Gaining Respect-Tuesday, February 25th

                                                    

            I feel like every time I am in class, three hours goes by so fast. I walk in always a few minutes before 10 AM and leave right before 1 PM feeling like only an hour has passed. So much goes on in that amount of time. The highlights of this week’s class (Tuesday, February 25^th) included a new observation guideline and the parent panel.

              The new observation guideline was much different than the one we had been previously using. I went to two different classrooms with Jean. The first, which was actually the same classroom we went to a few weeks ago, was an ESL Biology class. We had discussed who was going to be observing the teacher or student two before entering the class and then chose student one, who we both observed, after settling into the class. This guideline was interesting because I was able to focus on two people in the entire classroom for twenty minutes. The teacher spent most of this time managing the class because the students wouldn’t settle down in their seats or stay quiet. One of the only students who behaved and was taking notes on what the teacher was trying to teach was a new student who was having his first day at CF high school. I wonder how long this has been happening in this particular classroom and what else this teacher does for classroom management. It also makes me think how I would handle this type of situation and honestly at this point, I don’t know. It definitely made me realize that I need to learn some classroom management techniques that will make it likely that situations like this one won’t occur often in my classroom someday. I understand it will at some points but I would hope it doesn’t happen too often. 

            The panel that came to speak to us this week was the parent panel. I really enjoy listening to the different panels because it’s very interesting getting to hear different points of view with hopes that I will benefit in the future from it. It seemed to me that the parents want respect from all teachers. They also want the teachers to respect their children. If a teacher gives their children respect then they gain the respect of the parent. Also, a huge point the parents made was that they want teachers to communicate with them. This means they want to receive phone calls not only when their children are not doing well, but also when they are doing well. This acknowledgement goes a long way and in my own experiences in school, is not something that happens often. As said in class, saying this is something that will make me an exceptional teacher and is something to think about is not enough. I’ve been thinking about what I will do to make sure this happens. So far I’ve brainstormed that I will make it a goal to call a set number of parents per week. This number will probably vary as I begin teaching but let’s say I want to call three parents per week. After each day, or each class depending on the situation I will need to write down very BRIEF notes into a notebook/agenda/etc. Toward the end of the week (Thursday) I will make the phone calls. If this is something that will go a long way in my teaching career and I will gain the respect of my student’s parents then I really will make it a goal to do this in the future.