Classroom Management

When we think of our roles as future teachers we probably don’t think of classroom management as a top priority. The task of managing a classroom often times isn’t given much thought, we probably pay more attention to other teaching aspects such as: creating lesson plans, teaching/tutoring students, or assigning grades. All of these duties, however, would not be possible without effective classroom management. If we, as future teachers, fail to recognize this inferred duty, we might actually end up hurting our students more than we’re helping them.

Classroom management is an important and often time misunderstood responsibility that all teachers have to address. It’s no secret that teachers have a difficult job on their hands. A lot is expected out of today’s teachers, there is probably nothing more difficult than juggling the task of taming a group of wild students and attempting to teach them the required curriculum. Many students want to resist learning at all costs because it takes personal effort on their part to change their own schema. Teachers can’t force students to learn, but there are many practical classroom management steps that can help put students in the “best possible position” to learn. Essentially as a future math teacher, my goal will be to create a classroom environment that encourages and facilitates learning.

First off, I want have good relationships with my students. I don’t want to be strictly an authoritarian figure, but at the same time I don’t to be all buddy-buddy with them. There has to be a fine balance in this area. My students must understand that I am the More Knowledgeable Peer in the classroom. This title can often times be abused by teachers, so I must make sure that I am directing my classroom in activities not just dictating my control. Being a teacher that is approachable can go a long way in creating a mutual trust between the students and the teacher. I will do this by asking critical thinking questions and walking around. This will encourage my students to explore. I also won’t embarrass my students when they say wrong answers. By doing this, hopefully some of my students will respect and trust me. Respect in the classroom should take the form of listening to the teacher’s instructions and allowing the teacher to be in charge. I do believe in some classrooms, whether the teacher realizes it or not, the students have the control.

I want my daily classroom schedule to be structured in order to ensure that my classroom stays managed. One key step to this will be starting every day with a problem on the white board (aka “bell ringer”) this activity would allow the kids to be immediately actively mentally engaged. This will then allow me to start teaching without having to talk over my student’s conversations. I will strive to treat my student’s with the utmost respect by coming prepared to class (just like I expect them to be). My lesson plan will be “over-planned” and flexible, to allow for accommodations as various student needs become evident. My lesson’s plan will be structured in a way that is consistent with the way that a student’s brain acquires information; I will start with concrete examples then work to more abstract concepts and applications. I don’t want to do my students a disservice by expecting them to be at a higher level abstraction level than they really are. As a teacher I must use scaffolding to help my classroom stay on task. If students are not in their Zone of Proximal development, they are more likely to get frustrated, lose motivation, and then get off task which in turn disrupts other students who are trying to learn. Which is again why it is so important that teachers stimulate student thinking; instead, of just telling the students to take all information at face value. Learning will take place in the classroom, not on the homework. Classroom time will be spent on relevant material, and will be “for” the students.

In my classroom I will not tolerate constant disruption or misbehavior. I will create about 5 general classroom rules. The consequences for breaking the rules would be made clear. In making these I will take into account that rewards and punishments have a huge effect on student behavior (BLT). I will be consistent in the way I handle discipline, being fair in the way I handle every situation and allowing students the chance to personally explain their situation to me. Students will know what is expected of them when they walk into my classroom and will have to choose whether they will abide by these expectations.

Finally, the way my classroom will be set up will be very intentional. I will try to diminish as many distractions as possible. My math manipulatives will be stored on the side of the classroom to ensure they won’t be a distraction to anyone. In conclusion, classroom management is one of the most important roles that teachers have. If a teacher can’t manage a classroom how can they expect their students to learn anything in their class? Therefore, as future teachers we should strive to keep our classroom managed in every area.

10/14/10 Lessons

Group 1-Healthy Eating 

This was a great practical lesson about learning how to live a healthy lifestyle. Your teaching was informed by DLT by putting out concrete examples of the different food groups. The polling website was also good way to be informed by SLT. However, I don’t think it was the best choice to have so much candy on the table because it didn’t really proportionally represent the “eat sparingly” portion of the food pyramid. Don’t get me wrong, I liked eating the candy, but it might have taken away from the message that you were trying to convey. Also some more question oriented group discussions could have been beneficial in this lesson.

Group 2-Homophones  

I like how you let us explore and come up with our own homophones. Also the riddles you gave us required us to be active mentally engaged by trying to figure out a homophone that satisfied the riddle. Maybe at the end you could give us a worksheet that shows us all the homophones you came up with. This would show how many homophones there really are and how we may use them on a daily basis without even thinking about it. Also it would be good to explain why it is relevant to be aware of all the different homophones (tie in some motivation).

Group 3-Story about Respect 

It was cool that that you made the whole class sat down.  The (Dragon/Princess) story was interesting and grabbed my attention. Asking questions between pages was also a very great idea. I think next time you could even used some more challenging questions that would require a little thinking. Instead of asking questions that have a definite answer maybe ask some questions that could have some differing answers. For example: How do you think the princess is feeling? or if you were in the princess’s shoes what would you do? Questions like these might spark some conversations and require the students to think about the thinking that goes before the actions. Start encouraging the development of schemas and connections even at a young age (this has to be done with scaffolding of course).

Group 4-Alphabet Game

This was a great activity for young students. It was good that you had a poster to remind us of the order of the alphabet, and it reminded us what all the capital and lower case letters look like. Good lesson for kids to get up out of their seats, and this lesson incorporated friendly competition coupled with learning. I think at the end of the lesson you could do a better job of getting back to the practical applications of the alphabet. Not sure how to go about this, but it's just an idea. (CVT-connecting alphabet to all areas of life)

Struggles While Teaching Lesson

Speech Lesson

We quickly realized that it is very difficult to teach while being informed by all the learning theories. Our first activity was allowing each table group to discuss how they would go about making a speech to the one of the two speech questions. First off, there maybe could have been a better way to go about this activity. Instead, we could have let them try a quick impromptu speech in front of their own small group. This would allow speech exploration in a “safe” environment with people they feel comfortable with (it would also be a concrete activity). I also realized the importance of questions that require higher-level thinking. Many of our questions could be answered with one or two words instantly. We didn’t have any questions that would take the students a few seconds to process. Some possible questions could be, why is it important to have good impromptu speech skills? How could you get back on track after having a bad start to a speech? Both of these questions may have multiple answers, and they could foster some classroom discussion. I also now see the importance of flexibility because students may not always volunteer if they don’t feel adequate for the task. We will have to work on our “thinking on the spot” skills as teachers, being ready to react to the way that our students respond to a planned lesson.