity to stimulate learning and that moment is unique to both you and your students’ lives. Teachers always should try their best to avoid the bad things that are annoying them.
Accept your students for who they are
Teachers should be aware of that fact that not all student were born with the same skills and abilities or raised in the same environment and not all students learn at the same level. Students’ knowledge of the world may vary from one another, so educators should be open and patient to the ones who are asking questions or doing something that seems less than intelligent and help them to solve their problems. Teachers should be polite and respectful in their interactions with all students.
Positive communication with parents
Compliment the children frequently and find something positive to say about each student. Positive communication with parents back home is important. Parents like to hear about what their kids are doing, and kids love to be complimented in the presence of their parents.
2 Creating a Positive Classroom
Classroom routines and rules.
As students start coming into the classroom, they need to know exactly what to do. What should they do with their homework? Where should they put their book bags? Where do their coats and other materials belong? What should they do while they wait for the rest of the class to arrive? When students know the answers to these questions, they can move smoothly through the morning routine and get straight into learning. When routines are carefully taught, modeled, and established in the classroom, students know what’s expected of them and how to do certain things on their own. Having these predictable patterns in place allows teachers to spend more time in meaningful instruction.
Involve all the students in classroom activities
As we know, student’s abilities in making friends in a new environment are different. Some students become the center of the group immediately, and some students just keep to themselves all the time or try to behave badly in class. One of the possible reasons is that they lack the skills to make friends. It takes teachers knowledge and experience to solve these problems. Also, it takes a time to investigate student’s preferences in class whom does he or she like to sit or play with? What games or activities make him or her more confident? Teachers should set different students to small groups regularly to avoid cliques from forming, arrange different kind of activities and games that not only involve learning social skills but also some other skills more students may enjoy or be good at.
Encourage the students with positive feedback
Teachers should be aware of that students are like to be praised by nature and in some situations where they have competition can emerge when students hear other students being praised and they are not. So teachers should try to hold a wider range of behavior where they would like to praise.Teachers shouldn't react negatively to students who are not doing their best, instead, should focus on praising students who are doing their best.
Offer students more choices
Teachers should give students more choices, have them feel free to choose between crayons or felt markers, brown paper or blue paper, glue or tape. It’s necessary for teachers to know: choices are not always theirs, they can’t sit next to the one they always want to talk to, and they can’t do things that cross the line. Give them choices when you can.
As a teacher we should be aware of that every student must feel safe and important in the class in order for maximum learning to take place. A positive classroom environment does not appear by itself, the teacher creates it. Becoming an effective teacher takes time, experience, knowledge and hard work. So, in this blog I compiled some strategies and suggestion that would help me to create a positive learning environment.
References
Article Title: Creating a Positive Classroom Atmosphere
Website Title: Teach English in China Current TEFL ESL Teaching Jobs
URL: http://goldstarteachers.com/creating-positive-classroom-atmosphere/
Article Title: The CLASS: Positive Climate
Website Title: - Curry School of Education
URL: http://curry.virginia.edu/teacher-education/teaching-internship-handbook/positive-climate
Article Title: Indiana University Bloomington
Website Title: Classroom Climate
URL: http://citl.indiana.edu/resources_files/teaching-resources1/classroom-climate.php
Article Title: How to Organize Your Classroom, from Instructor Magazine
Website Title: YouTube
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdmI4K5wJu4
Article Title: Characteristics of Good Student Feedback
Website Title: YouTube
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Huju0xwNFKU