Entry 3- Learning Environment

The candidate works with others to create environments that support individual and collaborative
learning, includes teacher and student use of technology, and encourages positive social interaction,
active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.

Environments that support students in individual and collaborative learning are dependent on the
classroom culture presented by the instructor at the beginning of the year. Teachers should be modeling
the types of behavior that they want to see in their students, and that begins with collaboration. The
instructor should make an effort to collaborate with students, colleagues, school administration, and
community members whenever possible. There are many tools that can assist in collaboration between
teachers and other professionals or students. Technological tools that lend themselves to this type of
teaching are interactive, show different perspectives and provide opportunities for multiple individuals to
share and synthesize ideas. A few examples are; Google Docs, SmartNotebook, YouTube, and
MapMusik.live. Lessons using collaborative technologies encourage creativity, intrinsic motivation, and
discovery. These types of activities allow for students’ social skills to be broadened through positive
social interaction. Students are able to learn collaboratively from each other and resolving conflicts and
essentially teaching them how to get along.
Throughout professional development days, learning new technologies, implementing these
strategies, I have learned a lot about the role of technology in the music classroom. Students interact with
technology much more than I do on a daily basis and it’s one thing that can actually act as an opportunity
for my students to teach me. Allowing yourself to not “have all the answers” helps to create a
collaborative classroom. As teachers, we shouldn’t stop learning. We should continue collaborating and
learning from others, especially when it relates to technology.