My students respect me because I require them to; in the same way I respect them and teach them to respect themselves, others and their environment. I love my students; the easy ones, the difficult ones and all of them in-between and they love me. Establishing respect and love in the beginning creates an environment of accountability. My students are really my children; I feel pride when they learn new things, I am upset when their behavior goes against what I have taught them, and I will come to their defense the same way I would my own daughter if I feel they have been wronged or misrepresented. I have fit into the category as an authoritative teacher for many years. I look at my students as budding citizens of the world, the community and of education so my job is to make them useful citizens. When they leave my care I expect them to display what they learned both academically and in their behavior. I refer to my interaction with my students as care because of my experience in Early Childhood Education, while with me I have many responsibilities on top of their academic education; their emotional wellbeing and their physical wellbeing are large components of their experience in my classroom.
Learning is supposed to be dynamic. Some things we learn because we want to, some things we learn because we have to, some things are fun to learn and other not so much. My job of their teacher is to make then want to learn, regardless of the content. The classroom should be as dynamic as the students, which means that as the teacher I need to be flexible to the needs of my students. This flexibility must stretch to seating, temperature, groupings and even the order of learning. I think it’s important to show the students respect by including their input on their classroom. This is especially important in setting classroom expectations. This is a newer way to establish classroom rules; by labeling them as expectations it creates responsibility for self-control in the individual students rather than dependency on the power of the teacher. This is something I learned hands on in my classroom while student teaching.
I have recently noticed the trend in the Color Chart and behavior calendar and while I see how it works and appreciate its simplicity I am also a fan of parent/teacher communication books. While time consuming I think that the colors can be a bit ambiguous in that there is usually no explanation as to why your child is on Yellow for the day. I also think this can lead to students who are only behaving for the reward. Imagine if we created citizens who only stopped at stop signs is a police officer is sitting there, or citizens who are looking for a reward for not committing a crime. I think managing behavior is about instilling self-control and self-respect in to the children. Students who do not feel proud of themselves when they do the right thing are going to be hard to bribe with colors or incentives.
Finally, with all this planning, there must be flexibility. Students are people no matter how old they are, and there are going to be days when they just don’t feel like it due to various factors. I believe it’s important to respect student’s individual personalities and respond to their needs on a day to day basis. For instance I have a student in my class who is frequently late to school; she comes in with an attitude because she frequently misses breakfast and is thrust into learning. I have found that if I can make her smile before she joins the group her day gets better quickly. When I tried to make her quickly join the group without acknowledging her individually it took her most of the morning to come into her usual happy self. Teaching can be such a rewarding job depending on where you are looking for your jewels. I smiled ear to ear when my ESL student not only volunteered to read in front of the class but did an excellent job. I appreciate when all my students turn in their homework folder in the morning and I don’t have to ask for them at the end of the day when I am filling in their behavior charts. I appreciate when my students remain quite if I am interrupted by another teacher or student from another class and I can pick up where I left off. The term classroom management can sound like wrangling wild children. Classroom management is really about teaching the children to manage themselves and to do the right thing because it’s right, not because of a reward. This leads to useful citizens.
Learning is supposed to be dynamic. Some things we learn because we want to, some things we learn because we have to, some things are fun to learn and other not so much. My job of their teacher is to make then want to learn, regardless of the content. The classroom should be as dynamic as the students, which means that as the teacher I need to be flexible to the needs of my students. This flexibility must stretch to seating, temperature, groupings and even the order of learning. I think it’s important to show the students respect by including their input on their classroom. This is especially important in setting classroom expectations. This is a newer way to establish classroom rules; by labeling them as expectations it creates responsibility for self-control in the individual students rather than dependency on the power of the teacher. This is something I learned hands on in my classroom while student teaching.
I have recently noticed the trend in the Color Chart and behavior calendar and while I see how it works and appreciate its simplicity I am also a fan of parent/teacher communication books. While time consuming I think that the colors can be a bit ambiguous in that there is usually no explanation as to why your child is on Yellow for the day. I also think this can lead to students who are only behaving for the reward. Imagine if we created citizens who only stopped at stop signs is a police officer is sitting there, or citizens who are looking for a reward for not committing a crime. I think managing behavior is about instilling self-control and self-respect in to the children. Students who do not feel proud of themselves when they do the right thing are going to be hard to bribe with colors or incentives.
Finally, with all this planning, there must be flexibility. Students are people no matter how old they are, and there are going to be days when they just don’t feel like it due to various factors. I believe it’s important to respect student’s individual personalities and respond to their needs on a day to day basis. For instance I have a student in my class who is frequently late to school; she comes in with an attitude because she frequently misses breakfast and is thrust into learning. I have found that if I can make her smile before she joins the group her day gets better quickly. When I tried to make her quickly join the group without acknowledging her individually it took her most of the morning to come into her usual happy self. Teaching can be such a rewarding job depending on where you are looking for your jewels. I smiled ear to ear when my ESL student not only volunteered to read in front of the class but did an excellent job. I appreciate when all my students turn in their homework folder in the morning and I don’t have to ask for them at the end of the day when I am filling in their behavior charts. I appreciate when my students remain quite if I am interrupted by another teacher or student from another class and I can pick up where I left off. The term classroom management can sound like wrangling wild children. Classroom management is really about teaching the children to manage themselves and to do the right thing because it’s right, not because of a reward. This leads to useful citizens.