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Creating a Learning Environment or Managing a Classroom?

12/22/2011

3 Comments

 
_I have changed the language I use when referring to the task of ensuring that students are productive in learning. This effort is often called "classroom management," but I now call it "creating a learning environment."

My shift is not superficial. Rather, I know that language influences the way we frame a situation, duty, or role. Classroom management supports the perspective that the components of the classroom, including the students, are to be controlled and manipulated, however kindly this task is approached by a teacher.

On the other hand, creating a learning environment is about paying attention to aspects of the classroom that support learning and augmenting them with further efforts. The focus is on the goal--learning--and what leads to it, rather than on a teacher's behavior in managing the class.

When teachers focus upon creating a learning environment, they are likely to look at the entire classroom and evaluate myriad components of a learning-supportive space, rather than thinking about managing students and their behaviors. The task is more complex, more holistic, and more realistic in seeing all the factors that lead to learning, or not.

Sometimes a simple shift in phrasing can be the first step in engaging in Learnership, which is leadership for learning.
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Learnership

11/27/2011

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I have just created the fourth iteration of my website. The purpose for the current changes is twofold. First, I want to put more of an emphasis on Learnership. Learnership is the term I have created for the tasks and perspectives that enhance learning in classrooms and in schools. Teachers engage in Learnership when their eyes are on the prize: their students' learning. Principals and other educational leaders engage in Learnership when they establish a school-wide focus upon learning and emphasize learning in their priorities and in their interactions with teachers and parents. Learnership takes place when attending to teacher learning as well as student learning.

The second reason for a new website is that I want my site to be livelier. I will be adding resources and making changes on an ongoing basis, as the need or interest arises. It won't be as fancy because I need a site that i can manipulate with ease, but it will be pertinent, informative, and helpful. I hope you'll check it out often and subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog.
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    Cathy A. Toll, Ph.D., guides educators in the tasks of Learneship: leading learning in classrooms and schools, via professional learning teams, educational coaching, and administrative leadership..

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