Blog #6: Reflection Post
Kohn's article talks not only about the physical items that are in the class, but the environment that the teachers and students bring into the room.
Reflection: Looking back at my elementary school years, I see hallways full of color and posters. I see student artwork and good test grades. I remember feeling a sense of community and belonging when walking the halls or even just being in my classroom. Our artwork was up on the walls, we had our groups to sit with while in class, and occasionally our seats would get moved around in an effort to make us socialize with the other students. Our rules and expectations also hung on the walls but what was nice about it was that we had a say on our classroom rules and expectations. I remember being asked at the beginning of the school year for several years what we as students thought our classroom norms should be and it always felt nice to have a voice in things like that. As I entered the later years of middle school and high school I was very blessed to have encouraging and creative teachers who fostered a welcoming environment and did not subject me to strict rules and stereotypes that if we did not follow we were deemed the bad troubled kids. The teachers that I had, most of the time, had grace and understood that we were young adults but not only that, but we were also just human. I will admit that the colorful bright artwork on the walls was lacking in the classrooms, but the teachers' personalities and the environment of the classrooms made up for it. Needless to say, our hallways were filled with student-painted murals.
Below is an article that speaks on this same topic of fostering a positive environment for students in the classroom
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