Classroom Management

Class yesterday was a lot of fun for me. It was great how everyone got involved! I thought I would take a moment to discuss what my intentions were, so you could see the plan behind it all, as well as some of the things I learned from the exercise. I had handed out some behaviors to people that I thought either matched the person’s personality, or contradicted it. I had hoped we’d have more time to see how those behaviors that contradicted the person were misunderstood MORE than those that fit the person (think of Mary’s comments of Aaron’s laid back style vs. Pei’s reaction to Bill’s very contradictory style). It was meant to emphasize how important it is to be confident in the style you are presonifying, because if your style seems contradictory to your personality, the impact can be much greater on your students.

There were a couple things that I found interesting I also thought I would share with you. Did you notice which group talked the longest? We all waited for the one group that was experiencing intent listening and encouragement. These behaviors impacted the amount of discussion that occurred in that group. I think that says a lot in itself.

Also I wanted to point out one more thing that might have gone unnoticed. Bill mentioned feeling “rude” by not making eye contact as Pei spoke. Think for a moment about what woud happen, then, if a student in Bill’s class were not making eye contact with him? Do you think he would initially think that student might be from a culture that discourages informal eye contact (as we discussed in class) or would his initial reaction be that they were being rude? I think it is important to point this out as the stereotype or cynicism we have to avoid! I do it with my boyfriend all the time: I assume the intentions for his actions are the same as my intentions would be for that action- and that just usually results in a big confusing fight. I hope I demonstrated clearly that this is the type of reaction to student’s behavior we have to be careful with.

One final thing, that I wasn’t expecting also resulted from the exercise with Pei and Bill’s (see their suffering was not for naught!! ). Pei mentioned that Bill’s behavior made her want to withdraw and be quiet, which is exactly what I thought his behavior would do. What I didn’t think about, is Pei internalized his behavior as the result of something she was or wasn’t doing! I thought she would just consider Bill as being rude or distracted, and respond by shutting down. Instead, she analyzed what she was doing to cause his behavior- was she speaking incorrectly, was her English not well, had she offended him, etc. I thought this was great (of course, feeling bad that she had to go through that) as a demonstration of the kinds of negative self-talk we as teachers can have when we are in front of a class and behaviors like this happen. As a teacher, should she expect all her students to make eye contact with her? Is that EVER going to happen? Probably not. It pointed out to me, that sometimes we need to NOT take so much responsibility for our student’s behavior. As Chris pointed out so well, sometimes there is just nothing we can do!

I want to thank-you again for such a fun class!

Class Observations

Now that I’ve observed my last class… what am I supposed to get out of it?

Hopefully you got a chance to speak with the teacher(s) that conducted the course, if you haven’t I strongly reccomend it! As I mentioned in class, it is amazing just how much of the silent ends of teaching need to be considered when teaching a class. Things that may go unnoticed as a student, can become extremely evident in these observations!

Write down a list of questions that you have from your first observation that you might want to make sure you attend to better in your second observation of another teacher.                                                                  

As for the question ‘WHAT do I do’… that is totally personal of course. I can, however, give some suggestions in case you are stuck. Do you have a question you have always wanted to know the answer to? Ever wondered which type of teaching style is most effective… observe polar opposite teaching strategists. Wonder what TYPE of teaching institution you want to work at… observe teachers at different institutions to see what meets your style best. The trick is do something that answers something for yourself. Though the process may be more of what you will be graded on, the SOLUTION is what will make this assignment MEANINGFUL for yourself.

Semester Project

Howdy!! Jesi here. For the first blog, I thought what would be most helpful, would be to talk a bit about my personal experience with the semester project. To be frank (i.e. Jesi ) I was super excited and a bit nervous about having such free range in an assignment! I mean, Dr. Clegg was gonna let ME come up with my own idea, AND design it however I wanted? ~ That was the exciting part. The scary part was that I didn’t know how that would play into how SHE graded the project?!

First bit of advice… don’t worry about the latter! After three semesters of this class, the main thing I have realized is Dr. Clegg is one of those teachers who actually cares more about the PROCESS to learning than simply the end result! Learn SOMETHING, and you’ll make the grade.

As for the question ‘WHAT do I do’… that is totally personal of course. I can, however, give some suggestions in case you are stuck. Do you have a question you have always wanted to know the answer to? Ever wondered which type of teaching style is most effective… observe polar opposite teaching strategists. Wonder what TYPE of teaching institution you want to work at… observe teachers at different institutions to see what meets your style best. The trick is do something that answers something for yourself. Though the process may be more of what you will be graded on, the SOLUTION is what will make this assignment MEANINGFUL for yourself.

Good luck! And if you wanna bounce your ideas off me… I love hearing them! Also, I have added a page that has some links and teaching references if you still aren’t sure what questions you might have!! Have fun!

Welcome

Just wanted to take a moment to welcome you all to class!! We should have an interesting time this Fall semester. Hopefully, between the class and this blog we will be able to address most of the concerns you may have about your future with a teaching career. I look forward to discovering with you!! ~Jesi