My Ideal Classroom (Abby)

My ideal classroom consists of a few different aspects: community, opportunity, and open-mindedness. To start, a successful and ideal classroom must have a strong sense of community that includes ALL students, regardless of ability, race, or culture. Students should feel safe, physically and emotionally, in their classroom environment, which is constructed by their peers and their teacher. The students must feel comfortable in asking questions or sharing ideas without the fear of being made fun of or being shot down by their teacher. The community should also be constructed by including and acknowledging everyone's differences and giving appreciation for each other. Next, is opportunity. In my ideal classroom, students will be given ample opportunities to get the help they need to succeed. I hope to offer many different ways to give help to students and also offer many ways to succeed, such as differing assessments, projects, etc. Lastly, open-mindedness is important to my ideal classroom. This is because I, as a leader and role model to students, need to portray a sense of open-mindedness in order to show students that it is okay and welcome in my classroom. Everyone is different and will bring different cultural aspects with them that will all come together to create our community. 

In this class, I hope to learn more ways in which language arts can be used other than the typical grammar worksheets and book reports. Although I really enjoyed this when I was young, I know that this was not a successful route for all students' learning. I think I need to be shown these different strategies in order to better teach students in the future. In the field, I hope to observe these different strategies as well. I also want to observe how my CT addresses ELL students and how she helps them keep up and learn the same information. Although in many TE classes ELLs are discussed, I am not very familiar with techniques as to address these students' special needs.