Standard Two

Teachers establish a safe, inclusive and respectful learning environment for a diverse population of students.

Element A: Teachers foster a predictable learning environment characterized by acceptable student behavior and efficient use of time in which each student has a positive, nurturing relationship with caring adults and peers.

Artifact: Daily Routine in Band Class | Secondary Placement

Rationale: This artifact displays the typical daily routine for our classroom. The reason why we sequence in this order is to both set the students up for musical success in the day, but to also make the band classroom an environment that isn’t anxiety producing by the unknown. When students walk in, they understand that — in some way — we will accomplish this set of activities throughout the class period. For example, brass instruments know that they will know have to play rigorous music from the get go without warming up (this can be detrimental to their embouchure). They know that we as teachers will take the time to let them properly get ready and warm up their lips for the day. In doing so, they don’t need to worry.

Element B: Teachers demonstrate an awareness of, a commitment to, and a respect for multiple aspects of diversity, while working toward common goals as a community of learners.

Artifact: Religious Music Letter Home | Secondary Placement

Rationale: Because I did not want to bring up topics related to diversity in an inauthentic way in class, I reached out my colleague in the music department — Josh Greiner — to see if he had any thoughts on preemptive exercises in this standard. He challenged me by having me write this letter to address future parents/students about performing religious music at a holiday concert. This is something that is very common within the music content area. In doing so, I am touching on diversity preemptively in an authentic manner that does not take away from the topic by being unnatural. By doing this exercise, I had to utilize language that was accepting and inclusive as well as research the proper authoritative organizations on this subject manner that provide a framework for discussing an inclusively diverse holiday concert. I tried to keep the rationale and reasoning within the letter student-centric and learning-centric to maintain the educational efficacy of the concert event while being respectful to various aspects of diversity.

Element C: Teachers engage students as individuals, including those with diverse needs and interests, across a range of ability levels by adapting their teaching for the benefit of all students.

Artifact: Leveled Song-Writing Project | 5th Grade (Primary Placement)

Rationale: A common practice in my mentor teacher’s classroom, of which I have adopted, is providing automatic scaffolding for students to choose their own level of difficulty and define their own levels of success within projects and activities. What this artifact showcases is taking the week’s unit (song-writing) and scaffolding the skills/concepts associated with the project and letting students decide what they will have the most success with. These were printed onto packets which the students completed in groups or as individuals. Every day we discussed a different concept as it relates to the project (i.e. rhythm, lyrics, tonality, playing in parts, etc.) and students chose with what level of creation they wanted to engage with. This was a way to allow every student the ability to engage with the project and central concepts while adjusting the difficulty to their own needs required for their own success. Level Three does not correlate to a higher degree of success than Level One, it is simply less structured.

Element D: Teachers work with families and/or significant adults for the benefit of students.

Artifact: Letter Representing Communication to Parents About Student’s Success with IEP/504 Accommodation Plan | Grade 3 (Primary Placement)

Rationale: This artifact was also used as fulfillment of an assignment wherein we send positive reports home to the families of students who have been performing outstandingly over the course of their time in class. For this particular artifact, I am referencing the letter home to student “Diana” whom has an IEP/504 plan and therefore requires accommodations regarding her behavior and classroom management as it applies to her. The past week in which this letter is being written, we had adapted a form of classroom management for her that involved positive reinforcement via happy stickers on a paper bracelet after every activity in which she fully participated and followed classroom norms. This routine was formed through communication with my mentor teacher, the student’s classroom teacher, as well as her case manager/paraprofessional. As you can notice from the letter, the behavior accommodation was successful.

***Special Note: Please refer to Page 2 (the first letter to the student named “Diana”) for this Artifact. Due to the nature of the content here, I cannot be anymore specific regarding the student’s background nor identity for their own right of privacy. While this letter is an indirect reference of what happened in class, any more detail would violate the laws protecting her.

Overall Reflection on This Standard

I would describe myself on this standard as proficient with much room to grow. While I can make students feel safe and included in the classroom environment, I have yet to build these expecations and culture from scratch. What I would like to do is make students an owner of this culture creation, but I lack the real-world experience in doing so. Therefore, while I have a lot of ideas about to go about creating a classroom that is a safe space, my focus will need to be on being careful in the beginning of my own classes in order to take the time to set each student up for success. I cannot, as I was so fortunate to be able to during my student teaching, expect my students to know what the culture of my classroom is nor how to treat one another. It is up to me to teach this and is something that I am continually working on trying to improve as well as figure out for the future.