Today was the second day in 4th grade. I have most of the students names down (all but about 3 girls I keep getting mixed up and 3 boys). For having 29 students and not to mention faculty to remember, I think I'm doing an ok job. One student asked me at the end of the day how long I'll be in the classroom and when I said 7 weeks his eyes lit up. This made me feel really awesome since I had only worked with him a little bit that day.
One thing about the room that I find interesting is the lack of a classroom disciplinary procedure. Many teachers use the 3 strikes or name on board procedures and some teachers use the color method (green, yellow, red) to indicate what kind of day it was. Our classroom doesn't really have anything like this. Most of the time if the class as a whole is doing something wrong they either talk about it or if it's something like lining up wrong they have a re-do. If individual students have an issue then the teacher normally confronts them and talks to them about it. Fortunately there doesn't seem to be to many problems. I like not having the warnings and having that kind of management but I feel that having to talk the students each time might also be time consuming. It will be interesting to watch and see how the class contiunes to do. The class seems to do a surprisingly great job and each class often has different needs.
I pointed out yesterday that when the teacher said 'sit audience style' a few students didn't do as he had asked and he just continued to teach. Some teachers are not picky about where students sit but the issue I saw with this was that if he had asked for something specific and he didn't hold them accountable this time would they feel they could get away with other things in the future? He agreed with what I said then today we practiced the two types of sitting...audience style, and circle style. The class had to do each right 3 times before continuing. This seemed to be a lot of work and the students eventually got it down. I think he should have set more expectations in the beginning i.e. "when you sit this way I should see..." but he did that more after they moved and then they re-adjusted themselves.
My c.t. has created his own way for teaching small reading groups. A large portion of the students are reading at a high lexile level and the books that are used in the reading series are to easy. He has created mini units from other popular chapter books and uses the same concepts that would be taught in the reading series. The first group I will take over we will be reading "Bridge to Tarabithia." I chose this book because it's one that I haven't read and I think sounds really interesting. Since I've been in the classroom I've also picked up reading more books for fun. It seems contagious with a group that really does enjoy reading for fun. (I just read "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" last night. My CT also does a bunch with Ralph Daul books, and you can tell his enthusiasm for the author has rubbed off on to the students. A lot of the students have one of his books on their desks or in their book holder (so they don't have to many books at once on their desk) and I saw a few students check books out by the author at library today that wasn't in the classroom. I think this really shows how much teachers persuade students.
It's differnt now becasue in the first placement we were there from there very beginning and saw how the classroom enviroment was established. Now, were coming into classrooms that have been together for eight weeks. Their procedures might be different and we might not even see them. However, it's interesting to hear tht your CT is still working on the proper way to sit, but it sounds like your class is not really a "problem class." Have you asked your CT if these studetns are different than years past? Is he trying somthing new? After the first few weeks, did he decide that this class can prgress with less limitations?
ReplyDeleteMr.C,
ReplyDeleteI actually started my first placement after ground rules where set since it was a year round school. When I say problem class I mean that there aren't students with many behavior problems. Most of the students are very compliant and really respectful. My last class had a few behavior problems and other issues regarding attitudes and being very childish. My new group seems much more mature. I like the questions you purposed and will ask about students in the past. He is continually trying new things since he's only been in the profession for 3 years. Thanks for the ideas!