Promoting Student Learning
Learning Team A - Kate Provin and Cindy Maxwell
Classroom Management
The classroom environment can either stimulate a child's learning or distract them from their ability to succeed.
A "typical" classroom setup with all students facing the teacher's desk limit the ability to collaborate and limit interactions available in the classroom.
Over stimulating posters and too much visuals hanging around the classroom can be too distracting to learners to succeed.
Interaction and collaboration can increase each student's ability to learn and can limit behavioral problems when the classroom setup is appropriate.
Teacher Collaboration
Collaboration with other teachers helps meet the needs of each student within the classroom by taking on the responsibility for student learning and ensuring learner growth.
Teacher collaboration promotes professional growth through engagement in professional development activities as a group.
Teacher collaboration also creates leadership during school improvement needs.
Other teachers are resources to work with and have for support. Opportunities available are mentoring teams, peer coaching, lesson study groups, professional learning communities, action research groups, and co-teaching arrangements.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/teacher-collaboration-strategies-ben-johnson
Student Relationships
Positive relationships with students earn the students trust and respect. The students will become more engaged and willing to be an active participant in their learning experience.
When students are providing answers, give them additional time to consider an answer. If they continue to struggle, provide them with clues and hints in order to succeed and not become embarrassed in front of their peers.
Although students have much to improve, students also need positive feedback, so they can feel confident in what they have accomplished thus far.
When critiquing students, keep the feedback constructive and and positive to not diminish a student's spirits and self-esteem.
Family Relationships
The importance of family involvement in children's education is well documented. A strong family-school partnership will improve both academic and behavioral outcomes for students.
When families are involved in children's academic lives, we see test scores rise, grades may improve and often, a students attitude toward school will improve.
The focus of how schools and families can work together is important in improving outcomes for students. Family involvement can be impacted by many factors including; teacher practices, parent education, family size and language barriers.
A partnership between the school and families encourage working together toward a shared goal. Developing a open communication foundation that results in shared listening and understand by school staff and families will result increased family involvement and help lead to student success.
National Association of School Psychologist. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nasponline.org/educators/HCHSIIFamily-SchoolPartnerships.pdf
School Relationships
Friendships are a vital part of healthy development for school-age children. Parents and schools both play a crucial role in teaching children how to develop respectful healthy relationships.
Parents can teach their children various social skills by being a good role model. They may learn how to cooperate with others, how to win and lose well and how to apologize. However, there are times that teachers may find that a student has not had the opportunity to learn about healthy relationships from the family and may be able to assist by teaching some of these skills in the classroom.
When students begin to develop positive relationships in the classroom and they can successfully work in groups where a deeper and more active learning process can take place. When teachers help to foster relationships between the students, the students are not only exposed to different approaches. They are also helping to promote a sense of belonging that may help improve the school experience for the student.
Johsnon, D. W. (n.d.). Cooperative Learning Institute. Retrieved from http://www.co-operation.org/home/introduction-to-cooperative-learning/
Community Relationships
When the school develops relationships within the community, they are able to share resources, expertise and support one another when faced with hardships and challenges.
Successful community school partnerships can deliver strong results. The support for developing community schools is growing and some believe that building community schools will help to transform the public school systems in creative and enduring way.
Some of the benefits of a strong community relationship include; financial support, resource development, professional development, mentoring programs, technical assistance and community engagement.
Community relationships are built in a variety of different ways. Teachers can reach out to the community and build relationships that will add to the support and knowledge in the classroom. A school as a whole can reach out the community and develop staff policies and encourage the development of community relationships. additionally, some school districts are choosing a system wide approach to community relationships by developing a more comprehensive vision of a community school.
In many circumstances community partners bring a wealth of expertise and resources to our students. As a result students may have access to expanded learning opportunities that will lead to increased achievement in school and as well as an opportunity to meet a additional student needs that may be difficult to address without community support.