Learning Enviornments

The Learning Environment INTASC standard calls for evidence that I can create a learning environment support individual learning, collaborative learning, social interaction, active engagement, and self-motivation. Through my time at Samford, I have had the opportunity to teach in a variety of classrooms covering diverse subjects for groups of individuals with diverse ages and needs. Due to this, I have had the opportunity to get creative with learning environments and truly learn what learning environments work best for certain situations “in the trenches” of education. Knowing what learning environment is best for each lesson is integral to academic success and student participation.

Artifact 1 is a lesson plan for a 9^th Grade social studies class. This lesson plan exhibits my ability to create a learning environment that is creative, immersive, and encourages individual participation, evaluation, and class discussion. The students enter to find themselves immersed already within the lesson within a classroom environment that is in itself a reflection of the lesson. In this case, students are transitioning from discussion about the dark ages to the Renaissance, described by some historians as a move away from the dark period. For this reason, the classroom is designed to represent this change whereby the classroom begins in literal darkness and then is immersed in literal light. From the beginning, this environment encourages active engagement and student self-motivation by immersing students in the concept itself. Then, student learning in the lesson is designed to be scaffolded by guided questions meant to facilitate class discussion. At the end of class, individual learning is supported by fun class Kahoot which encourages participation through anonymous competition and allows me as the teacher to get a grasp of what concepts students are familiar with and what concepts need extra time for the rest of the unit. Artifact 2 is a graphic representation of a learning environment design meant to facilitate collaborative learning and social interaction. The desks are designed to split the class into three discussion groups with three students taking turns as discussion leaders within each group semi-circle. This learning environment design can be used for a variety of collaborative earning needs, and I have personally used it to facilitate group discussion, group projects, and class games.