What Does Educational Psychology Look Like In The Classroom?

A sneak peek into my classroom

I must state this first:

I AM NOT A TEACHER.

a quick pick of my desk :-)

I do not have a teaching degree, but I would get one if it weren’t so time-consuming to get with lots of fiery hoops to jump through— instead, I’m happily pursuing my MA in Educational Psychology.

What I do in the classroom isn't teaching as much as it is co-learning. I'm a paraprofessional. I work in various classrooms, with multiple kids with different abilities, with one goal: mindfully learning with them. To see how they see the work, assignments, projects — whatever name the teacher has given to a particular learning activity.

For example, my job in an 8th-grade science class is to make sense of the material and offer a new perspective for the kids. I draw a lot of pictures. I write on the whiteboard often. I develop mnemonic devices that are meaningful to them — learning happens when kids authentically connect with the material. I'll go one step further; kids must connect with their environment before learning. This idea has been a natural part of who I am and was validated by my research of the late Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator/philosopher — which is an amazing combination of skills.

Let's Unpack The Whole Environment Thing

Your environment is everything around you — the fancy word is ubiquitous. When I was little, I was obsessed with the Reader’s Digest vocabulary quiz, and I remember the day I learned the word ubiquitous.) This is a way of saying that kids notice way more than adults do — kids are living the definition by being present, looking everywhere, and noticing everything.

Examples include but are not limited to:

• how dirty the floor appears to the student
• how cluttered the room seems to the student (trashy clutter and anchor chart clutter are both clutter)
• is the room too hot or too cold (We learn about Goldilocks as a way to understand what our needs are at the moment — having a room "just right" can make a huge difference)
• is the room too bright/glaring or too dim