As an education candidate, I am aware of the importance of establishing a culture for learning. My cooperating teacher and I create a cognitively busy environment where students can view the importance of learning throughout the room. This is a very print print-rich classroom, where different strategies are used and important terms are easily visible to all students. Within the classroom, we use different acronyms for student success and procedures such as CHAMPS and CUBES which are attached here. These easily convey the high expectations and standards we have for student work and allow students to assume their own responsibility in completing the tasks at hand. When the students are able to view these strategies for hard work daily, they become accustomed to it and include it in their work. The Wonder Word Wall allows students to assist peers and themselves in the precise language and hand motions used by both me and my cooperating teacher. Students can revise and self-assess their own work by viewing these standards used within the classroom, which helps them to initiate taking responsibility to initiate improvements, revisions, and details within their work. For example when using CUBES, students are able to revise how they are looking at a math problem. This acronym allows them to remember certain strategies they can use that can help them find the answer by organizing how the question is written. This allows them to self-reflect and take their own initiative in learning. Another important aspect of establishing a culture for learning is to display student work. When the students are proud of their work and can see that you are too, they become more motivated. One thing within my classroom that I love and will implement in my own future classroom is the student portfolio wall. At the beginning of the year, each student gets a blank face to color in and write their name on to create a self-portrait of themselves. Then, as the year goes on, different writings, drawings, and more are attached underneath their picture to by the end of the year create a student portfolio. Through this, students can see their work shown in the classroom and take pride in their creations. The Connectivism Learning Theory supports these research-based decisions. Developed by George Siemens and Stephen Downes, this theory states that students learn and blossom when they develop their own educational connections. By using acronyms and hand motions students are more likely to make connections of these habits and learning processes that stick with them.