My biggest hurdle as far as teaching goes for this week is classroom managment. The more I work at it the better it's going. I've said it before in a blog but this is definietly something that teachers have to learn through expereince and find what works well for them. You can pick up ideas in books or from watching other teacher but ultimatly it must be something you work at as a teacher and find what you feel comfortable with. One procedure that my CT uses and I've found I really like is when you want the classes attention you say "class" in some funny way or use claps. Then they say back "yes" the same way you said class. It took a little time to get used to doing and I'm learning more fun ways to say it as well, but it really works! The students have learned that when you call their attention in this fashion it lets them know you have an announcement or directions of somesort. I like it because it's fun and it works.
During the last few weeks we've been having parent/teacher confrences. I was able to attend quite a few of them from both Taylor and Peirce. It's really intersting seeing the differences since the schools are very different in S.E.S. I also find that I learn a lot more about the child during that time. Talking to the parents is like getting a glimpse of what they are like outside of school. I feel that parents also are able to show the line of communication between them and their child at the confrences. For the begining part at Peirce the child showed their data binders to their parents. During this time some of the parents would make comments about this or that project showing that they remembered their child working on it, or showing that their child communicated that with them. Other parents seemed to be more suprised when differnet points where brought up. One of the confrences that stuck out in my mind was where the paernts seemed to joke a lot with the student and had a very open line of communitiation, they really showed a connection. I think this reflects a lot of how the student is as well.
It is really important for the lines to connect between parents, students, teahcers, and the school. In my mind I see more of a web and how they are all interconnected with each other. I believe that what we do in school and what we are learning doesn't just stop when the 3:40 bell rings. A teacher should also help students see the connections with the real world and school. It's not important to just have all your math facts memorized, but to know how and why 2*2= 4, and then realize that the same math fact is found in the real world. It's also the parents job to help make those connections for the students when they are not at school.
Sometimes it seems that we forget that the child has a home life because we only see them at school. That's the reason that I always thank cafeteria parent helpers, classroom helpers, etc. even if they aren't my own. I've mentioned this before, "the more we can delegate the less important jobs, the more we can focus on student learning".
ReplyDeleteRight now, the only way I can get students involved in a lesson is by connecting it to life outside of school in some way. Even when I don't have to I still like to do it because the students will always be more interested. An easy way to do this is just by connecting the learning to something the students are exposed to outside of school (i.e. a movie or TV show).
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that the things that happen to the student's outside of the classroom can affect the way he/she learns. We tend to be too quick when it comes to writing students off as lazy or non-compliant when they could have other issues going on. Communicating with the counselors can be very useful for these types of situations. Students have off days just like everyone else and another part of our job is to try to identify those days and let the students know that we understand that there is more to their lives than what goes on in the classroom.