Something
I’ve been really nervous about while going through the education process to
become a teacher has been classroom management. It has really been taught to me
until this class. Listening to the teacher panel speak about classroom
management led me to learn some things that I did not know before, however, I
still have a lot to learn.
I
think classroom management is something that will always be changing. Something
that works for one class may not work for another. It’s something that I will
probably always be learning. For example, teachers did not always have to deal
with students using their cell phones in class. In this day and age a lot of
students have cell phones and many students use their cell phones while in
class. Some of the teachers on the teacher panel spoke about what they do when
students are using their cell phones. Many schools have their own policy,
sometimes even a zero tolerance policy. This policy doesn’t always work. I
really liked when one of the teachers on the panel said that she spoke with her
administrators and came up with her own policy of having a set number of
warnings then assigning community service for the students when they are out of
warnings. She said that it really worked this quarter and that she will be
using it next quarter. I think that’s great because she thought outside of the
box and went to her administrators to see if they would allow her to do this.
This proves it’s very important to be in contact with the administrators and
that it’s also key to know your students.
Another
point that stuck out to me is something that is obvious but is sometimes
forgotten and that is respect works both ways. This includes the way a teacher
handles a situation. If a teacher calls out a student in class for the way they
are acting, embarrassing them, they will not have respect for you. I agree with
the panel that taking the student out of classroom, writing the student a pass
to take a five-minute break, or simply giving the student a gesture is more
appropriate than yelling at the student. I also think that the students will
have more respect for the teacher if this is how the situation is handled. In
high school, there were times when teachers called out students in class and at
that time everyone in class would stop what they were doing and begin paying
attention to that individual student and the teacher, and not class. After
this, the teacher had to work to get the entire class back on task. I want to
make sure this does not happen by handling the situation in the manners
described before.
Overall,
I think classroom management is still something I have a lot to learn about.
From the teacher panel I learned some techniques but I will also talk to my
cooperating teacher when I teach to hear about some techniques she has. This
panel was informative and I am eager to learn more in the future.
I definitely think respect is a big part of classroom management. I know an elementary teacher who will practically yell at a student in from of the whole class to get them to behave. I was so scared the first time I heard him do that, and I couldn't even imagine how scared and embarrassed the student must have been. You really need to know your students and respect each other in order to create healthy and non-disruptive classroom management skills.
ReplyDeleteHi Tiff,
ReplyDeleteEven after the panel, I still worry about how I will manage my classroom! I agree with you in how the new cellphone policy that one teacher created was original and great to work outside of the box.It shows that there is room to be creative with the policies that teachers establish. The first established cell phone policy didn’t work so she had to creatively think of a new way that would work for her students. It all comes down to how it is going to work with the students that you have. We may talk and talk about classroom management and then go into our first classrooms and have the policies we learned about not work. That’s when creativity and communication come into play. Just like the teacher had done with the cellphones.