Swanson 1

Daniel Swanson
Professor Suk
Education Field Experience Educ 230-01
Fall 2014
Rationale Statement for NJPTS #3
Statement of Standard 3: Learning Environments. The teacher works with others to create
environments that support individual and collaborative learning, and that encourage positive
social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.
Name of Artifact: Classroom Management Plan and Layout Design
Date of Artifact: 10/12/14
Course: Education Field Experience EDUC 230-01
Rationale Statement: From simply speaking and having conversations with working teachers,
Ive learned a lot about what makes a good teacher. One quality that constantly pops up in this
conversation is creativity. Im constantly told that as a good teacher, I have to be creative when
making lesson plans, labs, and designing my room. Part of this is to keep students interested in
the class. My classroom also must meet the needs of my lessons. For example, students should
be able to group up easily to do labs but still have enough space to work alone. They need their
own work area, and I need space to walk around, work, and guide the students learning.
Creating my own hypothetical classroom let me get creative in how I wanted my room
laid out, but I also noticed ways to facilitate all different types of learning. I decided to place lab
tables on the outside of the room with 2 or 3 seats at each end of the table. I wanted students
facing each other at a lab table in such a way so they can discuss and learn from each other. I left
the opening or head of the table open to make it easier for me to observe and guide the
students learning. I was also sure to include lots of storage to keep lab equipment clean,
organized, and in a safe place. Knowing where everything is and keeping it all organized allows
for easier lesson preparation and helps save valuable time in class. Aside from my love of
organization, I have a love for toys as well. I wanted to include a document camera, or a camera
that faces down on the desk and projects the image on the board. Ive seen them used at RVCC

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and I think its a great way to demonstrate to the students very small things without having to
spend so much time going around the class to each and every table. I also wanted to include a
projector screen and a smart board as I feel like theres a lot of fun software that can be used for
those in a science class. Of course, my future school may not have any of this, but I felt they
would be invaluable tools in my class.
Setting up the physical classroom is just half of the battle. Setting up the classroom rules,
and guidelines were a bit harder to come up with. For the most part, I followed the general
guidelines you find in most classes. Respect each other, raise your hand to speak, and complete
the homework. Because I want to teach a class that has a lot of group focused labs, I wanted to
stress that everyone should be respectful to one another to facilitate teamwork. At the end of the
rules, I wanted to be positive so I asked that everyone asks questions and has fun. Having fun
makes the class more interesting, and hopefully can encourage a good attitude about learning
from my students. As a rule for myself, I would like to collect homework, not grade it, but
correct it and give it back to the students. I feel like this gives students a safe environment to
work on the material, fail, and instead of being penalized for it they are formally corrected and
learn from their mistakes. I realized I wanted to do this when I realized a big element of my own
personal learning was failing and learning from my mistakes and having to be corrected by my
teacher or manager at work. I made sure that when I established my rules for the class, I was
establishing a healthy working and learning environment.

References
Board, New Jersey Professional Teaching Standarts. 2014. "New Jersey Professional Standarts for
Teachers and School Leaders." August: 37-38.