Well today was the day! Dr. Parker, Dr. Clark, and Dr. Wesson all came to observe me today. I mean, overall I think it went okay. I think it definitely could have gone a lot worse, but there were obviously some things that I could work on and address. Strangely enough though, I felt my class falling out of control. I have always felt that I had a relatively good grasp with classroom management in the past, but today was not one of those days at all. They were extremely talkative, fidgety, and talked over me quite a bit. I do have to remind myself that this was a rough week for the students. They had a lot of changes in their schedule the entire week with a lot of visitors and activities. However, they have to learn that this is never okay.
The thing that makes me feel a little better is that this not only happened with me, but also with our phonics teacher. I have noticed that many times the other teachers simply ignore the conversation and keep pressing on, which is what I tried to do, but that didn't work today (not even with the phonics teacher). She eventually chose to move every clip down of the students that were talking over her. Maybe I could have tried this as well so that they would have known that I meant business. I guess I've still been hesitant to take this step with the students, but it very well may be a necessity. This is definitely something that I need to address before student teaching and also before I have my own classroom.
I found a website that might help me prep for this and also make some small changes that might make a big difference. Of course I believe that every grade level is different, but I think that with a little tweaking, these could fit with every classroom.
I'm not going to go through all of the strategies, because there are 19 of them, but I really encourage you to take a look at them to get some ideas. Also, as we are tweaking and making final touches to LE 5, these will be very helpful.
I think that this applies to several of the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards, but the one that I connect it to the most is being a leader. I want to be a strong leader in my classroom that students respect and also love.
Check out the website below!
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/big-and-small-classroom-management-strategies-todd-finley
Lauren,
ReplyDeleteThere are always times when students seem like they are out of control. I would also suggest using your classroom management system sooner to remind the students of the importance of listening to you. I enjoyed visiting your classroom this week. Please let us know if you have any other questions.
Lauren,
ReplyDeleteA post on classroom management could not be more perfect. I struggle from time to time finding a happy medium in my classroom, between whether to call down the students or not too. Having a plan in order will help immensely in getting the students under control and on track. I think that classroom management is something that needs to be repetitive in order to be reinforced in the classroom.