Standard5

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**Standard 5**  ** Teachers know how to manage a classroom. ** // The teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation. //

**Evidence 1: Moodle/Wikispaces/DVD Moodle Wikispaces**

**Rationale 1:** The combination of Moodle, Wikispaces and DVD creation has revolutionalized the way I manage my classroom. The biggest technological influence on my classroom besides my SMART Board has been Moodle, which is an online learning platform from which I base most of my class work from. It has online assignment submission, a calendar, quiz creator, wiki, discussion forum, chat and questionnaire, all on the same page that is strictly dedicated to each individual class. I have used all of these on a regular basis. This allows me to communicate to students outside of the class and provides them with reinforcement that we may not get to during work time. It is a great management tool for the student and also allows parents to monitor the progress of their child in the class. I use this daily in each class and continue to look for new ways to utilize it to enhance my students overall understanding. Wikispaces is a website that I put recorded lessons, tutorials and reviews on. This provides those students who need reinforcements outside of class another resource to help them succeed. It also combats the problems that arise from student absences. They can then follow along on Moodle and look watch the Wikispaces videos to stay current on what they miss. Also, when I first became a teacher, I would dedicate the day before each test for a review assignment. This resulted in using anywhere from 8 to 12 days a semester on review alone. Now with the use of the SMART Board recorder and DVD’s, I create a DVD for each student that has every unit review. They can take it with them and watch it as they go along and use it as a study tool before tests for their graded reviews. This has freed up those review days for activities and further work in the content areas. Students have been more willing to do the work and have shown to score higher on tests when using Moodle and Wikispaces for studying. I have found that although it is difficult to prepare as many resources as possible on Moodle and Wikispaces, the more that I provide, the more the students will use and benefit from them. It has really allowed me to improve on every aspect of my classroom management with the time I have freed up, without jeopardizing student understanding.

**KSD**

// 5.K.4 The teacher understands the principles of effective classroom management and can use a range of strategies to promote routines and positive relationships, cooperation, and purposeful learning in the classroom. //

By using the technological tools that allow students more opportunities to learn outside of class, they come to class more confident in their understanding and are more willing to contribute to the classroom experience. The discussion or messaging forums in Moodle also allow students to communicate with me in a setting they are more comfortable with instead of in front of their peers, especially if they struggle. Moodle also allows them to come into class with expectations of what we plan on achieving that day. They can be held more responsible for their learning and can strive to achieve more intrinsically.

// 5.S.3 The teacher organizes, allocates, and manages the resources of time, space, activities, and attention to provide active and equitable engagement of students in productive tasks. //

The use of technology has freed up a lot of classroom time while still providing effective opportunities for student improvement. This has allowed me to spend more time on opening activities and enhancing my lessons. Coupling this with the utilization of in-class technology and there is rarely a minute of wasted time in my class. Moodle allows us to multi-task during those down times in class.

// 5.D.5 The teacher is committed to continuous development of individual students’ abilities and considers how different motivational strategies are likely to encourage this development for each student. //

In Moodle, I provide many different links, tutorials, reinforcement activities and games for students to use at any time. This way, students can find the methods that will be most effective for them. Where some students may succeed with tutorials, others may do better with games or activities. With Wikispaces, I provide additional examples that coincide with the standards and objectives and match them to lessons that they will be most relative to. This way, students who struggle have an easy mapped out understanding of which additional videos can be more helpful to them outside of class. Their time isn’t wasted which motivates them to do more.