Hey guys,
At this stage I have very little to offer. I do have the table of contents written out and organized.
Classroom Management Plan For The Secondary Classroom
Feel free to peruse my assignments for inspiration though…
Discipline and Consequence
Teacher-Student Relationships
Mental Set
Student Responsibility
Best of Luck,
Royce
This article seemed to focus on specific stories and prevention. The prevention side of things was very limited. Ms.Dewitt was saved because of a proactive roommate. The article argues that poor parenting is resulting in a bad outlook on life and the inability to face failure and therefore reality. What can I do? How does this inform my practice? The most I can do is look for warning signs and be the roommate. If I see something that might be concerning I had better say something, reach out, because it just might be serious. I can’t fix the way parents mis-prepare their child. I can look for warning signs and say something. Poor Ms.Dewitt was put between a rock and a hard place, struggling with failure on all fronts of life. I can help create counter culture to this, everyone needs an A business, and you have to be the best. I need to create opportunities for students to feel independent, create their personality, forge their destiny, and as tough as it sounds, fail.
Look
Listen
Take Action
Hey guys!
1.) Describe effective management strategies you observed for opening a lesson, applied during a lesson, and for lesson closure.
One of the biggest management strategy I have picked up is putting something in the students hand as they come into the classroom. The first thing these kids do otherwise is come into the room, get cozy, and promptly get off task. They will otherwise not come into the class asking what they will begin working on, and certainly don’t look around the room for some work to do. Alternately it could be the expectation that they sit down quietly and get to work on something that is on the board, but that isn’t a tactic I have observed because that’s now how my mentor does things. I’d need to set that expectation up at the beginning of the school year with my own class. Perhaps next semester when I’m flying solo I’ll set that expectation when I am teacher. So I can only assume it will work in a relative way without having seen or done it myself.
2.) Name 3 common transitions you observed and how did the teacher handle those.
A successful transition is integrating one topic into the next as we move forward in the class period/unit/whatever measure of splitting up assignments and work. One element of a transition is that it is either so seamless that it’s hardly noticed or paused on or is expected by the students no matter how jarring it is. In the wood shop class I observed I enjoyed how the day always starts with a briefing. It’s all about making sure everyone knows what their job is for the day before they get to work, it’s a daily expectation and therefore the students transition into the next step is seamless. The first part of the day always leads to the second, without a doubt, and clearly. Transitions then because situational. If a student completed their work or had questions about it the wood shop teacher may then shift that students work specifically to improve upon something or begin working on a new skill related to the activity at hand (in this case carving, sanding, and painting an apple out of wood). The final transition is cleanup, which once again is every day.
3.) Describe a strategy that you observed and may apply to your classroom.
I am in love with the classroom management style implemented and damn near required in a wood shop class. I love the structure and clear expectations. I want students to walk into my class and expect a briefing and have a nearly definite idea about what they’ll be doing that day before they walk into the room. I hope I can quickly pick up on personalized learning and I have a feeling that the technique applied by the wood shop teacher is one I should definitely be using. Students wont all be on the same step but I can definitely get them transitioning into the next step because it should all be interconnected. If I’m doing a unit on suspense I want to make sure that everyone is getting an equitable immersion into suspense, which may mean they don’t all start at the same place. Some may need to understand the vocabulary and plot structures surrounding suspense while others may have them nailed down and be ready to be perhaps creating their own suspense stories.
Hey everybody! I hope this post finds you well.
In “What I Wish My Professors Told Me” I think by biggest takeaway was dismissing the notion of perfect lessons. I’m quickly discovering that my lessons change and fluctuate depending upon how class is going that day, with that class period, and how they’re understanding the material. I keep finding that I am either going too fast or too slow based on the original lesson plan and have to adapt it at that moment to suit the needs of the students. Sometimes they’re so on the ball that it rolls right over me and I am racing to give them enough material to gobble down. At other times it seems that I’ve overloaded them with work to do and we need to slow down to ensure that everybody is on the same page as we continue to move forward. I would love to create perfect lessons, but a lesson plan is just words on a page and when theory becomes practice the game can change in surprising ways.
From “Let Care Shine Through” I picked up very much on the practice what you preach mentality when it came to classroom expectations and pushing students to succeed and believe in themselves. I must believe that I can help them believe in themselves and that I can give them strength and I too must be strong for and with them. My students will only be as capable as I think they can be, which should be VERY. I also think the section “Expanding The Meaning of Achievement” was very important and I’ll carry it with me. The goal is always moving forward and striving towards success in the next step of schooling, life, and work after school. These kids are going places and it’s important to be a part of their success and support to help enable them to be the best they can be. I love the part in the article where they state that the student is not viewed as “average” so they shouldn’t sell themselves short.
The question of how I’ll create a safe and engaging learning environment for all students is tricky. I have to consider where they come from, what they came to me knowing, how they’re doing that day, that week, that month… First and foremost rules need to be strictly enforced and I need to follow them myself. The engagement aspect of this is at least partly addressed above, I need to challenge students and they need to know they can rise to the challenge. Just because I know what I need to do and what they need to do doesn’t mean I know how to make that happen. There is no blanket answer to student success. Engagement will largely be due to my creativity and flexability.
(here’s a site with some tips and tricks for teaching)
https://www.weareteachers.com/tips-tricks-inclusive-classroom/
Hello everyone!
I see several benefits and difficulties in implementing personalized learning. I feel that the benefits reach highly motivated students the most, those who are willing to play with different styles of learning to find ones that suit them out of the selection their teacher can provide. On the other hand students that lack any motivation will likely have a similar experience whether they’re forced to do one assignment or may choose out of fifteen. The truest benefit may really be with the instructor rather than the student then, which is likely to have positive side-effects for students. If a teacher feels they have freedom and can think outside the box with lessons, then perhaps the profession may always feel fresh and enable the teacher to charismatically educate. Teachers that love their content and teach it how they love to teach will be better equipped to excite student interest. The corresponding struggle is that personalizing learning only goes so far as standards and curriculum allow, likely within good reason. I can’t foresee instances where personalized learning is limited by standards, but perhaps they’ll crop up and maybe have somewhere.
The piece that interested me the most in the article was about parent involvement. I am very curious to see the inventive ways teachers can garner parent support in a personalized learning endeavor. It feels that there needs to be a clear and vocal buy in. In conjunction with that, I think that for parents to buy in, a community needs to buy in, and that means the school community and district needs to buy in. The article questions whether personalized learnings’ success is dictated by all teachers in a school and I definitely think so. If a school or district is split even on personalized learning or something else (which is perhaps a problem… what is the opposition?) then parents and the community may be split too.
(Here’s a link, it’s a little dated but relevant)
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/02/24/personalized-learning-isnt-about-isolation.html
I was unable to pull up the article that was posted for the class, it was pulled from the site or it’s address changed. However I did find out what DACA is (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). I wasn’t really sure how to formulate an opinion on this. The teacher in me is frightened either way because it’s something that needs to be handled. I guess I move on from should we allow this as a country to, these kids are here and they need our help. So what can I do? I guess the call for me is how can I best incorporate ELL students in my classroom. I know we’re up in Alaska where I believe it is less of a press, but on our nation as a whole it’s significant from any stand point not just as an education.
From further reading I now see that Trump has repealed DACA, so I guess these kids are just out of luck and being deported then. Or were they grandfathered in and those who came here during Obama’s administration are now safe, or hopefully received citizenship?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/us/politics/trump-dinner-schumer-pelosi-daca-obamacare.html?mcubz=0