II-B: Learning Environment

1. Positive Relationships: Builds positive, caring relationships to help all students feel valued, respected, equitably supported, and a sense of belonging in the classroom community.

2. Safe Learning Environment: Creates and maintains a safe, supportive, and inclusive environment by:

   • Establishing, with student input, classroom routines and systems to support student learning.
   • Modeling and reinforcing respect for and affirmation of differences related to background, identity, language, strengths, and challenges (self- and social awareness).
   • Supporting student accountability for the impact of their actions.
   • Enabling students to take academic risks and share ideas freely.
   • Seeking feedback from students on their experience of the classroom learning environment and making aligned adjustments to practice.
   
   

3. Collaborative Learning Environment: Develops students' relationship and communication skills by:

   • Providing students with frequent opportunities to interact with peers, make sense of complex ideas together, and develop language.
   • Supporting students to engage with differences and diverse perspectives, respectfully challenge each other's thinking, and address interpersonal conflicts as they arise.
   
   

4. Student Ownership of Learning: Guides students to self-assess, problem-solve, ask for support, access resources when needed, and demonstrate leadership and/or positively contribute to the classroom and school community.

5. Critical Thinking: Develops students' abilities to think critically, ask questions, and analyze sources, perspectives, and biases in order to deepen learning and make connections between the content and real-world problems and events (e.g., issues of identity, equity, power, and justice).

Last Updated: July 5, 2024