Color Scheme

Now let's look at the color scheme of your classroom. If you are using blue, green, or violet hues then you are already aware that color affects our mood and that those colors are calming to your senses and for your students. If you are using yellow, orange, and red as your main color hues, that could present a problem for some teachers, as those colors are known to stimulate and energize our mood.

An educator needs to decorate their classroom to create the learning environment that they are wanting. A librarian will want a calm environment that stimulates reading so a theme of green, blue, or violet will help emit that. A physical education teacher may want a very stimulating environment to increase physical activity. Their choices of red, yellow, and orange would energize the students to be more physically active. In the primary grade levels a teacher might accent a room in yellow, orange, and red as their students learn their color words, but avoid those colors otherwise. As a teacher you are in control of those choices and your learning environment should reflect that.

Enhancement Materials

Your first task is to go through all of your enhancement materials, and give away anything that hasn't been used in the last two years. This will be very difficult for many of you, but please remember that a cluttered room creates a cluttered mind. Also, having a abundance of materials on hand that you never have time to use, may make you feel incompetent and overwhelmed when you don't have time to use them all. The clutter can also create disorder for you, as you try to find the materials that you are required to use or want to utilize. Simplify your life! Scale back to the basics that your school requires. Give away your extra materials to your students, church or a youth residential program. You may want to have a garage sale, but find the strength to remove the extra materials from your classroom. You are probably thinking, "I may need that!" If you are a teacher that is having difficulty taking this step, then you might want to box up your extra items and store them at your home. Then you could rotate enhancement materials each semester or when needed. Remember, this is a start to make your life less complicated so take those baby steps if you need to. Continue to arrange items on your shelves so that you and your students have easy access to them. The visual appearance for your classroom will be appealing and the items that are a necessity will then be accessible. Once you have accomplished this chore you are ready for the next step.

In the Beginning (cont.)

Changing the cosmetic appearance of the room can be the first step to a more productive learning year for all of your students.

Let's start by looking at the foundation and structure of your classroom. Most classrooms are built to accommodate twenty to twenty-five student desks and are the shape of a square. There are four walls with a door, and sometimes you have window(s) with several shelves built in for storage. The majority of schools give their teachers basic teaching tools that their school district requires them to utilize to enhance student learning. Most teachers will purchase several of their own items to accompany their teaching style. What usually happens is you will accumulate more enhancement learning tools for kinesthetic learning than you will ever be able to use. You may also have more copies of academic reinforcement worksheets than you can make use of.

In the Beginning; Think Structure

For many children who are identified as slow learners or have mental health issues a chaotic, stimulating environment will trigger negative behaviors or reactions. Children wil mental health issues perform best in a calm, structured environment. Children with special needs often are very sensitive to their environment and when their sensory organs are over stimulated, they may have difficulty discerning the information that a teacher presents. The child then becomes overwhelmed with stimulus and will usually try to obstruct the learning experience by acting out to avoid completing the assignment. If you are a teacher striving for a serene, learning environment that does not over stimulate your students, then begin by assessing your classroom environment. As you are reading this chapter, determine if there are any changes that you could construct in your classroom to enhance learning. Be aware that your students will be responsive to the anxiety or calmness that you present and they will follow your example.

pg. 13 (more to continue!)

Introduction of Creating a Therapeutic Classroom

The purpose of this book is to give educators fresh insight on how to maintain discipline while teaching academics. This task has become more difficult over the last decade as the emotional and physical needs of children have increased along with the academic outcomes of the presidential program No Child Left Behind.

The instructional classes utilized for training teachers focus primarily on how to present information to students. A novice teacher will learn the majority of their classroom management skills during their student teaching practicum. The concern that evolves from this theory is that the experienced teacher has established the classroom structure and the student teacher only needs to maintain it. When a novice teacher tries to duplicate the structure in their own classroom they find that the classroom management method isn't as functional for them, and they struggle to maintain discipline in their classroom. Another concern for teachers to contemplate is that every town and school district has its' own unique set of issues in their community that must be considered when establishing their classroom structure. If a teacher isn't employed in the school district where they completed their student teaching practicum, they will need to acclimate to their new environment. Several school districts will assign a mentor teacher to a novice teacher for support during this time to ease the stress while they adjust and learn the district's expectations.

My intention is to share suggestions teachers can integrate into their own teaching style, to assist them in creating an environment that enhances the learning in every child. I also hope to address the needs of children with mental health concerns. These children can be very disruptive when they feel a need for support and security, and that can affect the learning of all children in the classroom.

Effective Classroom Managers

Effective classroom teachers are effective managers.

Effectively managed classrooms are learner focused and responsive to the needs of all students.
Becoming and continuing to be an effective classroom manager is a career long process for the professional educator.

In Creating a Therapeutic Classroom, Gina D Heyen brings together two perspectives from her professional background: that of the classroom teacher, and the professional counselor/therapist in addressing the aspects which are to be considered in creating a classroom which facilitates the teaching/learning process for all learners.

The ideas and suggestions presented are detail oriented, simple and straight forward, are research based, and reflective of the Best Practices concept espoused by the education profession.

Acknowledging the reality that there is no "one right way" to accomplish effective practices, the author continually reminds the reader to keep "Ideas which work" as well as encouraging "Ideas I'd like to try."

Both the novice and seasoned veteran teacher can benefit from these contents not only in a potentially new directions for exploration, but also from the validation of support for practices which may be "tried and true."

Rich Bicker
Associate Professor of Teacher Education
Southwestern College
Winfield, KS

Creating a Therapeutic Classroom: A Teacher's Guide to Meeting the Needs of All Students in the Classroom

Are you having difficulty meeting the needs of all the students in your classroom?

Do you feel overwhelmed with the disruptive behaviors displayed by your students?

Creating a Therapeutic Classroom by author Gina Heyen is designed to give teachers practical ideas that can be implemented immediately into their classrooms. Creating a Therapeutic Classroom begins with the structure of the room to establish a calm learning environment. Then the book discusses several behavior modification tools that can be utilized throughout the day with a diverse selection of reinforcement forms to use as your students apply the skills you have discussed with them. Creating a Therapeutic Classroom will finally guide you through the application process of the ideas presented, so that your toolbox is always ready to intercept any behaviors noted in the classroom. Creating a Therapeutic Classroom is a must for the novice and tenured teacher alike who is looking for new ideas to meet the needs of today's students.