This week I am still thinking a lot about the “classroom management”
issue. I had more experience in this department than
I anticipated this week when my CT was sick on Tuesday and a sub could not be
found, and then on Friday she took a release day and, although this time there
was a sub available, my CT and I had already planned out the day and I was left
in charge with the sub as support. Luckily, the sub was a
retired teacher who gave me some great feedback and tips throughout the
day! I tried to keep the positive mindset of being their leader, rather than the negative one of being their manager.
Tuesday (the day I was left unexpectedly on my own) was a
little rocky in terms of class behavior, but as I commented below on my last
post, I ended up calling a class meeting on the carpet in the afternoon and
that settled things down quite a bit.
The next morning during our morning routine, the first time I had to
pause to wait for their attention I was heartened to hear several students
forcefully say to their peers “Guys, shut up, we promised!” They were referring to our discussion on
the carpet the previous day and their own proposal that they would collectively
agree to work on following class protocol for respecting the speaker (be it me
or a classmate).
I think part of the issue is that I am new to this classroom
(it is not where I had my September Experience) and I am still learning their
routines and systems. What really
made an impression on my this week was that it is not so much a matter of
threatening or imposing discipline on students (the negative viewpoint), but
instead a matter of providing (or reminding them of) the structure they need to
succeed. Teachers need not feel
they have to “manage” their students’ behavior if they (the teachers) provide
systems within which students can manage their own behavior.
I am reminded of a system my daughter’s 5th grade
teacher had for awarding “Self Manager Certificates” to students who
demonstrated certain self-managing behaviors. Once they had earned the certificate, they were given extra
responsibilities and freedoms in the classroom. The certificate was revoked if the student broke any of the
agreed-upon classroom standards of behavior. I found this form on the internet (from Harry Wong, author of The First Days of School, a
book for first-year teachers that has been recommended to me by several veteran
teachers) that is probably similar to the one my daughter’s teacher used. It is an idea I’d like to think more
about for use in my own future classrooms. Any thoughts?
http://www.safekids-id.com/images/kids.jpg
wow Amy, I cannot imagine doing such a thing with the students that I am already familiar with, let alone with new students who you are still getting familiar with.
ReplyDeleteThis form is just like something I have seen in my master teacher's class except the form in our classroom is used as an assessment for their knowledge of some subject area. For example how they learned a certain science idea or subject matter.
Hang in there lady and kudos to you for taking a class on your own!! I hope you learned a lot.
I am glad to hear that the students were reminded of their responsibility to you and to each other. Class meetings are powerful, and so to, is a teacher that holds her students to high expectations. This helps to promote and encourage their self-management.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the link to the self-managing form. It is a visible, tangible thing that students and teachers could use to help each other, and like you said, a something to consider for future use.