Twelfth Week

     This week I felt much more prepared to take on classroom management and behavior.  I decided that this was the time to try what I was afraid to try all semester long.  I feel that I have gotten to know the kids well enough to be able to talk to them when I believe they may be doing something inappropriate and have them understand that I am not attacking them, but the situation.
     I got the opportunity to try this on Tuesday when one of the 4th graders was being disrespectful to his classmate.  While one of the students, who is a slower reader, was reading, he pretended to be asleep.  Once the student finished reading, he pretended to be awoken and went back to following the text.  I noticed his eyes closed and his head leaned back at the beginning and made sure to pay attention to the student to be sure that he was doing it on purpose and was not just tired.  After he opened his eyes, he noticed me watching him and I mouthed to him that we would have a talk after the lesson.  He looked peeved right away and knew that he had been caught in the act.  After the lesson, all the students were prepared to go to specials and I asked to student to stay behind.  He automatically told me that he knew he had to stay and was actually planning on staying once everyone left.  I was glad that he accepted that he would have to talk to me and did not try to get out of it or ignore the inevitable.  I think that telling him during class that we would talk after the lesson prepared him for the talk as well instead of me springing it up on him well after the incident occurred.  Before I told him anything, I wanted to see why he thought that I asked him to stay after class.  He knew right away and explained that it was because he was pretending to fall asleep during one of his classmate's readings.  I wanted him to own up to what he did and I think by having him tell me what happened he would be able to do that.  Additionally, I saw the whole incident and he knows that I saw, therefore, I wanted him to tell me and to tell me the truth.  I knew and he knew that he would not be able to lie to me.  I also asked him to explain to me why he did what he did.  He was forthcoming with his answers and I was glad that he was able to tell me the truth.  He did not try to sugar coat it or pretend like it did not happen.  I went ahead and explained to him that he needs to be respectful of his classmates and that being rude to his classmates while in the classroom was completely unacceptable.  I kept reiterating that him being disrespectful was just as bad as someone else being disrespectful to him and that we do not allow either of those to happen in the classroom.  I told him that his classmates were not doing that to him while he was reading and that it was unfair of him to be doing that while someone else is reading.  I think once I put it in that perspective, he got to understand it a little better.
     Today, I also had a lesson with the 4th graders and the same students and I made sure to observe the student as his classmate read.  He was completely and entire attentive the whole time.  After the lesson, I made sure to tell him that I appreciated him being on his best behavior and being respectful as his classmates read.  I wanted him to know that I was not mad or angry, but that I was disappointed and would be until I saw a change in his behavior.  Overall, I was glad that I had enough time to talk to the student one-on-one and I hope that this is something that can be done when I am the only teacher in my future classroom.  I believe that it is and effective way to discuss problems with students, but I hope that it is not too idealistic for a full classroom and no co-teachers.      

Eleventh Week

     This week I was able to become more comfortable in managing the classroom.  My partner and I got to teach a math lesson to the 5th graders and three social studies lessons to the fourth graders.  The mentor teacher is always present and with us when we are teaching the 5th graders, so she is able to jump in and control the class if the students get too rowdy.  However, when we are teaching the 4th graders, she is usually preoccupied with the 5th graders, therefore, we are in control of teaching the lesson as well as managing the behavior.  This was the case on both Tuesday and Thursday as we taught social studies.  We were engaging the students in a few different activities and one was a debate.  We knew that this would be a challenging activity for the fourth graders because they are all extremely vocal.  They have many opinions are never afraid to share them.  I knew that this activity was going to be a great way for me to practice classroom management strategies.
     One of the main ways that we have been taught to manage behavior is by providing clear and concise directions of the assignment.  I did so repeatedly before the debate, going over what a debate is, how the parties are supposed to act, what is to be shared, and how we were going to do one in the classroom.  My partner and I even modeled what we expected of students prior to the lesson and had them restate what we expected based on how we modeled.  I believe that taking the extra few minutes to clearly state and restate the directions and expectations prevents from a lot of confusion and disruption during the remainder of the lesson.  I also learned today that not swaying from the set directions is key.  When students asked if they could change their answers (we stated in the directions that this would not be allowed), we were able to remind them that we all agreed to the directions and expectations at the beginning of the lesson and that we needed to stay true to those.
     I also wanted to try out a strategy that I attempted with the 5th graders about a month ago.  I told students that I would make note of their names and write tally marks next to their names if they were out of order and continued to be out of order.  If they received more than three tally marks, their behavior cards would be marked.  I actually carried a notebook and a pen with me this time and every time I warned a student about his or her behavior I motioned to the notebook and made it clear that I was writing the students name down.  A few times I just looked at the student and pointed to the notebook and this helped eliminate the disruptive behavior right away.  I assume that this strategy was easy for me to implement because there were two of us teaching and I had the time to mark students while my partner was speaking.  However, this might be more challenging to do in a classroom where I am the sole teacher.  Nonetheless, I believe this is a good starting strategy to try.
     I would still like to keep trying different strategies with classroom management so that I have some personal strategies to use in the future.