This semester has many challenges for me. I have done things that I am very proud of and will do again and this semester carries with it things that if I could, I would go back and change. There are not many things that I would do differently, but those that I could are all in the arena of classroom management. This, by far, has been my biggest challenge. It has been difficult for me to deal with students who do not want to learn but who also want all of the attention on themselves. These are the students that I struggle with and the students that have given me the majority of my problems this semester.
I am sorry that I did not figure out the best way that I am comfortable with in dealing with students who act out. At first, I would just fuss at them in class, in front of everyone. I quickly realized, however, that this only fueled their craving of that attention. I was turning the attention of the entire class on that one student, which is what he wanted. It quickly became frustrating for me because he would not stop talking to other students and distracting them from their work. I tried moving his seat away from his friends and that worked for a while...until he started yelling across the room to them. After this happened, I went over and talked to him quietly at his seat, so as not to draw the attention of the whole class to him. He was quieter after that, but it did not solve the problem for the next days. The following day it seemed like he did things just to test me to see how far he could push me. Finally at the end of the class I told him I was going to call his mom and his friends' moms because all of them had been a distraction that week. They were good the next day, but only the next day. This behavior continued for several weeks and was only making me dread teaching that class.
Finally I decided to talk to the students who were the problem. I told them they were the leaders in that class and they needed to step up to the plate and lead the class in the right direction. This actually worked really well, but my mistake was that I did not remind them on a regular basis of what we had talked about.
In the future, to combat this issue, I would 1) not give so many chances to fix their behavior and start following the procedures for dealing with bad behavior (talk to students, move their seats, call parents, detention, and finally referral) and 2) I would remind the students every day that I need their help in keeping the class on track. Students like to feel like the teacher needs them and this is a great way to do it!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Classroom Management
There are several things I can do to manage my classroom the best way. It all begins with how I begin the class at the start of the semester or year.
First, I must establish rules. Rules are essential to any classroom. They are the boundaries that students crave when they enter the room. They need to know how far they can go. Second, even though I establish rules, I must enforce them. Students need rules, but they also want to know if those are really the rules. They want to know how far they can push me. So I have to be strong enough to say, "No, these are the boundaries and these are the consequences if you cross those boundaries" and enforce that. I can't let them get away with anything. Once they do, they've won and all the rules that I set up are no longer valid. Students take advantage of any weakness they sense in a teacher - especially new teachers like me.
Thirdly: document, document, document! It is absolutely vital to write down anything and everything that happens. If I have a talk with a student about his or her behavior in class, I write down the date, who I spoke with, and what I talked to them about. If I have to move that student's seat, I do the same thing and I write it all down. If I have to call a parent, I write down who I called, which student I called about, and what the issue was. Likewise, if there is an argument between students or one of them is talking back to me, I write down as much of it as I can remember, word for word. In the event that I have to go to a meeting with a student's parent(s), I at least have some kind of written copy of what has happened over a several week time period. In addition I would bring grades with me so the parents can see how their child is doing in my class. Documentation is the key to survival in the educational field. Always cover your tracks. I live by the motto, "do the right things for the right reasons." Based off of this phrase, everything I do in teaching is what I believe to be the right thing to do, so I have nothing to hide. I write everything down so that in the event that I am questioned by parents, peers, or supervisors, I can show what I have done and why.
These are three of the things that I do to manage my classroom effectively. They all work wonderfully and I would recommend them to any teacher, regardless of their preferred subject area.
First, I must establish rules. Rules are essential to any classroom. They are the boundaries that students crave when they enter the room. They need to know how far they can go. Second, even though I establish rules, I must enforce them. Students need rules, but they also want to know if those are really the rules. They want to know how far they can push me. So I have to be strong enough to say, "No, these are the boundaries and these are the consequences if you cross those boundaries" and enforce that. I can't let them get away with anything. Once they do, they've won and all the rules that I set up are no longer valid. Students take advantage of any weakness they sense in a teacher - especially new teachers like me.
Thirdly: document, document, document! It is absolutely vital to write down anything and everything that happens. If I have a talk with a student about his or her behavior in class, I write down the date, who I spoke with, and what I talked to them about. If I have to move that student's seat, I do the same thing and I write it all down. If I have to call a parent, I write down who I called, which student I called about, and what the issue was. Likewise, if there is an argument between students or one of them is talking back to me, I write down as much of it as I can remember, word for word. In the event that I have to go to a meeting with a student's parent(s), I at least have some kind of written copy of what has happened over a several week time period. In addition I would bring grades with me so the parents can see how their child is doing in my class. Documentation is the key to survival in the educational field. Always cover your tracks. I live by the motto, "do the right things for the right reasons." Based off of this phrase, everything I do in teaching is what I believe to be the right thing to do, so I have nothing to hide. I write everything down so that in the event that I am questioned by parents, peers, or supervisors, I can show what I have done and why.
These are three of the things that I do to manage my classroom effectively. They all work wonderfully and I would recommend them to any teacher, regardless of their preferred subject area.
Professional Organizations
The South Carolina Geographic Alliance (SCGA), is a professional organization run through the University of South Carolina. It is free to join, which is always a plus, and they offer multiple opportunities for members to better themselves as educators.
The SCGA "is a network of K-12 educators and university geographers using geography to improve the education of our children. We provide a variety of in-service and pre-service opportunities and events as well as providing high quality teaching materials and the building of relationships with other agencies and groups to improve geographic education." (http://www.cas.sc.edu/cege/aboutscga/about.html) Some of the pre-service opportunities they offer, Clemson University actually took advantage of this semester. They offer to come speak to Methods courses at universities to show the students how to incorporate geography into the classroom. I joined this organization because I am very passionate about geography and I believe that it should be taught at every possible moment in the Social Studies classrooms, as well as in other classes as applicable. Students today do not know much about geography or where in the world we are, literally. I believe that it is vital to their success as citizens of the U.S. to know where it is on the map as well as where the other countries are in the world. Another offering of the SCGA is that on their website, they offer a multitude of resources, including lesson plans, that teachers can use whenever they need to.
I believe it is very important to join organizations like the SCGA as an educator, not only for the resources they offer, or for the fact that it is free, but also because it shows current and future employers that I am willing and working toward bettering myself as a social studies teacher. It shows them that I want to get better at what I am doing and that I want to be the best possible social studies teacher.
The SCGA "is a network of K-12 educators and university geographers using geography to improve the education of our children. We provide a variety of in-service and pre-service opportunities and events as well as providing high quality teaching materials and the building of relationships with other agencies and groups to improve geographic education." (http://www.cas.sc.edu/cege/aboutscga/about.html) Some of the pre-service opportunities they offer, Clemson University actually took advantage of this semester. They offer to come speak to Methods courses at universities to show the students how to incorporate geography into the classroom. I joined this organization because I am very passionate about geography and I believe that it should be taught at every possible moment in the Social Studies classrooms, as well as in other classes as applicable. Students today do not know much about geography or where in the world we are, literally. I believe that it is vital to their success as citizens of the U.S. to know where it is on the map as well as where the other countries are in the world. Another offering of the SCGA is that on their website, they offer a multitude of resources, including lesson plans, that teachers can use whenever they need to.
I believe it is very important to join organizations like the SCGA as an educator, not only for the resources they offer, or for the fact that it is free, but also because it shows current and future employers that I am willing and working toward bettering myself as a social studies teacher. It shows them that I want to get better at what I am doing and that I want to be the best possible social studies teacher.
Making my This I Believe Statement Come True
In order to make my statement come true, I know that I will need to do several things. The first thing I will need to do is to keep what I believe in the forefront of my mind every day. My statement is this: I believe that as a teacher, I have the unique opportunity to impact the youth of our nation.
The second thing I need to do is figure out the best way to impact my students. Students are interested in different things. One way to impact anyone, not just students, is to get to know them. Find out what they are interested in and try to find some common ground. In general, students are not so diverse that we have nothing in common with them, but sometimes it just takes searching for. Some people take to sarcasm. If students are somewhat sarcastic, it may just be that you have to act the same way in order to get their attention and have an impact on them. Whatever the case may be, as a teacher, I have to find out what my students are interested in and try to relate to them in some way.
The third thing I need to do is to keep them on my side. I don't need to go to war with my students. Sometimes this is easier said than done, but it is important. The way that I deal with students is how I can determine how they feel about me. If I just yell at them all the time or every time they are not doing what I ask, they're not going to like me and they probably will stop listening. There are other, better, ways of dealing with the same issues. Sometimes it is easier to go around the room and ask people individually to sit down or stop talking, rather than just raising my voice to the entire class. Chances are, it is not the entire class that is talking anyway.
These are just a few of the things that I can do in order to make my life as a teacher easier and to fulfill my goal of impacting the youth of our nation, one by one.
The second thing I need to do is figure out the best way to impact my students. Students are interested in different things. One way to impact anyone, not just students, is to get to know them. Find out what they are interested in and try to find some common ground. In general, students are not so diverse that we have nothing in common with them, but sometimes it just takes searching for. Some people take to sarcasm. If students are somewhat sarcastic, it may just be that you have to act the same way in order to get their attention and have an impact on them. Whatever the case may be, as a teacher, I have to find out what my students are interested in and try to relate to them in some way.
The third thing I need to do is to keep them on my side. I don't need to go to war with my students. Sometimes this is easier said than done, but it is important. The way that I deal with students is how I can determine how they feel about me. If I just yell at them all the time or every time they are not doing what I ask, they're not going to like me and they probably will stop listening. There are other, better, ways of dealing with the same issues. Sometimes it is easier to go around the room and ask people individually to sit down or stop talking, rather than just raising my voice to the entire class. Chances are, it is not the entire class that is talking anyway.
These are just a few of the things that I can do in order to make my life as a teacher easier and to fulfill my goal of impacting the youth of our nation, one by one.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
I believe that as a teacher, I have a unique opportunity to impact the youth of our nation. In the grand scheme of things, it seems that teaching only 140 students per year is not much, but I believe that each student can make a difference in his community. While I may only personally reach 3 or 4 students per year, those 3 or 4 students can go on to make a tremendous impact that they never would have made without me. Even if only one student made something of himself because of my instruction or my influence on his life, it makes my teaching worthwhile.
I would love to have the same impact on a student’s life that my high school history teacher had on mine. Mrs. Sterling was my eleventh grade U.S. History teacher. She taught me how to form and express my own opinion in a respectful way. It was my respect and admiration for her that inspired me to become a history teacher. Mrs. Sterling always impressed me, not only with her knowledge of history, but the way that she taught it. She always made it interesting and was successful in showing us how it would behoove each of us to learn it. She made it relevant and showed our class how the leaders of our nation can look back at similar events in history to determine a proper way to handle different situations. I want to be like Mrs. Sterling and I believe that I can and that I will.
Not many people have the opportunity that I have. I can influence young people in a way that can inspire them to become something they normally would only have dreamed of. My history teacher showed me what an impact one person can have on a student’s life and I can not wait to do the same.
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