The most valuable aspect of this week was in seeing how a couple of students seem to have grown and flourished before my eyes. Yes, I know it sounds like I'm writing about my flower garden and in some ways I do liken these students to my garden. I've spent a lot of time encouraging and praising them to get to where they are now. When I started, this particular class had several IEP students that were very disruptive. Most times they were not on task and spoke out whenever they wanted to with whatever crossed their minds. I was never quite sure what was going to be said or how wound up the class was going to be. But very shortly after taking over this class, I recognized two students as the leaders and would make sure that I encouraged them and that they were on task. I also noticed that a little praise went a long way with them. After all, they want to be the leaders of the class and therefore like recognition. Over the past couple of months, I have watched them go from being disruptive to leading activities. This realization came to me when I asked the class to open the PowerPoint document we were working on and I said, "Now where did we leave off?" and one of these students proudly told me what page and even what step number. Wow, I threw the question out there hoping to get a response to the effect of we just put in a table. Instead, I get the exact step! I truly feel like I am watching these students grow and bloom and I couldn't imagine a finer garden!
If there was anything that I would change about this week it would have be an Accounting class where the students were lethargic and unresponsive. This was an easy chapter and I think most of the students were bored but it was as though they never even heard of the basic accounting equation. I realize that should have figured out a better approach to this chapter and tried to make it more interesting for them. On this particular day, I had a slight touch of laryngitis and my voice was sporadic. So after asking a couple of questions and getting no response, I told them that since they were not paying attention to me, I was going to save my voice for the next class. I gave them their assignments and sat down and graded their folders. It was so quiet in that room that you could have heard a pin drop. I have never raised my voice in any of my classes and I don’t intend to. This was very effective because the students knew that they were now responsible to learn this section. Again, it was an easy section. The next day, I began my lesson as though nothing ever happened and the students were attentive and responsive. While I believe this method worked, I would have changed the initial lesson so that I never had to use this method at all.
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Maribeth,
ReplyDeleteIt is great that you were able to identify the leaders in your classes and work to grow their confidence and ability within that setting; "...teach a man to fish, and feed him for life."
I have recently informed some of the student-leaders in my personal finance classes that they will be heading up a final project that the students will be doing. Although they were not very eager to find out that they may have more responsibility than others, there was also a sense of pride and accomplishment for being recognized as the leaders. Although it's not always necessary to verbally let the leaders in a class know that they are in fact the leaders, it is certainly very necessary to identify them for our own sake, and I can see that you are using that to the advantage of everyone involved. I'm excited to see what you do with your career in the future, and I look forward to networking with you in the years ahead. Great work! Only a handful of days left!
I am glad that you were able to see those students turn from being the thorn to the flower. Great Job!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about having your voice be sporadic and having to deal with teaching a class. I had that problem on Tuesday with my voice and had a class that just was very noisy. I too, told them I was not going to raise my voice and they finally noticed. The students do realize that we do mean business.
Have a great week!
What an example of great classroom management! I loved this: "I told them that since they were not paying attention to me, I was going to save my voice for the next class. I gave them their assignments and sat down and graded their folders."
ReplyDeleteKnowing that class of students I can picture the effect you made on them! Great job Maribeth!