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Jennifer Doering
Margaret Golden
EDUC 4180
17 October 2016
Making Students Feel Special and Secure: Creating Environments for Learning
Over the past few months, I have visited many classrooms at Hamilton Elementary, from
kindergarten through fifth grade. I have seen different teaching styles and classroom setups.
Many of the exemplary teaching practices I saw focus on creating and maintaining effective
environments for learning. These practices fall into the broad categories of making students feel
important in the classroom and being consistent with procedures. When students feel included
and important to the classroom community, they are more ready to learn. When procedures are
consistent, the school day runs smoother and more learning occurs.
I observed two ways of making students feel
important and included in the classroom: posters with
talk strategies for classroom discussions and star
student of the day or week. In third and fourth grade
classrooms, I saw a classroom discussion poster (see
Figure 1). This poster included statements such as I
respectfully disagree with _____ and think ... and I
acknowledge ____s point ... The third grade teacher
often referenced this poster during class discussions to
facilitate productive, respectful interactions. Students
understood this and used the sentence strips to voice their

Figure 1: Talk Strategies Poster

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own, differing opinions without shouting or making each other feel insignificant. It is an
excellent tool to use in the classroom to make students feel as if they and their opinions are
essential not only to the discussion, but the classroom as a whole. I will use this type of poster in
my future classroom by creating it with students near the beginning of the year. We will role-play
a disrespectful and respectful classroom discussion so students get a chance to experience how
each feels. Then we will decide how we will work to make our classroom discussions respectful.
I want every student to feel included in the process so their voices can be heard during all
classroom discussions.
In kindergarten, third, and fourth grade classrooms, I observed the special treatment given
to the Star Student of the Day/Week. In kindergarten, the student is star for the day. They are
allowed to sit in the special Star Student Chair during instruction, lead Calendar Time, help the
teacher put out supplies, and tell the Star
Student News. Star Student News is a time
where the Star Student can speak about
something that is important to them, such
as their favorite activity or their family.
The teacher writes a short paragraph
summarizing the childs speech in two or
three sentences. Then the class identifies
sight words in the paragraph. Each and
every child has a chance to be Star Student
Figure 2: Third Grade Star Student Poster

several times during the year and gets leadership

experience, increased confidence, and a chance to share a bit about themselves with the class.

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In third and fourth grade, the student is star for the week. They create a Star Student
poster (see Figure 2) about themselves and share it with the class, receive Star Student
affirmation letters from each classmate, and assist with certain classroom jobs, such as answering
the phone, filling in for absent students jobs, and dismissing students to line up for snack and
lunch. This allows the teacher and class to get to know each student, gives each individual
student a chance to hear positive affirmations from their peers, and provides leadership
experience. I will use a combination of both ways of running Star Student programs in my future
class because I believe it is important to get to know students at the beginning of the year, rather
than gradually throughout the year. I also think that this is an excellent way of providing each
student a chance to practice leadership, either through leading activities or performing classroom
jobs like answering the phone. It encourages the community feel that I hope to create in my
classroom.
I also observed two ways of being consistent in procedures: a clearly labeled Finished
Basket for finished work and a school-wide method of getting students attention involving
counting and hand gestures. In a kindergarten classroom, the teacher consistently had students
turn their assignments, no matter if it was
during math, language arts, spelling, or center
time, into the pink Finished Work basket
(see Figure 3). Students always knew to bring
their papers over to that basket, and by the third week

Figure 3: Finished Work Basket

of school, most students stopped walking up to the teacher to ask where to put their work when
they were finished. Some students still do, but the classroom runs much more smoothly than at
the beginning of the year. Having consistent procedures for all subjects and assignments is

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something that makes students feel secure. They know exactly what is expected of them and can
focus on learning the new material, the content, instead of the procedure. I will create procedures
for everything in my future classroom and teach them to my students to help them focus on the
material and make their learning easier.
Throughout Hamilton, I have observed a consistent method of getting students attention.
I dont think it has a name, but it is used in first through fifth grade classrooms and at all-school
assemblies. The speaker counts down from five, speaking out loud and using their hand. Once
they get to 0, they hold their hand in an O shape (see Figure 4) until all listeners are quiet and
also holding up a O with their hand. In addition, some teachers
simply hold up the 0 hand motion, omitting the counting. Students
copy by holding up their own 0 without talking. The idea is that quiet
will occur before the speaker gets to 0 or that students will quiet
themselves when they see other students holding up the 0 hand motion.
Figure 4: O Hand Motion

Using this consistent way of getting students attention allows their

mind to focus on being quiet instead of what method is being used to quiet them. In addition, it
allows students to have a kinesthetic response and reminder to be quiet (their upraised hand). I
hope that my future school will have a consistent manner of getting students attention that is
school-wide, but regardless, I will use this particular method because it gives students a physical
response and reminder to be quiet.
After observing what real classroom teachers do to create effective environments for
learning in their classrooms, I have realized that making students feel important to the
community and secure in procedures are most important to classroom set-up. I hope to create a
community in my future classroom where students feel special and secure.