As a first year teacher, I often feared that I was the most ineffective member of my teaching team. Comparing my behaviors to the key behaviors for effective teaching was a validation of those fears. Lesson clarity was my biggest weakness. I found that, no matter how many times I rehearsed the instructions, there were always questions due to a lack of clarity in my wording or presentation. Student engagement was my second biggest weakness. I could tell, based on their blank stares and occasional snoring, that my students had no interest in the lesson I had poured my soul into. Thankfully, Borich offers some suggestions to combat student disengagement, including ensuring assignments can be completed independently and providing assignments at …show more content…
As a neophyte in the world of education and lesson planning, my greatest struggles were with transitions and closure. I found that my transitions were usually jarring for my students, as vague directions and expectations hindered them from smoothly shifting to the next learning activity. I realize now that this was due to my failure to establish a consistent classroom routine (a mistake I will remedy this year). I realize now that I cannot expect my students to follow a routine and set of expectations without first firmly establishing it! My other weakness was in providing closure for each lesson. My timing played a large role in my failure to adequately close a lesson, as the bell frequently interrupted me before I could reach a concluding statement. Also, I could sense my students losing interest in the lesson as the time for dismissal grew near. I understand Borich’s emphasis on properly closing a lesson, but I would appreciate some suggestions on how to properly allocate time for learning activities. I think this would be beneficial for keeping students engaged, facilitating smoother transitions and providing clear closing statements. When reflecting on my classroom management issues, I also realize that I gave students assignments with a negative or sarcastic tone. I believe my emotions stemmed from stress, a lack of sleep and a
To be a successful teacher one must first understand their own personal classroom management strengths and build from those attributes. Equally important are those areas of concern that could benefit from professional development or active conscious practice. As a future educator I have been exposed to many management styles and strategies throughout the course of the semester in the Creating Positive Learning Environments classroom as a result I can better understand my own personal managerial strengths and areas that also raise concern.
Once this becomes the norm for teachers they tend to become uninteresting, and students are the ones reaping the consequences. Rose acknowledged this cycle of learning apathy, writing, “But mostly the teachers had no idea of how to engage the imaginations of us kids who were scuttling along at the bottom of the pond”(1989, p.2).
With regards classroom management it would have been one of my key concerns going out on teaching practice. From my school days I felt for teachers that it was hard enough to teach pupils information with a positive learning environment and in classes with predominantly disruptive pupils it was almost impossible. Before going out On TP I spoke with 3rd years students in U.L who had previously done TP for some advice perhaps on my teaching. One of them was constantly saying ‘le...
My personal philosophy of classroom management focuses on creating an environment where children feel safe and where they feel like they belong. I will create this environment for my fourth grade class through making my expectations of the students clear while developing an engaging lesson plan and personable interactions with my students. I developed my philosophy from studying different theorists and based my philosophy on the theories of Glasser and Kounin. Glasser believed that the teacher’s roll in the classroom is that of a leader rather than a boss. He believed that students should be given power in the classroom and that the teacher should share it with the students. I will use his ‘7 caring habits’ specifically supporting and respecting to help my classroom feel safe and welcoming to my students. Meeting the individual needs of my students will be the focus of my classroom management routine. I will meet individual needs by promoting self management and self efficacy in my students by creating an environment that that has predictable and consistent daily routines while focusing on my student’s successes (Shindler, 2010). Having a predictable routine will encourage a success oriented environment and will reduce anxiety and help towards creating positive self efficacy in each of my students (Shindler, 2010). In Glasser’s Choice Theory he talks about focusing on the present and not bringing up the past (Glasser, 2010). Therefore, I will focus my classroom on being goal driven and will help each student obtain their goals. Thus, helping my students have positive self efficacy. I will apply Kounin’s technique of Momentum (Pressman, 2011). This involves the teacher keeping exercises short and moving around the room a lot so...
As I reflect on what I have learned through the first half of the course, I am enlighten of the information that I have read as it influence me as a Therapist and an upcoming teacher. To learn about how to manage a classroom and recognize behaviors in a student to establish a successful classroom setting is always important to a teacher, but to actually read different strategies and discuss the information with other classmate to get a valid understanding in the information, improves my knowledge and capability to provide the information with both my clients and future classroom
When we are in a class we expect certain level of behaviour in terms to deliver a lesson effectively. There are moments where the students purposefully or not break that level. Some of the reasons for that are: lack of interest, inappropriate challenges or learning disabilities. All of these reasons are closely linked with the level of motivation which is the main leading power of progress.
In order to be an effective teacher there needs to be an understanding that we all learn differently, this means that no single teaching strategy is effective for all students/learners all the time. This makes teaching a complex process because you need to understand and meet the requirements of all of your learners. Students learn best when they aren’t asked to simply memorise information but when they form their own understandings of what is being taught. When a student has successfully learnt a new idea they are able to then intergrate this information with their previously learnt information and make sense of it. To be an effective teacher you need to work jointly with students to asses where they are at, be able to give feedback on how the student is going and ensure that they are understanding the lesson (Killen, 2013) According to Lovat and Smith (2003) students learning must result in a change in a student’s understanding of the information being taught. In order to show understanding they must be able to share this information with others and want to learn more (Killen, 2013). In order to have a deeper understanding of what is being taught they need to be aware of the relationship that exists between what they knew previously and the new information that is being learned (Killen, 2013).. Students need to be given goals that they can achieve in order to feel a sense of mastery over their own learning, this gives students motivation that they are able to complete tasks and to keep going.
Every student is going to be different, and I will without a doubt have more than a few extroverts in my classes. Which is something that I will have to consider when making lesson plans. Besides that the most influential part of this course was the Faubion observations. Although I do not want to teach elementary school level classes I learned a lot through them. Espessially during my second observation where I learned about IEP’s, and how schools implement them. I realized that I will have to manage a classroom where not every student is going to want to learn, but it is going to be my job to make them want to. I also realized that when a student starts lashing out it is not necessarily because they do not like you, but rather that they are either going through something, or their ability to handle stress, frustration, and emotions could be
All effective educators need to find ways to motivate their students. The kids that fill our classrooms have different strengths and weaknesses. It is critical that teachers recognize the strengths and weaknesses of their students so they can use the right classroom management strategies to motivate their kids. In this particular case, the student named Jodie is inattentive and uninterested and neither the teacher intern or classroom teacher have a clue how to handle this situation. Ms. Marcia Thomas, who is the young intern feels that Jodie is just a problem child that lacks motivation and there is nothing she can do for this particular student. Ms. Thomas and the lead teacher Ms. Egan both lack the needed classroom management strategies that are necessary to motivate and engage students in a positive learning environment.
This I Believe Philosophy statement will include my thoughts and beliefs about classroom management with comparison to other theorists’ models. The major theorists that will be mentioned are Barbara Coloroso, Linda Albert, and Lee & Marlene Canter. I highly agree with the Canter’s and Coloroso’s models of classroom management because it best fits my personality as an individual teacher. I believe that an affective classroom management plan is first practiced and then modeled for improvements. My ultimate goal for my Classroom Management Plan is to model self-discipline by teaching it through my daily actions so that students may be able to self-manage themselves accordingly.
My teaching career has been spent learning how to provide appropriate support, guidance, patience, & understanding, as well as to enhance academic growth & success, for all students. My purpose as a teacher is to enrich and inspire the lives of young students with moderate/intensive needs by providing access to information instead of functioning as the primary source of information for students to flourish. My teaching methods will be to create an environment ripe with opportunities for discovery and exploration which will allow all students to learn at their own pace, generate questions and construct knowledge, while providing hands-on practice of skills in authentic situations as well as to make learning intriguing and meaningful to all students. Carefully planned and constructed learning environment will also allow the teacher more time to meet the individual needs of each student. Another important factor to a well-prepared learning environment is to facilitate learning, and providing students with balance and consistency (2004). Young students require a balance between various classroom dimensions, including activities guided by the teacher and independent work, quiet work and active work, gross motor and fine motor activities, and open and closed aspects to the curriculum and classroom materials (2004). Consistency is also a required condition for learner success. Schedules (daily and weekly), the enforcement of classroom rules, and student expectations should not be in flux but remain consistent. Without a sense of consistency in the classroom, school life would lack the necessary feeling of safety and reliability young children need to focus, to take risks, and to t...
After finishing the teaching part of the lesson, I realized that not everything goes according to plan. For example, in our lesson plan, we had the explain portion detailed and outlined to teach students the technical terms of what they were seeing in the stations and other activities and make it a collaborative effort within groups to work with the vocabulary words. However, the teaching of the plan was not well executed. Also, I learned that teaching a topic does not have to be boring or just full of worksheets. Fun, engaging lab stations and interactive activities can fulfill the standards and requirements just as well, if not better, than basic worksheets and PowerPoint lectures. Lastly, I realized that lesson planning and teaching require a great deal of effort and work, but it is all worth it when a light bulb goes off in a students’ head and they learn something new and are excited to be learning and extend their science
Over the course of observations, I learned that there is no one way to do anything in teaching. After a few weeks of observing, I was relieved because I thought that I could stop worrying so much about doing the “right” thing with the students. I saw a successful teacher doing, or neglecting to do things that went against what I had been taught. I incorrectly assumed that the choices the teacher made about how to organize the day, approach a lesson, or manage the classroom were mostly a matter of personal preference and that several approaches would produce equally desirable results.
In the process of completing this coursework, I have realised that every teacher should be all-rounded and equipped with adequate skills of educating others as well as self-learning. As a future educator, we need make sure that our knowledge is always up-to-date and applicable in the process of teaching and learning from time to time. With these skills, we will be able to improvise and improve the lesson and therefore boost the competency of pupils in the process of learning. In the process of planning a lesson, I have changed my perception on lesson planning from the student’s desk to the teacher’s desk. I have taken the responsibility as a teacher to plan a whole 60-minutes lesson with my group members. This coursework has given me an opportunity
Classroom management is the foundation of education at all levels. Optimal teaching and learning require an environment conducive to learning through structure, support, organization and guidelines. Classroom layout, routines and procedures as well as a carefully thought out discipline system are the core elements of my classroom management strategies. Lesson planning is also vitally important to ensuring engaged, motivated and on-task students, but even the most imaginative lesson plans can be ineffective in an unmanaged classroom. In my opinion, younger learners need more support and structure than the older students do, especially in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom where communication between the teacher and the students can be very