Author: jlfriend2

Describe your current personal philosophy about creating a productive learning environment for your future students and why you see classroom management as overall important. Include key strategies you observed and/or learned in class that you may use as a teacher.

Over the semester, I learned that classroom management is very important in a learning environment through all the assignments and through observing key strategies like stating objectives and behavioral expectations in the beginning of class time. As a potential teacher I believe that having classroom rules, home contingency, and good teacher-student relationships are the key strategies to classroom management. To add to this, I think that teachers need to have a good mind set when entering the classroom and leave personal lives at home. Often during my observations, the teacher would get off topic and talk about her family and grandchildren and it would take up class time.

A learning environment needs to be inviting and students should never feel like they are unsafe. As a potential teacher, I want to make sure that my students are comfortable, safe, behaving appropriately, and the rest will fall into place. If teachers make sure that rules are implemented and followed, then class will go smoothly because students will be behaving appropriately and there will be less distractions. If teachers make sure that there are consequences at home, then the teacher can work together with the parent to help the students behavior. Lastly, teacher-student relationships are really important in the classroom because those relationships help teachers understand their students better to be aware of student needs.

1.) Describe effective management strategies you observed for opening a lesson, applied during a lesson, and for lesson closure.

So, just a little general information, I am observing mainly the junior high and high school level math and science classes in my home town village Kwigillingok on the southwest coast. I have been observing classes with the same teacher, Jennifer. One strategy Jennifer uses in the beginning of class (mainly with her high school classes) is she pulls up the class objective and expectations for each class. Students are expected to write these objectives down at the beginning of the class. She also explains the behavioral expectations for the students at the beginning of most of her classes- which really sets the tone for the rest of class time.

2.) Name 3 common transitions you observed and how did the teacher handle those.

Three common transitions were switching from one class to the next, switching from one activity to another, and ending the class. As the students were getting out of class and other students came in for the next class, Jennifer would be answering any last minute student questions and preparing for the next class in the front of the classroom. Sometimes the students ended up waiting a few minutes for Jennifer to get started on the lesson or instructions. When switching from one activity to another, students would take sometime to get acquainted with the lesson. Jennifer helped students get into the lesson or discussion by asking questions that students knew the answers to. Discussions were really interesting and it helped the students reach their objectives. At the end of each class, students were either cleaning up or being told what their assignments or homework was for the evening. They were also always reminded about upcoming tests or major assignments.
3.) Describe a strategy that you observed and may apply to your classroom.

I think that explaining student behavioral expectations and objectives is a great way to start class. It helps with being organized as a teacher and informs students about what they are going to be learning.

When searching for a website I stumbled onto a lesson plan that is titled “Building Relationships in a High School Classroom.”

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plan/building-relationships-high-school-classroom

This lesson plan stated that is was great for teachers to get to know their students both academically and personally and also help the students get to know each other. The lesson consists of group work and putting together a story of their own.

The blog that I found is titled “The Best Resources on the Importance of Building Positive Relationships with Students” written by Larry Ferlazzo. Larry shared a lot of resources on his blog that are helpful for teachers pertaining to the importance of building positive relationships with students.

I thought it was interesting that he also shared a video and comic on the blog. The video in this blog is the video I choose to add to this blog so I provided the same link for the blog and video.

The video is really interesting, funny, and inspiring with a very experienced speaker who says she and her parents and grandparents are/were educators. She talked about the importance of relationships in education and that students learn better when they like their teachers. A really great video I think everyone should watch it.

https://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2011/03/08/the-best-resources-on-the-importance-of-building-positive-relationships-with-students/

The article by Paul Berg was really interesting but I think that it focused more on non-native employment and control of Alaska Native communities rather than Alaska Native education. I understand what Berg meant about how the new placed-based education blends the Western and Native educational traditions. I see that today in the village school where I grew up. My daughter is in Kindergarten and she is taking both Yup’ik and English reading and writing classes. She is also taking a science class in Yup’ik that focuses on the plants and animals in our region.

In our community some of our culture is lost. I think it’s important to understand that in my region (Southwest Alaska) the first non-Natives were missionaries and that religion is a huge part of Alaska Native communities.

When the missionaries came into our village (Kwigillingok) and other communities, they preached about how traditional Yup’ik dancing was against one of the ten commandments. The missionaries viewed these traditional Yup’ik dances as a form of worshiping animals and other earthly things. During these dances elders would tell the younger generation about Qanruyuutet (our teachings/beliefs) and Yuuyaraq (ways of living) that were told by their older generations. I think that a lot of culture was lost during that era. As a result, Yup’ik dancing is not part of our community today. Elders still talk to the younger generation, but it is only on rare occasions when the school holds cultural week.

In our region, a lot of students in the 1960’s and 70’s only finished school up to the 8th grade or they had to leave their villages in order to complete high school. They were told that only English was allowed on school grounds. This also has had a huge impact on our culture.

In order to take back control of our own educational “destiny” I think that we need more native students to go to college, stick through it, and graduate to become teachers and administrators. Native students would benefit their communities because they know the culture, the history, and the problems that their community faces. In contrast, I also think that non-Native teachers bring a lot of new material to the schools.

The new curriculum at my hometown school is a starting point for the preservation of our native heritage. I think that despite some of our culture loss, we will strive to keep our language and culture strong. In order for placed-based education to be more effective I think that a lot of changes need to be made. The teachers need to be able to speak the native language and understand the culture. We do not need to have all the teachers and service providers be native.

In my classroom I would have the following rules:

1) Respect yourself and others around you.

2) Treat others the way you want to be treated.

3) Take responsibility for your actions.

4) Be prepared for class by doing your homework and being on time.

These are very general rules. I think that I will need more experience teaching before I can develop the procedures that should go with these rules. I think that involving students in establishing rules and procedures is very important in gaining interest and cooperation from students; especially secondary students. These are students that are about to reach adulthood and need to be included in almost every aspect of their learning. Being on time will be one of the biggest rules implemented in my classroom. Too often I have heard from different students (high school and college) that the things they learn in high school are not what they will be using in their daily lives after school. Being on time and prepared for class is great practice for students who are to become potential employees.

The website I chose is the National Education Association (NEA) website. There are a lot of short articles and advice on the website which is really useful for teachers. Every article has resources and more reading linked to each article. In the tools and ideas section go to classroom management. Next hit the articles and resources tab on the left side of the webpage and you will be directed to a whole bunch of articles heres the link: <https://www.nea.org/tools/classroom-management-articles.html>.

I particularly liked the “Build Better Listening Skills” article. It’s god some great information in it on listening skills which can help teachers build better relationships and respect for students.

There is also an article titled “Establishing Classroom Rules” and it contains links to online programs and modules and I think that it’s really neat.

I tried to make a wordle but I’m using an iPad and I’m not sure how to make it work.