PLE #3: Productive Learning Environments

I think that I speak for most of our class when I say that creating an environment that is conducive to learning seems like a huge challenge. There obviously needs to be some kind of classroom management system in place to keep things running smoothly, but disciplining a student definitely isn't one of my favorite things in the world. It's like eating your vegetables when you're a kid-- you know that you have to do it, but no one really wants to.

I'm currently observing in a kindergarten classroom, and I absolutely love her classroom/behavior management system. Her classroom theme is frogs, and their behavior chart is a pond. Each day, the students start out in the mud and can work their way up the pond. They earn bonus stickers or super bonus stickers for good behavior throughout the day. They get to put their stickers on their frogs and move them up through the layers of the pond. If they've reached the lily pad, then they've been well-behaved all day. They can also jump their frogs back down the chart if they misbehave. My mentoring teacher's list of classroom rules is short, but effective. Students know what is expected of them, but the rules aren't unnecessarily strict (or too lenient, either). I think that implementing a classroom management system similar to this would be a great way to create a learning environment that is conducive to learning.

Click here or here to read some NEA articles on effective classroom management. Both of these articles gave me good ideas for creating a productive learning environment.

Elementary Education Case Study:
You engage your third grade students in cooperative learning activities at least twice a day, changing heterogeneous group members once every four weeks. You have agreed upon routine procedures that your classroom community uses within their small groups, including the roles and responsibilities of group members. Lately you have noticed that one small group always seems to have difficulty grasping material and completing their project in an acceptable manner. You observe this group carefully and find that Lisa seems to be the catalyst for their problems. She gets angry with others if she does not get the job she wants and refuses to do her part in contributing to the group’s learning. She constantly interrupts others in her group. She does not pay attention when her group prepares for class presentations.

After looking at this case study, it seems like ignoring Lisa's misbehavior is not an option. Her misbehavior is affecting everyone in the classroom, and it needs to be addressed in order to avoid further problems. I would start the intervention continuum by speaking with Lisa privately so that I could better understand why she is refusing to work with her cooperative learning group. Once I had a better understanding of the issue at hand, I would use I-messages and if-then statements to explain why her misbehavior is inappropriate. I would try to teach her some self-regulation strategies to keep her from interrupting others in her group and provide her with some sort of extrinsic reward when she works appropriately within her group. If this still didn't stop the misbehavior, I would set up a meeting with both Lisa and her parents/guardian to discuss how we could all work together to ensure that her behavior improves. Hopefully Lisa's behavior would have improved significantly by this point, but if it had not, I would plan and implement some sort of systematic intervention to keep her on the right track.

This video on classroom management was really helpful and gave me some great ideas for creating a productive learning environment.

PLE #2: Motivation

I remember briefly discussing motivation in EP 210, but I don't think that we went over anything in great detail. I actually really enjoyed our discussion of motivation because I think that it's something we can all use when we're in the classroom. Motivating students to learn seems like one of the biggest challenges that we'll face as teachers, but we were provided with some really helpful ideas in class and the textbook. I know that I have personally experienced how difficult it can be to motivate even younger elementary students to learn. I wish that I had known about some of these techniques before because I think that some of them could have been really useful in the classroom. I always used to associate motivation with extrinsic rewards, like candy or getting a good grade on a test. It was nice to know that there are ways to build a student's intrinsic motivation.

As far as theories of motivation go, I think that Expectancy vs. Value theory could be really useful in motivating students. It makes sense that students are more motivated to complete tasks when they expect to do well (because they have done well in the past) and when they believe that they will benefit from performing the task at hand. I know that I personally am not very motivated to do math homework because I have a history of not doing very well at math, and I don't see much benefit in doing the work. I'm sure that my students will feel the same way. Understanding Expectancy vs. Value theory will be useful to me because I'll be able to understand the perspectives of my students.

I found this video from another educational psychology class at Randolph-Macon college. I think that it really helps explain expectancy vs. value theory in a way that we can all understand.



I also think that goal theory could really help motivate my students to learn. Actively setting goals can help add value because students can see that there is a reason to complete a task. I have learned that by providing students with specific goals (either short or long term) can enhance their motivation to learn because they feel like there is a reason for their action. This could also tie in with expectancy vs. value theory because, like I said before, goals can add value to a seemingly pointless task.

This video provides a really quick overview of goal theory. It really helped me to better understand what we learned in class:

PLE #1: Welcome

I honestly had no idea what to expect before the first class because I had heard that EP 401 was significantly different than EP 210. I didn't understand the purpose of taking educational psychology, and I had no idea what we would even be learning in the class. After the first class session, I was actually excited to go home and do the readings for the next week. I think that this class will give me a lot to think about and work with during my internship year.

My main personal objective for this class is to acquire the necessary skills to appropriately manage my classroom. I think that classroom management is something that we're all worried about, and I hope that I can learn more about it in this class. I know that I've gotten off to a rocky start in this class so far, so another personal objective of mine is to prove that I am willing to work hard in this class and put in the amount of time and effort that it will take to succeed. I definitely want to explore cultural/ethnic differences and students at risk deeper. Those are the two topics that first caught my eye on the teaching projects list. I'm in the Urban/Multicultural cohort, so any opportunity to learn more about teaching at risk or culturally diverse students is important to me.

I don't have any specific questions or concerns other than about the CSEL. The project seems incredibly overwhelming, and I'm already getting nervous about it. I know that I tend to psych myself out about these kinds of things, so I'm trying not to worry too much about it. I'm sure that I'll feel more prepared as the semester goes on, but it seems like this big and scary thing looming over me right now.

Finally, I know that this is probably completely unrelated, but I would love to find some way to use this in my classroom (and it just always manages to brighten up my day):