Classroom Management

Classroom management is something that can complicated. Not every class is exactly the same, so the teacher should be flexible and willing and able to adapt to the needs of the class to reach the goals. My practicum teacher this semester showed me how she managed her class, which was very interesting. She described it as "pulling stuff out of my bag of tricks." In a weird sort of way I see classroom management as a very systematic thing (if "A" doesn't happen, I should do "B") However I think that there's much more to it than that. One of the most important thing to do is to create a good first impression, which can go a long way. You should try to prove to them that they are there in that class for a reason. To do this I would start by getting the students hooked in some way. For example, if I were a Spanish teacher, I could ask them what they already know about Spanish and then give them an introduction to how what we will be learning will connect to what they have learned, making it more relevant (CLT). This will help them understand their expectations in class and can prepare them to achieve them (DLT). In order to keep them mentally engaged, I would try to find ways to pass the entire time of class: have them answer  questions that I have written on the board, work in groups, etc.

In order to manage the class, I would create some sort of routine for the students. This is not to say that I would expect every day to be the exact same, which it will not be at all. However I could create a structure of events in the class to which the students would become accustomed (example: start class at a certain time, first thing- review what we did yesterday, second- go over homework, third- learn new lesson, fourth- go over in groups, fifth- do homework, etc.). This is very manageable because the students would know what to expect and be able to play on what I expect from them (BLT). Then if I wanted to do something different to what they're used to one day, they can be a little more surprised.

In a classroom where language is the essential key, I would not put the students' desks in columns. Instead I would put them in circles or a closed in space. This would make it much easier for the students to be able to confer with their peers and discuss what we have been learning. I could then walk to each group and assess their conversations. This would also help us be able to interact on a more personal level and be able to understand the subject at a level that they can understand. I will also need to watch my nonverbal behaviors. I will have to consider how standing in one corner will affect how the students perceive me, as opposed to another (SLT).

Thursday evaluation

I have no idea why it took me so long to write this blog. I must've enjoyed Fall Break too much.

Anyway, I liked how in the first one used very concrete examples. I liked how we could touch and eat the candy. I became addicted to squishing the lard in the bag. However I think they could've done a better job at making a better distinction between what's good for you and what's not.

The second group did a good job at using constructionist learning theory to help us understand what homophones we did and didn't know. The riddles were really fun to do.

I loved the story that the third group read to us. I never expected that the plot would end up how it did. It definitely would help build new schemas and help children understand what being rude means.

The fourth lesson was really fun. It would definitely be a good way for children to get used to letters in the alphabet and what they need. It uses SLT because we had to say all the words that matched the letters. It's definitely a good way to become accustomed to the alphabet.

Group Presentation

I guess our presentation was decent. We planned out what we would teach and the process in which we would do it very carefully. This worked out quite well because we used a very good concrete example ("I reads well" and the rocket ship) to explain the concepts. We then were able to motivate the students with showing them how simple it could be to conjugate by making a little story to go along with the lesson. Also using the race was a great way for the students to get motivated about the experience.

I think there were a lot of things that we could have improved on. It did seem all that much like a teacher oriented classroom. Before doing the race, we could have started by conjugating the "yo" and then asking students to come up and conjugate the rest. We also should have asked students to maybe work in groups to conjugate or we could've had the groups race against each other instead of individuals. I think another problem Jason and I had was that we didn't really distribute responsibilities amongst each other. We should have had one of teach half of the material and the other teach the other half. This can be a problem with teaching. The teacher needs to prepare beforehand what precisely he or she will do and then create a bag of tricks if all else fails.

Questions about LT's

I think the easiest way to know if the learning theories in the classroom are prevalent (notice I don't say how I know that I'm using the theories) is by analyzing what the students' ZPD's are. I would first ask myself what the average student has knowledge of the subject already and try to expand that. For example, if I am a teaching 9th grade Spanish or ESL/ELL class, and the students already know how to speak in the present tense, I would try to teach them to speak in the present progressive tense. However not everyone, especially in foreign language class, may have the same abilities or understanding of the material as others. I would have to explain the how the tenses work in different ways so they can understand it. I would think about what their schemas are and have to find a way to fix it (CLT).

In regards to Developmental Learning Theory, I would need to ask myself what would be concrete for them to understand and how concrete does it need to be. Then if the students can't understand it that way, how can I make it more concrete? I would also have to ask myself when is the right time to go abstract. 

For Social LT, I would need to ask myself how I word what I say. For example, if I am teaching ELL, I would have to speak in slow, simple English, but if I'm teaching Spanish I would have to speak Spanish slowly and simply as well. I would also need to ask myself who the more knowledgeable peers are and to what affect would their presence in the classroom be.

Social Learning Theory

The Social Learning Theory is so essential to teaching because it's comprised of doing the one thing humans do best: socializing! If humans didn't socialize, they could never pass what knowledge or ideas they have to one another, and without that, I don't know how we'd survive as a species.

I also think that the Social Learning Theory is important because it brings what is being taught down to earth. To young people, teachers are considered authority, a label to which feelings of contempt and indifference can be produced. Sometimes the teacher can get so caught up giving the lecture that he or she forget to think about how the students are absorbing the material. In high school, my teachers always would look around the room after a lecture and say,"Do we understand everything?" Then of course we would all murmur "yes" and/or absent-mindedly nod our heads. This would be how our teachers would "know" that we "understood" everything. They never followed through with assessing how well we understood the material or what we did or didn't understand or who really understood or didn't understand what. This is something that the students should have gotten the chance to assess amongst themselves. What would students talk about after the class was over? The lecture that happened that day!
Who do most students turn to at first when they can't answer a math problem? Most likely it will be a friend or someone sitting next to them. When I was in my high school Spanish class, my classmates and I had to read texts in Spanish. Immediately we all split up into groups of friends working to translate what we read. If we hadn't done this, none of us would've never been able to finish it.

So basically what I'm trying to say is that it's important that teachers allow the students to at least have some time to make contact with the people around them. They can talk about what they learned or the teacher could ask them to work together to solve a problem or anything like that. Teachers often get too tied down with maintaining rigid "discipline."

However I do see some problems with SLT as well. The students could go off subject and just start talking about everything but the subject. In some cases having social interactions may not even make sense in some situations. However overall it can be useful in the end. I'm still trying to understand how a teacher would use DLT and SLT together. Perhaps there is no one easy answer for that question.

DLT/ Mr. Bouris

From what I've learned so far, Developmental Learning theory is the most essential part of teaching something. No matter who your students are, you must have a plan to bring the students from the concrete to abstract.

In my sophomore year of high school, I had a geometry teacher named Mr. Bouris. For the most part, he was a very laid back guy and had a pretty good sense of humor. He occasionally liked to poke fun at individual students and would sometimes spray water out of the bottle that he used to clean his overhead projector with. He definitely was fun to be around and usually was pretty approachable. However he had no idea how to teach geometry.

When he did lessons, he would never put any actual effort into teaching us. He would just pull out the overhead projector and draw out the examples in the book. Instead of inviting students up to the board to maybe show a few problems and see if they could do it themselves or make concrete models that would make it all seem sensible, he would then just assume that we understood it all. Although some students understood everything after those few examples, most of us would be absolutely perplexed as to what was going on. Then he would give us a practice worksheet that we would turn in the next day. Usually I would just stare at the sheet and then go up to ask him for help. He would attempt to explain it again with the exact same example from the book, which would make me even more confused. When I would ask him if I come in later, he would tell me that the only time he could work with me was during the class.

Looking back, I wonder how on earth I passed that class. Although I admittedly have never been the best with math, he seemed to just make things worse. Throughout the majority of the class, I had a pretty good feeling he did not want to be there. He actually told us one day that he preferred teaching Algebra 2 over Geometry any day. Ever since I've had him as my teacher, I have made a solemn vow to myself that I will never teach like him.