Brooke Ervin

Classroom Management

Dr. Elsass

Due: April 12, 2017

Investigation Inquiry

Section 5: Domain 2b Creating a Culture for Learning

I have seen some great strategies for creating a culture for learning during my

field experience observation. One thing in particular that I believe my mentor teacher

does a great job of in her classroom is informing the students of the importance of what

they are learning. She will start each lesson by telling students the goal and writing it out

in form of an I can statement on the whiteboard for them to refer back to. She will

explain the importance of the content by making some sort of personal connection or

giving a real-world example of the material for the students. For example, when they

were discussing the different continents, she would show each continent in relation to

where we are in the United States on the globe. Allowing students to interact with the

globe and manipulate it themselves helped them to better understand what they were

learning and how it connects to their own lives. She also discusses how certain activities

or lessons connect to the future learning they will be doing in first grade. She encourages

students by saying things like You all look like first graders when youre taking your

spelling quizzes! This always gets students excited and further engages them in the

lesson.

My mentor teacher also uses the knowledge of her students likes and interests to

create lessons that are intriguing and meaningful to them. This is critical because
individuals with a strong interest in a specific area are intrinsically motivated to succeed

in that area of endeavor (Girmus, 2011). When students enjoy what they are learning,

they show higher levels of engagement in the lesson and take more pride in their work.

Students in this Kindergarten classroom show that they care about the work they produce

as they always take their time during independent practice. The teacher hangs their work

in the hallway and displays it around the classroom, adding to students motivation to

work hard. My mentor teacher makes uses of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators in

the classroom. It is important for teachers to use a mixture of both of these as there is an

emerging consensus that both components of motivation play an important role in the

classroom, and that the two interact to determine student engagement (Girmus, 2011).

One of the ways students are intrinsically motivated is by discussion of being bucket-

fillers. This is something that we have discussed in class and is also used school-wide at

Reagan Elementary. An extrinsic motivator being used in their classroom right now is

tickets that students receive for working hard and showing good behavior. When the

teacher notices, she puts a ticket with the students name on it and they are entered to win

a raffle for their field day coming up in a few weeks. I have seen firsthand how

powerful this tool can be in the classroom.

Lastly, I have enjoyed seeing the different ways in which my mentor teacher

promotes a culturally responsive environment. She sets high expectations for all students

and communicates them through explicitly stating them in class as well as posting them

around the classroom. Make sure that you let each student know that you expect them to

engage, perform, and achieve at a high level, rather than making excuses in your own

mind for some students who dont participate at optimal levels at times (Kozleski,
2010). I believe that this is a really important tip for all teachers to be reminded of

because I think that sometimes we do this unintentionally without really noticing. This is

concerning because we have discussed in class how our expectations for our students

directly affects how they will perform. It is essential for us to hold high expectations for

each and every one of our students and help them to reach their full potential. My mentor

teacher also encourages class discussion, an important factor when cultivating culturally

responsive environment. It is critical for students to feel that they are able to use their

voices and learn to be comfortable in doing so. She uses the higher-level thinking

questions of Blooms Taxonomy such as analyzing, evaluating, and creating to prompt

these class discussions.

 Works Cited

Girmus, R. L. (2011). How to motivate your students.

Kozleski, E. B. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching matters.