Building a home requires materials but those materials are only a pile of junk without blueprints on how to set them up. In much the same way, the strategies covered in this module have been focused on building the environment through practical methods that are applicable and appropriate for any situation.
It is often hardest to look at oneself in the mirror and pick out the flaws in our character, yet without personal self-reflection we cannot see the whole picture. Taking time to understand that your attitude, and the space you set up, directly affects students' willingness and ability to learn is crucial for effective teaching. Bringing about a positive attitude is of course a major part of this, but your positive attitude might not be enough for the darkest days for your students. Recognizing that their lives happen just as much outside your classroom as they do inside the classroom helps you to create a space that will allow them to feel safe, supported and empowered to learn.
Now school should be a fun learning experience, but not “edutainment” as learning still requires certain agreed upon expectations between learners. Just as people in a society operate under mutually understood expectations of behavior, culture, and tradition, so too do students need to build that framework within their learning spaces. For some, this may directly challenge what is expected, or more commonly NOT expected, of them in their home environment. For others, this is a place that they can come knowing they will be met with equality and equanimity in the challenges put before them, both socially and academically.
How that is accomplished is specific to each teacher and their unique personality, learning space, teaching style, and teaching circumstances. Yet to all of those the practical application of agreed upon ways of doing things serves to benefit the experiences of all. Young learners especially benefit from structure in their lives, as they are new to the world and the mysteries contained within it. Freeing up their mental space to focus on learning, by locking in methodologies, helps students to do what they are intended to do in school: learn.
For teachers this means that each detail of how the students interact with each other, their environment, and with their learning experiences should be meticulously pre-planned and thought out. The role of the teacher becomes a facilitator who has thought of as many scenarios and situations before hand, and helps students to arrive at essential agreements shared between themselves and their peers.
As for the challenges that teachers face, they are legion and never does the same problem present itself exactly as it has done before. For certain obstacles they will require outside support from professionals who are explicitly trained in managing these situations or behaviors, and unfortunately, resources are often lacking in educational settings to meet those needs. There is hardly a behavior pattern that has not been the subject of scrutiny in the world of psychology, but access to effective means of implementation of interventions is a challenge. Some of them require IEP’s which are inconsistent with the actual learning space, or whose implementation strategy is impossible in current circumstances. In this space teachers find themselves searching for not the ideal solution, but the lowest hanging fruit to soothe the discomfort, all the while knowing that a better solution exists.
