The educational environment in my classroom fosters: respect, a feeling of safety, anticipation and excitement for learning, and a cohesive sense of unity.

     Respect is earned, not commanded.  Students should feel respected as well as appreciated.  When fostering respect and appreciation in a classroom, it flows from teacher to student, student to student, and student to teacher.

     When children are behind the confines of a closed school door, there should be a feeling of being completely safe.  This includes safeness from harassment, discrimination, bullying, and fear from being wrong.  Music should be used to calm or excite as the moment dictates.  By exposing children to different classifications of music, an expansion of their appreciation and knowledge of music can be obtained.  This musical addition helps maintain a calm, peaceful, less aggressive environment in the classroom. This leads to a greater retention of the subject matter being studied.

     Children should be excited about coming to school.  They should be curiously anticipating the next moment of humor, educational story, acted out lesson, or personal interaction.  By mixing the above mentioned, students remain interested and attentive to the instruction taking place.

     The concept of "team" is taught and used in my classroom.  Creating the sense of working together to a desired end, in the classroom, builds unity in the room.  This also leads to the understanding and meaning of teamwork, The knowledge and experience gained, transfers into becoming a responsible and productive student and member of society.