Teach

What messages do you want your environment to send? How do you want staff members, children, and families to feel while they are in your space? What do you want them to learn?

There are several things to keep in mind as you help staff design or redesign their classroom or program spaces. First, you should contribute your expertise on high-quality environments. You must know what a high-quality learning environment looks like for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, school-age children, and youth. You can read the age-specific Learning Environment courses for a review. These lessons stress the importance of the physical environment, how the environment sends messages to children, youth and adults about how to appropriately use the space, and how arrangement of the environment can hinder or facilitate staff’s work with children and families. The lessons include information on developing and communicating predictable schedules and routines. In addition, the lessons provide information on constructing indoor and outdoor environments that are:

• Designed to support the interests and development of children and youth, including information on relevant interest or activity areas that could be included based on child age
• Organized to support independence, easy use, and learning
• Full of materials that are developmentally appropriate, culturally relevant, open-ended (i.e., materials that can be used in a variety of ways), and that support a variety of learning goals for children or youth
• Simultaneously engaging, with interesting experiences, and calming with home-like attributes
• Supportive of all children and youth

您还必须能够向工作人员传达此信息。本课程将帮助您确定高质量的环境，并为帮助工作人员不断改进学习环境提供建议。yabo电子游艺虽然许多工作人员将环境视为他们的创造力和教学方法的表达，但您对确保环境旨在学习的终极责任。yabo电子游艺

Many staff members may need you to provide them with information about child development. Make sure staff members understand the unique needs of the age group with which they work:

You must be prepared to teach staff members about the role the environment plays in the curriculum and in child behavior. Talk to staff members about how their environments are designed to support engagement and active learning. Also be prepared to encourage staff members to look at their environments first when challenging behaviors occur.

模型

你专业的内容项目,it is your job to be a role model for effective practices. You should have an active role in designing environments. Help staff members arrange their spaces. As you do so, talk about why it is important to arrange environments in systematic ways (separating loud and quiet spaces, providing boundaries, etc.). Spend time talking about the space, sharing organization tips, and helping move furniture. Brainstorm together when problems arise. Model looking at the environment first when challenging behaviors occur. Ask questions like:

• What do you think this environment is communicating to the children or youth?
• What are your goals for this space?
• How do you think children or youth should use this space?
• Is it easy to do what needs to be done here? Why or why not? What would make it easier?
• What problems are children having? What messages do you think they are trying to send with their behavior?

模型curiosity and problem solving as you work with staff members. When a space needs to be arranged or rearranged, help staff members list all the activities, events, and materials that the space should accommodate. Use that list to set goals for the space and clearly define spaces that serve different functions. Also, keep open lines of communication among staff members who work different shifts in the same space. It is important that all staff members understand the purposes behind environmental arrangement.

最后，与您的程序的管理一起工作，以确保您的程序的共享空间将与单个教室相同的消息传达。模型一个完整的，无杂乱的，以及专注的方法，可以在程序中设计所有空格yabo电子游艺。这意味着前台，员工打破区域和培训室都安排在学术中。yabo电子游艺

Observe

您有责任确保工作人员提供高质量，有效的环境。与安全一样，您的计划可能有工具来评估室内和室外环境的质量。几种环境评级尺度是可商购的（射击，Ecers-R，Sacers）。您还可以使用国家幼儿环境标准的教育协会或为学龄计划开发的其他工具。这些工具可以提供有价值的信息，以帮助重点介绍工作人员在他们提供的学习环境和材料周围的专业发展。yabo电子游艺

Observing and talking with staff members are the best means for assessing the strengths and meeting the challenges of their learning environments. It is important for you to know each staff member's individual strengths and challenges. Remember, you may also need to support consistency across different shifts among staff members who work in the same classroom.

Let's begin by taking another look at a classroom that you first were introduced to in the Safety Course. Making simple improvements to an environment often can have a major impact on the overall classroom experience — including safety and learning. You've already watched this video and thought about the safety implications. Now, take some time to think about how this space affects learning.

Case Example 1: Learning Environment

案例示例步骤1：制定计划

What did you notice about this environment? Did it maximize opportunities for learning? Did it provide a strong foundation for the curriculum? As a trainer or coach, it is your responsibility to provide supports so the answers to the last two questions are “Yes!” Think about what specific strategies a trainer, coach, and classroom team might discuss to help maximize learning in this environment. In the Safety Course, the trainer, coach, and teachers discussed creating “zones” for easy supervision, developing a role-by-responsibility matrix so adults knew what to do at all times in each zone, and taking data on “hot spots” in the classroom. These same steps can be powerful ways to promote learning. In this case, we would begin to provide the staff members with some rationale forwhy and how区域和积极监督促进学习。yabo电子游艺这是一个简单的方法，一个关于课堂环境的目标可以包括学习结果：yabo电子游艺

Case Example Step 2: Provide Feedback

It’s important to talk to staff members about their environments. When staff members perceive challenging behavior, it is helpful to consider the environment first. In this case example, the trainer or coach might say something like:

案例示例步骤3：提供资源

All of us need the right tools to do our jobs. Use the information you have gathered to connect staff members with resources they need. You might model a skill, arrange for a staff member to observe in another classroom or program, bring in materials from a lending library, or brainstorm new ways to arrange a space. For example, a variety of commercial vendors offer free sample classroom blueprints-the company that sells your program's furniture may have resources you can find online. You could compare the strengths and weaknesses of each and brainstorm ways you could apply designs with the furniture and materials you already have. You might also help connect staff members with resources about teaming, or working with each other to solve problems. The University of Minnesota REACH program (https://reachfamiliesd7.umn.edu/prodev/track/coaching-and-managing-success) has a variety of resources for developing your coaching skills and helping support adult learners.

您还可以看到一些示例楼层为婴儿，幼儿和学龄前是访问：亚慱彩票http://www.spacesforchildren.com/flrpln.html。虽然这些是设计空间布局的潜在方式的示例，但请记住您的计划中的安全和政策规则，并帮助工作人员在开发课堂布局时考虑这些。

学习环境的其他示例yabo电子游艺

As a trainer or coach, you will likely see a range of environments across a range of age groups. Watch the following videos to see examples of environments with varying levels of quality. The case example followed an infant and toddler setting, and these examples represent preschool and school-age settings. Each video ends with a summary of how you might follow up with the staff members.

A Range of Preschool Learning Environments

A Range of School-Age Learning Environments

Completing this Course

For more information on what to expect in this course and a list of the accompanying Learn, Explore and Apply resources and activities offered throughout the lessons, visit the Training & Curriculum Specialist Learning EnvironmentsCourse Guide。

To support the professional development of the direct care staff members or family child care providers you oversee, you can access their corresponding Course Guides:

• Infant & Toddler Learning EnvironmentsCourse Guide
• Preschool Learning EnvironmentsCourse Guide
• School-Age Learning EnvironmentsCourse Guide
• Family Child Care Learning EnvironmentsCourse Guide