Oh The Places We'll Go!

This week in Social Studies Methods we have learned about performance tasks, and how helpful they are in the classroom. A performance task is a form of summative assessment, and it helps the students to pick how they want to be assessed. This will be very helpful in my future classroom, and help with differentiation. Speaking of differentiation, the video this week was great! It was so inspiring, and really made me realize all that can be done in a classroom when differentiating.

The article that I chose is from Edutopia that is called "Well-Designed Classrooms Boost student Learning". This article stuck out to me, because I do not like to be in a boring dull classroom, and am always looking for ideas to make my future classroom be a place for my students to have fun and not fall asleep. A quote from the article says, "Research reveals how differences in the physical characteristics of the classrooms, such as air quality, color and light, can together increase the learning progress of primary school pupils by as much as 16% in a single year" (University of Salford Manchester). This is a staggering statistic, because even though 16% may not look like a lot, that is is a big deal when it comes to the classroom. The research says that this does not have to be super costly, but it should just be seen in the simple choices that we make in our classroom. The research offers sound sense as long as the teachers put their children first, and that alone can improve their classroom without spending any money. The most important thing that we have to do as teachers, is to take care of the students in our class. If the environment around them is not a good one, then they will have no drive to learn.

North Carolina Teaching Standard number 2 states that teachers establish a respectful environment for a diverse population of students, and I think that this ties in perfectly with the article, because as the teacher we are to give these students an environment that is comforting and safe.