Classroom interruptions unfortunately occur. Do these affect your instruction? How do you get students back on track?
Classroom interruptions are the absolute WORST for sixth grade students, especially this group of sixth graders. They really enjoy talking and once they get off track, it is really really hard to get them back on track. I try to use my mentor teacher's classroom management strategy by counting down from five, but that doesn't always work for long periods. This affects my instruction greatly. These kids are so young that any distraction is a huge distraction! Luckily, there haven't been too many distractions thus far in the school year.. fingers crossed for the rest of the semester!
Monday, October 3, 2011
Week 6 Sept. 26th - 30th
Without using last names, which child do you think you influenced most this week? In what way (academic, social, emotional)?
I have a student named Eric and he was definitely a struggle in the beginning. He talked for the majority of the class and when assigned work, never completed any of the assignments. Last week I started sitting down with him, one-on-one, while the other students were working. By giving him this one-on-one attention he really started to thrive for that week. He would ask me, "Ms. Heare, how am I doing today? I'm doing good right?" I loved that he was responding to me and wanted to do good in class to please me. I had not seen this kind of reaction to any other teacher. He has started to slack off some, but I have tried to keep him on track and keep him in the right direction. He has inspired me to reach out to those struggling students because I really love seeing the smile on their face as they complete that assignment.
I have a student named Eric and he was definitely a struggle in the beginning. He talked for the majority of the class and when assigned work, never completed any of the assignments. Last week I started sitting down with him, one-on-one, while the other students were working. By giving him this one-on-one attention he really started to thrive for that week. He would ask me, "Ms. Heare, how am I doing today? I'm doing good right?" I loved that he was responding to me and wanted to do good in class to please me. I had not seen this kind of reaction to any other teacher. He has started to slack off some, but I have tried to keep him on track and keep him in the right direction. He has inspired me to reach out to those struggling students because I really love seeing the smile on their face as they complete that assignment.
Week 5 Sept. 19th - 23rd
Reflect on any team teaching you have participated in.
At South Harrison Middle School, they implement a reading program to improve students' westest scores. The way that the schedule works is second period every sixth grade teacher has a reading class. Mrs. Southern has the inclusion reading class, while Mrs. Barr has the higher level reading class. Then when the students switch to third period that inclusion class goes to Mrs. Barr for English. Luckily this has worked out so that we can do the entire program through two classes. The program begins in Mrs. Southern's reading class and ends in Mrs. Barr's English class. During second period I go to Mrs. Southern's room along with the Special Education teacher to participate in a whole group session for 20 minutes and then we split into small groups (ten students in each group). In my group we read stories and do writing assignments for now, until the Reading 180 program for the computers is fixed and working. For Mrs. Barr's group, they read silently from the Reading 180 book selection (which has different levels for different readers) and finally Mrs. Felder's small group participates in discussion and writing assignments.
This has been a wonderful experience to work with all these teachers as well as being able to implement the program (Read 180) as a whole, which they've never been able to do before due to time constrictions.
At South Harrison Middle School, they implement a reading program to improve students' westest scores. The way that the schedule works is second period every sixth grade teacher has a reading class. Mrs. Southern has the inclusion reading class, while Mrs. Barr has the higher level reading class. Then when the students switch to third period that inclusion class goes to Mrs. Barr for English. Luckily this has worked out so that we can do the entire program through two classes. The program begins in Mrs. Southern's reading class and ends in Mrs. Barr's English class. During second period I go to Mrs. Southern's room along with the Special Education teacher to participate in a whole group session for 20 minutes and then we split into small groups (ten students in each group). In my group we read stories and do writing assignments for now, until the Reading 180 program for the computers is fixed and working. For Mrs. Barr's group, they read silently from the Reading 180 book selection (which has different levels for different readers) and finally Mrs. Felder's small group participates in discussion and writing assignments.
This has been a wonderful experience to work with all these teachers as well as being able to implement the program (Read 180) as a whole, which they've never been able to do before due to time constrictions.
Week 4 Sept. 12th- 16th
Reflect on your school’s or mentor teacher’s classroom management system.
There are good things as well as bad things when it comes to my mentor teacher's classroom management strategies. Some of the bad things happen because my mentor teacher is such a nice person. She likes her students to have fun in class, but sometimes the students take this for granted. You give them an inch, and they take a mile. One of the major problems I have found is that she doesn't follow through with punishment. She warns the students, and continues to warn them but usually doesn't punish them unless it becomes a severe situation. I feel as though the students take advantage of this as well because they know they can keep getting away with things.
Although this does create problems, my mentor teacher has some good ways to maintain classroom management. For instance, if the students are talking she starts at 5 and counts down to 1. When she gets to one the students have stopped talking and are ready to go. Also, for the bellringer each day, she sets a timer for five minutes. Once the timer goes off the students know that it's time to get started. She also uses homework as a way to get them to stay quiet on track. The harder they work, the less homework they have.
There are good things as well as bad things when it comes to my mentor teacher's classroom management strategies. Some of the bad things happen because my mentor teacher is such a nice person. She likes her students to have fun in class, but sometimes the students take this for granted. You give them an inch, and they take a mile. One of the major problems I have found is that she doesn't follow through with punishment. She warns the students, and continues to warn them but usually doesn't punish them unless it becomes a severe situation. I feel as though the students take advantage of this as well because they know they can keep getting away with things.
Although this does create problems, my mentor teacher has some good ways to maintain classroom management. For instance, if the students are talking she starts at 5 and counts down to 1. When she gets to one the students have stopped talking and are ready to go. Also, for the bellringer each day, she sets a timer for five minutes. Once the timer goes off the students know that it's time to get started. She also uses homework as a way to get them to stay quiet on track. The harder they work, the less homework they have.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)