What’s Your Classroom Environment?
After talking with Dean Shareski at the TLE event for the #HWDSBTLE, I re-realized there needs to be certain conditions for learning to take place. If these conditions are not in place, learning might still happen but I need to ask on what level? Dean points out learning needs to be many things, but these five stick out in my mind:
- Learning is social and connected
- Learning is personal and self-directed
- Learning is shared and transparent
- Learning is rich in content and diversity
- Learning ought to be joyful
I didn’t think of these statements, they belong to Dean http://www.slideshare.net/shareski in fact I would encourage you to check out all his slideshares, you can only imagine what he was saying for some of them.
Now think of yourself for a moment, are you making learning all of the above? I know at one point I wasn’t, but throughout my career I have learned to become more of a learner than a teacher by passing a shared responsibility onto my students.
But now in my current role, I am figuring out ways to encourage other teachers to adopt a learning philosophy such as above (or create one that really works for students and not teachers alone).
If you have any ideas how to create these conditions, I would love to hear them. If you disagree or agree with me too, let me know. Send me a tweet @MrBillForrester or make post.
Aviva, 
Aviva 6:13 am on November 12, 2014 Permalink
Bill, I absolutely agree with everything on this list, and I love Dean Shareski’s thoughts on this topic. I am struggling with one line in your blog post though. It’s the idea of being “more of a learner than a teacher.” When did it become a bad thing to say that we’re teachers? Why are people replacing facilitator or co-learner with teacher? I absolutely agree with the need for teachers to learn alongside their students, but they also have an important job of knowing what this learning has produced and where students need to go next. They know, and are responsible, for helping bring this learning to the next level. I think that people that speak about this co-learning stance understand and believe this (at least to some extent), but I wonder what’s lost when we don’t really acknowledge this. I’m a classroom teacher. I love my job! I love teaching kids … and yes, I’m a learner (I learn new things every day), but I’m also a teacher.
Aviva
wforrest 6:42 pm on November 11, 2014 Permalink
Donna, Thanks for pointing that out. Your point is till valid, but it was a typo…should have been transparent.
Donna Fry 4:49 pm on November 11, 2014 Permalink
Hi Bill;
Thanks for sharing this. I have enjoyed reading all of your posts.
I really like the idea of a manifest for the classroom learning environment.
It’s interesting that “personal” appears twice on your list. I am conscious of the introverts in the room who are less thrilled with a lot of social stimulation. I would want to see a quiet area and some noise-reducing headphones to use when it is time to focus.
While learning is social, introverts need some processing time and the choice of when to interact with others.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/07/physical-behavior-of-introverts_n_6069438.html
It’s so awesome to have “rich” and “joyful” on the list.
Thanks for sharing Dean’s presentations. They are a source of inspiration for all of us.
Keep writing and sharing!
Donna
@fryed
Dean Shareski (@shareski) 4:06 pm on November 11, 2014 Permalink
Thanks Bill. I don’t know if those tenets work for everyone but i’d encourage ever teacher to write a manifest of their classroom learning environment. I’m sure others have different beliefs but these certainly are important to me and I do believe there are some universal ideas here that are important for all learners.