The most challenging thing I did today was...
Yesterday I faced one of my greatest fears as a future teacher during my Tuesday Experience: classroom management. Yesterday at Morley they were celebrating Edward Williams Morley's birthday, so through out the day at different times students were able to get up say happy birthday and spray silly string in the air. While both the teacher and I were in the classroom it never got out control, however when the teacher had to step out the students started to get a little crazy. I thought that I was never going to get the class to regain control and the teacher would come in to a mad house. To get the students attention and bring the class back in the teacher I am with says "Excuse Me" and if she gets to a third 'excuse me' there is a penalty, she says she rarely gets to a third 'excuse me'. When she left me alone I was afraid the students wouldn't take my "Excuse Me" as serious as their teacher, never the less in my most authoritative tone I said "Excuse me" and the students stopped and looked at me. I felt a sense of accomplishment in that moment. From there I had them finish what they were working on and the teacher came back to a quiet class. I was walking on air for the rest of the day.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
Any suggestions for future classroom management techniques?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I completely understand how you felt! One day we had indoor recess because of the rain and I was left with a very, very rambunctious group of kids! At first they did not respect me at all so I knew that I had to regroup them. I turned off the lights (even though I understand this is a completely overused method of trying to calm down students, I felt as though it was my only option other than screaming at the top of my lungs!) and explained to the kids that I was also upset that we couldn't play outside because of the rain and that we would have to make the best out of being indoors. I calmly asked all of the students to settle down and find something productive (and fun!) to do in small groups. To my amazement, the students broke into small groups and actually got busy working on projects for knighting, playing games, drawing, etc. The class as a whole is very chatty and wound up, so I could not believe I was able to maintain my composure and actually gain control. When the teacher came back from eating his lunch he was surprised by how productive the group was being while he was away. I agree with you that classroom management can be extremely challenging! Keep up the good work though and we should share ideas about what we can do in the future!
Post a Comment