Teacher/student social relationships are key to having a successful classroom environment. Students need to know and feel that they matter to a teacher and that their presence is acknowledged and needed for the classroom to be complete. My plan for creating and maintaining positive classroom environments will be through: Creating a space of safety and comfort, taking the time for social development/relationships, and giving students opportunities to engage and be creative. As an art educator, it is highly important that a student feels supported and safe in their environment. It is very difficult to be creative if a student feels threatened or uncomfortable in their classroom.
It is my intention to make my students feel comfortable by giving them opportunities to be involved with decisions regarding how the classroom runs and operates. By collaborating with students in creating the rules of the classroom, I hope to prevent the problem of ignorance. Problems in the classroom should never go ignored and the teacher should never revert to using threats. Most problems can be sorted out through communicating and by making a plan to create a solution collaboratively.
It is my goal for my classroom to be a safe space where students can communicate with their peers, have personal reflective time, and communicate effectively. As their teacher, I will meet individually with students while they are working on their artwork and ask them about their process, their concerns, and other topics of relevance. Through doing this, I hope to strengthen social relationships with my students by showing them that I care about their well being and that I am interested in what they have to say as well as what art they produce. Art is such a wonderful subject because it is communicative to begin with. I want my students to feel comfortable coming to me with their questions and not feel intimidated to talk about any pressing issues that may be bothering them.
Since art is communicative by nature, I plan on creating projects and lessons that bring in issues of self-identity as well as the community. By doing projects that have a personal theme, students have the option of sharing information that they want about themselves and as a result become personally invested in their projects. I plan on having small group discussions where students learn social skills and are able to talk and build each other up through creating and discussing artwork. By fostering social emotional learning through group discussions and by assigning projects that lets students creatively think about personal issues, I am hoping to open up a space for positive possibilities to emerge. As a team I also plan on creating the rules of the classroom collaboratively with my students. By doing this students will take part in how the classroom is run and be held responsible for understanding how to respect the space and the students.