1-3 Learning Environment

The candidate works with others to create environments that support individual and
collaborative learning, includes teacher and student use of technology, and encourages positive social
interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.

The candidate should complete a reflective essay illustrating the learning environment established in
their teaching. Three artifacts are to be submitted and may include student assignments, student
feedback, lesson plans, teacher observations and evaluations, and teacher reflections.

A music classroom allows for a variety of ways to incorporate student collaborative projects as
well as individual student work. With new advances in technological applications and softwares,
students can now easily create their own compositions without having to record their ideas using
standard music notation. This opens avenues to create diverse learning environments that encourage
positive social interaction as well as self-motivation.
In my student teaching experience it has been one of my highest priorities to facilitate the
classroom environment in a positive and uplifting manner. One of the ways I accomplish this is through
positive reinforcement and creating a community of inclusivity and fairness. In the elementary
classroom when a student is successful in the classroom I use their success as a positive example and
point out to the students what I liked about their behavior rather than constantly pointing out students
who weren’t behaving correctly. This not only provides a positive example for the student but also
uplifts the student who was behaving correctly and reinforces their positive behavior.
One of the main goals throughout my student teaching experience was making sure the
students built positive and trusting relationships with each other. In my elementary placement I
achieved this through a lot of partner and small group activities. On one occasion I paired up students
and gave them the project to create a clapping rhythm with a partner to the rhyme of
Pease Porridge Hot. This activity allowed students to share their original ideas and collaborate with a
partner to create something together. As the students worked I saw the students smiling and laughing
as well as problem solving and creating new ideas together. After the time was up the students were
very excited to show the class what they had created and couldn’t wait for their turn to stand up front. I
encouraged my students who were in the audience to clap for each partner after they showed what
they created.
In a classroom it is important to create activities throughout the lesson that will aide in
facilitating these positive relationships. Creating activities that facilitated and enabled these positive
relationships was the highest priority to me as I planned each lesson. During my student teaching
experience I felt that I was able to aid in building a positive classroom environment as well as positive
relationships.