For Secondary Teachers: Respond after Monday's Mentor Meeting 11/26/07
In what ways are your daily experiences meeting your management ideals and in what ways are you experiencing frustration around management?
10 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I had hoped that creating this site and encouraging people to use it would be enough teacher direction to motivate a response. As is obvious, this is not the case. I may have to try another approach.
Sorry Barry, I think the Holidays commandeered our time.
As a first year teacher, I've kind of embraced the fact that I have a lot to work on. Classroom management is one of the areas I think about a lot, even if I don't always (ever) think I have it down. One fo the things I specifically struggle with is balancing good student relationships with good discipline. A lot of times little discipline issues that I don't particularly care about gradually snowball into ones I do care about. How do I reestablish control over these habits?
Management with me changes from class to class. I wish I could be more consistent but my honors kids during the start of the day have completely different needs than the regents kids at the end of the day. I find that the "snowballing" is especially true in my 8th period regents class - I have to remember to be very structured with them and if I do not do that at the beginning as soon as I walk into the door it will "snowball" by the end of the period. Still somedays it is going really well so I forget to be as structured and then things start to "snowball". And at that point it is definitely difficult to reestablish control.
I have been teaching for almost five years and I have still not learned it all. My classroom management changes from class to class. Each class has its own frustrations. Everything I try does not work and I have to be creative to think of something new. The best thing that I have done is to keep the class going quickly and I have to be very energetic. There are limited problems when the class is fast paced.
I do still experience frustration. Inappropriate talking seems to be the biggest frustration for me. I tend to think that most teachers would agree with me.
Anonymous, it sounds like you have a lot of clarity about your own practice. You recognize that different groups have different needs, which is also what Aaron mentions. For anonymous and Josh, it seems like you are both saying that it's important to remain consistent so that things don't start to "slip." This makes sense to me.
In terms of Josh's comment, I don't think you need to think of good student relationships in opposition to discipline. As the book points out, discipline is about self-control. In my mind, the best relationship we can have with our students is that of role-model and mentor. To me, that means finding ways to be relaxed and personal while simultaneously being clear that "we are all here to work, which is serious, meaningful, challenging, and worthwhile." In this way, we are being disciplined ourselves...we are having fun and being personable and attending to our reason for being in the classroom.
As Aaron mentions, this is an ongoing struggle. For me, who has been teaching 22 years, this is part of what makes the job so great. It can be totally rewarding one day, and the next day it can be totally challenging. And some days, it can be both at the same time. When I worked on grounds crew at Ithaca College, I can honestly say that it never felt as meaningful and personal as teaching.
I find management to be a lot easier here than it was in Las Vegas. The students speak English and my average class size is only 22 versus 33. The bane of my existence here is the 39 minute periods. Most of my management problems, like chatting and off task behavior, arise, I think, because I try to cram too much into one period. At this point in the year, management is getting much easier and better as I adapt to the time frame and my students know what I expect. I find that adherence to procedures and structure really help students. They feel safer when they know what to expect.
Getting on board late with the blog, but better than never! Management issues are different in the library, where it is difficult to develop the kind of interpersonal relationships that encourage positive mutual expectations. We try all the time to get to know students' names (I have 600 to learn) and to offer help whenever students are working in the library. We also have an ongoing policing role, as we keep student computer and study hall use within the rules and I hate that role. I have learned to simplify the rules as much as possible. Even though the simple rules gives students less opportunity for exploration, the smoother, calmer environment encourages learning better than the frantic nature of a lab full of youtube browsers. Best, Lilly
10 comments:
I had hoped that creating this site and encouraging people to use it would be enough teacher direction to motivate a response. As is obvious, this is not the case. I may have to try another approach.
Sorry Barry, I think the Holidays commandeered our time.
As a first year teacher, I've kind of embraced the fact that I have a lot to work on. Classroom management is one of the areas I think about a lot, even if I don't always (ever) think I have it down.
One fo the things I specifically struggle with is balancing good student relationships with good discipline. A lot of times little discipline issues that I don't particularly care about gradually snowball into ones I do care about. How do I reestablish control over these habits?
Great question, Josh. Let's see what some other folks have to say about this.
Management with me changes from class to class. I wish I could be more consistent but my honors kids during the start of the day have completely different needs than the regents kids at the end of the day. I find that the "snowballing" is especially true in my 8th period regents class - I have to remember to be very structured with them and if I do not do that at the beginning as soon as I walk into the door it will "snowball" by the end of the period. Still somedays it is going really well so I forget to be as structured and then things start to "snowball". And at that point it is definitely difficult to reestablish control.
I have been teaching for almost five years and I have still not learned it all. My classroom management changes from class to class. Each class has its own frustrations. Everything I try does not work and I have to be creative to think of something new. The best thing that I have done is to keep the class going quickly and I have to be very energetic. There are limited problems when the class is fast paced.
I do still experience frustration. Inappropriate talking seems to be the biggest frustration for me. I tend to think that most teachers would agree with me.
Anonymous, it sounds like you have a lot of clarity about your own practice. You recognize that different groups have different needs, which is also what Aaron mentions. For anonymous and Josh, it seems like you are both saying that it's important to remain consistent so that things don't start to "slip." This makes sense to me.
In terms of Josh's comment, I don't think you need to think of good student relationships in opposition to discipline. As the book points out, discipline is about self-control. In my mind, the best relationship we can have with our students is that of role-model and mentor. To me, that means finding ways to be relaxed and personal while simultaneously being clear that "we are all here to work, which is serious, meaningful, challenging, and worthwhile." In this way, we are being disciplined ourselves...we are having fun and being personable and attending to our reason for being in the classroom.
As Aaron mentions, this is an ongoing struggle. For me, who has been teaching 22 years, this is part of what makes the job so great. It can be totally rewarding one day, and the next day it can be totally challenging. And some days, it can be both at the same time. When I worked on grounds crew at Ithaca College, I can honestly say that it never felt as meaningful and personal as teaching.
By the way, if you click on "Nickname" you can tell people who you are.
I find management to be a lot easier here than it was in Las Vegas. The students speak English and my average class size is only 22 versus 33. The bane of my existence here is the 39 minute periods. Most of my management problems, like chatting and off task behavior, arise, I think, because I try to cram too much into one period. At this point in the year, management is getting much easier and better as I adapt to the time frame and my students know what I expect. I find that adherence to procedures and structure really help students. They feel safer when they know what to expect.
Getting on board late with the blog, but better than never! Management issues are different in the library, where it is difficult to develop the kind of interpersonal relationships that encourage positive mutual expectations. We try all the time to get to know students' names (I have 600 to learn) and to offer help whenever students are working in the library. We also have an ongoing policing role, as we keep student computer and study hall use within the rules and I hate that role. I have learned to simplify the rules as much as possible. Even though the simple rules gives students less opportunity for exploration, the smoother, calmer environment encourages learning better than the frantic nature of a lab full of youtube browsers.
Best,
Lilly
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