Plan for Managing the Learning Environment
Classroom Culture and Climate
Reflection:
A positive classroom climate is one that recognizes the needs of students, serves to engage and support those needs, and empowers students to learn. The classroom, and the people who inhabit it, should feel safe, supportive and familiar. Learners ( both teachers and students) should actively work to create a sustainable learning environment. This is done through foundational relationships, effective documentation, and through student empowerment and agency.
Strategies for Positive Classroom Climate
Greeting/Relationships - Being present and aware of the lives that students share outside of the classroom impacts the feelings inside of the classroom. Student’s lives do not stop at the door to the classroom but rather carry over that threshold. Teachers need to recognize this.
Documentation - Respectful and beautiful documentation empowers students to want to do more as well as shows that learning has a direct impact to the world around them. It shows the respect that you have for the quality of work that they are producing.
Established Classroom Norms - Students need to know what they need to do and when they need to do it. Have you ever asked a friend to fetch a spice from the kitchen without telling them where it is? Nor should students be expected to magically know what they need to be doing or how they should be conducting themselves. Practice these routines enough and they become part of who you are.
Flexibility - Lesson plans should be well thought out and prepared ahead of the classroom learning, yet a learning space should be flexible to the things that are occurring within it. An impromptu discussion about “integrity” when a situation of a student “lying” comes up in the class should be welcomed as just as important a learning experience as the previously planned lesson.
Strategies or Modifications for Virtual Learning Environment
Open-door meetings: Make yourself available to students in the online setting. Have an “open-door” policy in the online learning space. If you are using Teams or Zoom for example to conduct classes, let students know that from X to Y times during the day you will be near your computer and will have a meeting room up and running. If they want to pop-in with a question or just to chat then they are more than welcome to do so.
Blogging - Create a classroom blog that documents and praises student work, or even just reminds students of funny conversations they had during online lessons. Encourage students to use the blog and bring it up in your class as part of some lessons.
Greeting/Relationships: Greet students by name when they enter into the online classroom. Stay after the class has finished to answer additional questions. Open up the option for one-on-one meetings with students to talk through difficult assignments or as a space to share with teacher about personal things.
Established Classroom Norms: The first slide or the greetings screen should include all the information that students need to have in class during that lesson. (Pencil/Paper/Microphone etc)
Classroom Norms and Behavior Expectations
One and Fifteen: No one is more important than anyone else inside the classroom space and we should always act in ways that promote collaboration. One person is never more important than fifteen other people (or however many others).
When speaking we wait for our turn to speak.
When cleaning we cooperate to collectively clean the learning space.
When lining up we manage ourselves and our peers.
When working in groups we listen and value our peers' ideas.
We will be risk-takers: We have to dare to sometimes be incorrect in order to continually grow both inside and outside the learning space.
Participate at least once per day (in a medium that you feel comfortable with)
Give props for right answers and wrong answers.
Daily motto centered around empowering student motivation and inspiration
We will be respectful: Students have to be heard by their peers, have their ideas supported, and have their successes celebrated.
Listening rewinds during explicit instruction (Have to repeat another student's answer and add onto it) to demonstrate active listening. (Students can sketch answers if they are to shy)
Snaps: Students snap along to answers they agree with to show approval and support.
Encouragement Boards: We have a dedicated section of the classroom for displaying students' work with sticky-cards for other students to comment on the work. The board is anonymous (both the posted work and student comments) and we celebrate weekly.
We will be independent: Building independence in decision making, learning tasks, and problem solving abilities are crucial to students' development.
Peer-to-peer checking of learning tasks.
T.A.G feedback on any learning tasks.
Hallway privileges: Students demonstrate their ability to work diligently on tasks and are permitted to work in short burst in the hallway on iPads or long term projects.
Morning reading: Endurance building exercises to develop their reading duration. Similar to the DEAR approach but executed on a daily basis.
Strategies or Modifications for the Virtual Learning Environment
1 & 15: No one is more important than anyone else inside the classroom space and we should always act in ways that promote collaboration. One person is never more important than fifteen other people (or however many others).
Upvotes on peoples posts to show appreciation and support.
Keep the microphone muted until called upon.
Show thumbs up into the camera for agreement.
We will be risk takers: We have to dare to sometimes be incorrect in order to continually grow both inside and outside the learning space.
Participate at least once per day (in a medium that you feel comfortable with)
Give props for right answers and wrong answers through either typed comments in the group chat, responses in the class blog on SeeSaw or through reactions during the live lessons.
Share our lives with each other through pictures of our lives at homes. Be willing to accept the differences between each others households and backgrounds.
We will be independent: Building independence in decision making, learning tasks, and problem solving abilities are crucial to students' development.
Complete learning tasks and submit them online with instructional help.
Respond to feedback and comments from peers and instructors.
Keep a reading log at home with pages/notes and share with classmates in breakout rooms once per week
Clear Routines and Procedures
Situation
Steps (and Modifications, if any)
Daily 5 : Daily 5 is a literacy routine that we employ 2-3 times per week (As the schedule permits) in which students rotate between 5 different literacy activities. Read to self, read to someone, word work, work on spelling, and listen to reading. The only material that rotates between table groups are the ipads and headphones for listening. Examples of work are posted on the board under the station rotation scheme. Students can reference this example to know where to file their completed work. Teacher might work a particular station if there is a specific reading or writing skill being explicitly taught; otherwise the teacher is floating between stations to address and assist.
Modifcations: If students are consistently off task during independent learning there are given reminders that follow this procedure:
1/2/3 Reminder toward a collective result. Students are given a 1/2/3 reminder, either by direct name call and reminder, or by eye contact and a number of fingers used. At 3 the student writes their name on the board and selects what they would like to do after class. Results were selected by the students. Such as: Help the teacher to clean the classroom, write a emotion reflection sheet during lunch, move to the solo-desk, stay in at recess.
Students enter the classroom and reference the schedule on the board.
Students break up into their Daily 5 groups (differentiated by overall English Level) (These are hung on the wall with name cards in a specific area of the classroom.)
Student station materials are prepared on their teams tables. Specific materials sorted into binders labeled work word, reading, writing, and spelling.
Station timer is projected on the white board above station rotation schedule
20 minute per station and students swap materials. Unfinished work goes into a specific folder.
Students who complete their work ahead of schedule can swap to unfinished work.
Completed work is filed into their student binders based on grammar, spelling, writing, reading comprehension or miscellaneous.
Entry Routine: This is the daily practice that students use in the morning when entering the classroom. Due to the nature of the schedule sometimes this routine does not apply as a specialist teacher might have previously had a class in the homeroom space. Specific adaptations are in place for this scenario.
Modification: If students are unable to enter the classroom and find their assigned seats in a timely manner (Timer on the board if necessary) then the whole class will line up again outside and do it again.
During the “Do Now” the same 1/2/3 reminder is used.
Co-teachers split roles. One manages the hallway space and lines students up prior to entering the classroom. One greets students after they enter the classroom and relays specific messaging if necessary (Such as any change to the seating arrangement which is posted in a visible space next to whiteboard)
Students look at the board to find the “Do Now” located in the upper right hand corner of the whiteboard. If materials are required they are placed to the right hand side of the whiteboard next to the turn in box. If not required then the materials list under the “Do Now” tells students exactly what they need.
Students complete their “Do Now” learning task and turn in their completed work into the green turn in bin located at the front of the classroom.
After completing the “Do Now” students have independent reading time until the start of the 1st class. In circumstances where their first class was with a specialist teacher then this step is skipped.
After completing the “Do Now” the whole class collectively repeats and has a lightning round discussion about that week's classroom motto. If any situations arose in the previous day in which that motto applied, students will share that experience with the class.
After the motto is discussion is completed (which also works to allow extra time for students who have not completed the “Do Now” the class transitions into the content for the day.
Transition Routine: This is the routine we use for transitioning between learning spaces within the school. As certain grades follow slightly different learning schedules it is imperative that students keep a low-level of noise as they move between areas within the school.
Students line up in the hallway according to a predetermined line order that students know.
The line-leader works to line students up according to line order.
Line leader reminds students of the the voice level in the hallway, and the reason why that voice level is important. “This is a shared learning space and it is important that we respect the learning of others as well as our own. We should only use a voice level 1 when walking through the hallways. If we do not then we should go back and try again”
Line leader has full-discretion on the choice to return students to the classroom and to try again.
Exit Routine: This is used at the end of the teaching period. Prior to students either lining up in the hallway to transition or going to their lockers to fetch materials for the next class.
Modification: Same as the entry routine
If students are unable to enter the classroom and find their assigned seats in a timely manner (Timer on the board if necessary) then the whole class will line up again outside and do it again.
During the “Do Now” the same 1/2/3 reminder is used.
Student selected classroom clock monitor calls the 3 minute warning to the class. If necessary the teacher assists in reminding students.
Students file away materials to their respective locations within the classroom. Each material has a specific location that students are familiarized with at the start of the year.
Each table group is responsible for cleaning their area as well as any shared areas within the classroom. Exit tickets are placed in front of themselves at their respective desks.
Once a whole table group is showing seating signals then the teacher will glance over exit tickets and call that table to leave.
Students place exit tickets in the blue bin near the exit door (two doors - one entry and one exit)
Co-teacher is waiting outside to assist students in their line up .
Table groups are called one by one until the classroom is empty.
Call for attention: There is a silent call, a quick focus call, and a return to attention call. This is an example of the return to attention call.
Modification: Students will be given a reminder using the 1/2/3 reminder scheme. Example students will be given props and praise for attentive behaviors.
Teacher in a voice level 2 calls out “If you can hear my voice please ___verb__”
Students who hear this act the verb out. For example raise a hand, touch their head, put a specific number of fingers up.
Teacher calls out a 2nd command that changes the position of what the students are doing following the same chant “if you can hear my voice please ____verb___
This continues until all students are focused on the teacher or for a maximum of 5 rounds. If more than 5 rounds are required then a student enters a strike into the whole class SLANT board located at the front of the classroom. 3 strikes and the class selects a reciprocal action they will take to make up for it. The actions are determined by the class at the start of the year and include things like “Help clean the classroom space, write a short reflection etc”
Routines for the Online Classroom:
Exit routine: This is done at the end of a live lesson for students to check their learning and it meant to take a maximum of 3 minutes to complete
Teacher calls the end of the class and assigns the exit ticket on SeeSaw.
The exit ticket appears in a specific folder in their seesaw accounts.
Once students have completed the work they will submit it via SeeSaw.
The teacher dismisses students after they have submitted their work via SeeSaw.
NO GRADING TAKES PLACE AT THIS TIME. A quick glance over the work is all that is necessary to see completion.
Prepared Routine: Students use this at the start of the lesson to show they are prepared for virtual learning.
Modification: Students will be able to see the materials they will need on the PPT as the enter the classroom. Students who do not bring appropriate materials will be given 1 minute to go and gather before returning to class. 3 times in a row without materials (3 classes) and the parents are notified via WeChat or Email.
Students are greeted by the teacher as they enter the virtual classroom.
Teacher asks for materials checks as they enter.
Students show their materials via the camera so the teacher can see they have prepared the necessary materials (This means they might hold up a pencil and paper, or a specific book, or an object to share with the class etc)
This is followed by a quick microphone check as well as a typing check. Students simply reply with “Name. Ready.” over voice chat and “Name. Ready” typed into the chat box.
Transitions
Station Change: Transition within the classroom
Modifications:
ELL requires prepared materials that are on-level for them to access. Differentiated literacy materials must be prepared accordingly. Stations are clearly labeled on the board using pictures/symbols/words
For small group instruction: Indicated on the white board which group the instructor will be working with.
Slow groups will be gently reminded of exit ticket requirements for that day.
Station timer alarm sounds
Incomplete work is placed within students incomplete work folder.
Incomplete work folder is returned to the blue box on the table.
Pencils and erasers are placed in the black cup.
Students sit nicely and raise hands to show readiness.
Teacher indicates team is ready to transition
Student team leader checks the board for the next station.
Student team leader gathers materials from a blue box on the tabletop labeled with the next station name.
Student team leader passes materials to team members
Timer is reset and restarted
Classroom Snack
Modifications: Students who enter the classroom late (returning from a specialist class) will have snack at the front of the classroom.
If students do not want to eat or drink they can place their food/drink in their locker for later. They still have to wait for their whole team to finish eating before engaging in an alternative activity
Students who leave their chair will be gently reminded to return to their chair.
Students who spill or drop food on the ground will use the broom/Mop found next to the recycle bins to clean up their mess.
At the start of the year this will be displayed on the projector for ELL students to visually engage with as well as translated instructions to help them understand.
Students quietly enter the classroom and sit at assigned seats
Two students are nominated to gather the food tray and drink tray from the hallway
Food and drink tray at placed at front of the classroom
One student from each table group distributes food and snack to teammates
After finishing food and drink, students place empty containers on the food tray.
Once each member has finished students are free to choose an activity to engage with for the remainder of the snack period.
3 Minutes before snack period ends two students return food and drink tray to the hallway.
Classroom Binders
Modifications:
Tasks that cannot be hole punched will be filed in plastic sleeves found in the drawer under the resource table.
Binder checks will be carried out at the end of each week. This will transition to buddy binder checks as students' proficiency rises.
Student finishes a learning task
Student raises hand for the teacher to check and stamp.
After stamp moves to binder cubby and grabs their binder.
Student places binder at their table
Student moves to the resource table
Students use hole punchers to hole punch their task.
Students reference the whiteboard to determine what section of the binder the task belongs in.
Student returns to their desk and correctly files the task.
Student returns their binder to the binder cubby
Students return to their seats or move onto the next learning task.
Transitions for the Online Classroom:
Meeting to Class transition
Modification:
For shy students they are permitted to change camera position to only show part of their face.
For students who are experiencing connectivity issues they are permitted to leave and enter the classroom again.
For students who require “fidget” tools they are permitted to use the floor/speciality sitting position to carry out class
For ELL students they can greet the teacher using translanguaging
Students enter the Teams Meeting Room
Students are permitted one-by-one into the classroom
Upon entering students turn on mic and camera
Students greet teacher for a mic check
Students give a thumbs up for a camera check.
Students type a “1” into the chat for connection check
Students mute microphone and start on the “Do Now”
Dismissal
Modification:
Students who require extra assistance wait until all other students have raised their hands to leave.
Students who leave without their exit-tickets will be reminded of the procedure during the next class.
2 times of leaving prior to exit-ticket dismissal requires parents to be notified.
Students use the raise hand function to raise their hand.
Students are called on one-by-one for their exit ticket.
Students either show or say their exit ticket.
Students leave the TEAMs meeting after their exit ticket is approved.
Response to Traumatic Stress
Trauma Symptoms
Response Strategies
A student showing high levels of conflict from a recent or ongoing parental separation or divorce
Developing an understanding of children’s reactions to their parents and divorce by reflecting on their observations and conversations with children.
Having private conversations with children, asking if they are OK, being a good listener, letting children talk, and providing reassurance.
Arranging one-on-one time with a teacher aide to provide emotional support or to help them settle into the day.
Creating a safe, friendly environment where children feel free to talk.
Being consistent with school routines, rules and expectations.
Making sure the child is included in supportive friendship groups, both in the classroom and playground.
Making activities and communication inclusive – for example, not always saying “tell your parents” but instead saying “tell the person at home” or “who you do your homework with”
Providing encouragement for children to make good decisions and to manage their own behavior.
A student who shows signs of marks on their body from physical abuse at home.
Follow establish guidelines from your schools handbook to report your findings through the appropriate channels. NEVER confront who you believe to be the abuser
Create and maintain a strong relationship with your students and encourage them to share in one-on-one settings if they feel comfortable to do so.
Have time for “check ins” with students about their home life.
Inform and given opportunities for school counselors to sit down and work with the student.
Explain the limitations of your confidentiality to the student if the topic requires it. They have to be able to trust you, but specific examples of abuse have to reported in accordance with your schools guidelines. Ensure that these required reports do not damage or harm the trust shared between yourself and the student.
Support the students decision no matter what. Encourage and give advice as best possible, but when the student has made a decision make sure to support that decision wholeheartedly. If that decision is contrary to your opinion, keep the dialogue open, or find alternative ways to support the student. Do not undermine their decision or harm their trust in you.
Management Technology
Technology
Rationale and Use
Equity Maps
Usage: Discussion time, small group work, and reflection.
Equity maps allows the facilitator to see the active contributions of each member of the discussion, as well as track the amount of time each person is speaking. This is a great visual tool for students to see how much they are participating within classroom discussions and/or conversations. Rather than try to juggle a name list or name cards to supervise whole class participation the teacher can actively see who is participating in real time. The simple interface means that the facilitator can quickly monitor who is engaging in the conversation, which allows them to stay engaged with what students' responses are during the conversation. Equity maps also helps students to visualize when there are more than one person speaking with the useful function of a “chaos” tracker within the app. Classes could work on a number of different applications from getting equity of contribution, to working on lessening the amount of “chaos” or “silent” time during a classroom discussion.
This could have a negative side-effect of bringing too much attention to a student who struggles to participate in the class by highlighting their lack of engagement.
Too Noisy
Usage: Classroom noise level management, D.E.A.R sessions, stations
Too noisy is a simple visual tool for maintaining an appropriate noise level within the learning environment. It is visually engaging and easy to use. There is a gamification aspect to it in which students are easily able to recognize the current volume within the classroom. This saves the teachers “voice” and is a more positive way to encourage an effective learning environment for all students. I would use this tool during the morning reading sessions, during transition periods within the classroom, and during station work with students. Since the tool has a built in point system that could be used to help students work toward a reward or could be the main functional purpose behind the app in the first place. Placement of the microphone would be crucial to the effective implementation of this management tool.
Apple Classroom
We already use Apple iPads within the classroom and a whole suite of related apps during investigation, reflection, and learning experiences with the students. Apple Classroom helps to tie all of those separate apps together and integrate them into one tool. This would be an effective way to cut down on the amount of monitoring time required for some students within the classroom. Making sure they are staying on task or are using the technology in an appropriate way during an engagement session. I also think back to the last time we administered the MAP test within the classroom and this tool would have been a huge time saver in terms of set-up and executing of that test.
This app would help cut down on transition time between different learning experiences and would also help cut down on classroom management time in terms of monitoring student behavior during learning periods. It would also be an effective discussion point for a parent teacher conference if a student is continually using the technology in an inappropriate manner.
If students are supplying their own technology at school then parent permission has to be obtained prior to this apps usage.
Bouncy Balls
Similar to concurrent usage as Too Noisy.
Technology for the Online Classroom:
Synth
Synth is an effective way for students to collaborate with each other, or individually, in discussion groups after a learning experience or to share a learning experience with their peers. The ability for students to record, clip and upload their thoughts about a topic is a great way to encourage student engagement.
In an online session there is often the issue of tight schedules that might not allow for all students to effectively share their ideas, or maybe they needed some time to reflect prior to responding. Synth helps to address this issue by giving students a prompt to start their conversation off with. I would use this tool as reflection tool to wrap up a inquiry cycle by posing some reflective questions for students to engage with. Students would be able to see their peers reflections prior to their own and would also be given the freedom to record it as many times as they want prior to submitting their work.
I would also love to use this tool at the start of an inquiry cycle to allow students to freely explore a conceptual question or engage in an open ended dialogue with the learning material.
For shy students they have a safe space to express their thoughts and feelings as well.
I would use this tool alongside other applications such as SeeSaw to bring the conversations together and publish a “podcast” that is reflective on students thoughts and opinions.
Smart Seat
During online learning students can sometimes struggle to participate when the learning environment feels less like a classroom. Using Smart Seat to replicate a virtual classroom with its assigned “seating” charts is a great way to bring the classroom back to life within the home.
I would love to use this tool as a way for students to reengage with being “in” the classroom whilst still being within their homes. Being able to click on each student and highlight them when responding to questions, or sharing something with the group, helps to bring attention and focus to the speaker. Students were so used to being in their physical seating groups that the transition to the online environment took them out of that routine. Smart Seat could help my students to retain that offline routine.
Also, student Microsoft TEAMS accounts are set up using their Chinese names, and while I do endeavor to learn them all, it can sometimes be difficult to remember who is who. Being able to have both names available means I never have to worry about mispronouncing a name and can more easily engage all students by being able to identify and use their English names during an online session.
Family Communication
Through a variety of mediums we keep in touch with our parents and work to ensure a consistent and detailed stream of information for them. We use the following channels: Email, ManageBac, WeChat or WeCom, and SeeSaw.
Email is used for whole grade announcements that are related to day-to-day functions within the school. Bus schedules, changes in tuition, announcement of school wide programs, testing sites/dates, student handbook, and any communication from the leadership/HR/finance offices with parents. These communications are semi-frequent and often outside of the teachers direct influence and control. Homeroom teachers will sometimes use this form of communication for the scheduling of parent-teacher meetings as well as delivering sensitive documents.
ManageBac is used for relaying any academic information that is directly related to grading. We upload and communicate grading rubrics, assessment criteria and materials, examples of students work, semester grades and individualized comments for each UOI etc. This platform is also used for monitoring student behavior and homeroom teachers/specialists use this to report attendance, misconduct as well as behavioral concerns. In terms of behavior, multiple infractions, or reports, on this platform result in the inclusion of the schools pastoral team and the involvement of school leadership and parents.
WeChat & WeCom are the informal direct communication channels most frequently used as a go between for parents and homeroom teachers. Questions in regards to emails, schedules, filling in forms etc are all routed through WeChat. Either on a specific one-to-one basis with parents or in a whole class group chat. During regular school sessions this is the most frequently used channel of communication. The speed at which problems are discussed and solves helps to make this channel the most convenient and easy to use. In the case of a disgruntled parent who is engaged in non-constructive behavior on this platform, they will be contact privately in order to set-up a one-to-one voice call, in face meeting, or direct to the proper channels to voice their concerns.
SeeSaw is the platform in which students-parents-teachers are collaboratively engaged with each other. SeeSaw is used for student assignments, posting student work, weekly newsletters for both students and parents, and direct teacher-student communication (observed by the parent) outside of the classroom. SeeSaw is student friendly and easily accessible which helps to promote student engagement. It is meant to replicate an ongoing “live” lesson in which teachers and students stay connected with each other whilst parents are able to observe from the sidelines.
Reporting Requirements for Suspected Child Abuse:
Specific requirements for reporting abuse within the school follow the Employee handbook guidelines listed under Section 3: Expectations and Well-being subsection 3.4: Bullying.
Under these circumstances of abuse (physical or mental) that occur within the school from peer-to-peer interactions, the teacher will follow the specified action plan detailed in this section. (I cannot share the specifics due to confidentiality). Which essentially amount to as follows:
Documentation of abuse within 2 weeks of perceived incident and reporting to specified group within the school.
Step 1 of the “Action Plan” executed with parents and mediators involved.
Monitoring and documentation if behaviors persist.
Step 2 of the “Action Plan” executed with parents and mediators involved with resolution requirements laid out for all parties involved.
Suspected out of school child abuse.
Documentation and discussion with the child. Involvement of pastoral support for sensitive issues especially between teachers/students of opposite genders.
Consultation of schools administration and pastoral support for further action steps.
In terms of immediate action the teacher, upon noticing the evidence of abuse, may dial 110 (the equivalent of 911) to inform and report allegations.
https://www.unicef.cn/en/stories/chinas-family-violence-law-takes-historical-step-child-protection
