Standard 4: Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments
Standard 4 is concerned with the classroom climate the teacher nurtures with their communication of concise directions, inclusive engagement and tactics to manage demanding behaviours. High quality practice will employ a variety of strategies to support participation of students in a learning community which safeguards their wellbeing (AITSL, 2010).
Focus Area 4.1: Support student participation
Focus Area 4.2: Manage classroom activities
Focus Area 4.5: Use ICT safely, responsibly and ethically
Pictured is an excerpt from a lesson plan and associated critique I wrote to create a literacy rich classroom for children of varying style and ability as well as students for whom EAL/D. The lesson makes use of the stunning pastiche visuals and themes of non-prescriptive otherness as well as multimodal delivery to invite each student to engage with the narrative and make their own nuanced meaning (Crew, 2016; Tan, 2010). The lesson explicitly interrogates the interdependent relationship between text and image and makes use of a range of strategies to scaffold students to address this in their assessment. Students work collaboratively in small, think-puzzle-share, and class groupings, mind mapping/dialogic, and individually, assessment, and are immersed in an ICT enriched classroom. Responsible, shared usage of ICT tools and participation of all students in promoted throughout the lesson explicitly as well as innately when interacting with the content.
Focus Area 4.2: Manage classroom activities
Focus Area 4.3: Manage challenging behaviour
Pictured is a group presentation I developed with colleagues addressing the inherent inequities between metropolitan and remote education. Alarmingly, in our research we found that state schools in urban settings were considerably better off financially and academically then their rural peers, even if they received the same base funding from the government. As illustrated, we utilized a range of strategies to promote inclusive engagement, such as catering to diverse learning styles, incorporating drama, music and ICT and moving around the room to keep students on task, monitor learning and offer assistance where needed. We used to role play, as you can see one of my colleagues is dressed in stereotypical rural threads while the other is a city boy, and themed music, “The time is now” (Cena & Trademarc, 2005), to create interest and situate the poll in real life. By avoiding simply standing in front and talking at the class I was able to effectively manage behaviour by varying the volume of my voice, creating drama, and calling upon students to answer questions if they were disengaged.
Focus Area 4.4 Maintain student safety
Focus Area 4.5: Use ICT safely, responsibly and ethically
Pictured is an extract from the working with children, young people and vulnerable adults online learning modules which formed part of my Community Engagement (CE) experience. Additionally, as evidenced by this excerpt from a situational analysis I wrote, contemporary advances in technology have increasingly complexified bullying for victims and arguably simplified bullying with virtual anonymity for perpetrators. With 1 in 4 students estimated to have been subject to bullying our legal and ethical responsibilities when working with children and safeguarding their wellbeing have never been more crucial (Behind The News [btn], 2012). Foremost in the associated legislative, administrative and organisational policies are the mandatory reporting procedures and confidentiality (AITSL, 2010, p. 22). But complimentary to these is the classroom climate, critical literacy, social aptitude and strategies we equip our students with, from coping with peer interactions to accessing tools such as The Australian Kids Helpline (Kids Helpline, 2019). As a teacher this means cultivating a consistent, secure and authentically respectful environment and communicating this to students with our words and actions, as well as giving them agency in their world (For certificate detail please refer to Focus Area 7.2).
