Thinking back to the types of management strategies I have observed in my practicum site there are a couple that popped out to me the most. One of them consists of a vocabulary word; Each week the class gets a new vocab word, they learn the definition and use it in a sentence. For instance this past week the word was equivalent, and as a managing strategy every time the teacher wanted to get the students attention she would say the vocabulary word equivalent and everyone would repeat it and then stayed silent waiting for directions. Another method just consists of being quiet until the students realize it and lower their voices as well. I have also seen a very common one which is just simply counting down from five to zero, and by the time we are at zero everyone is expected to be quiet, in their seats, ready for what’s coming next. Another method I have seen that keeps students working on something is giving them options, or letting them know what they will be working on after that lesson. Another strategy that I liked was how every student has a number, and each number is a classroom role they can take, such as line leader, or paper passer helper. Desks are also arranged in teams, and they get points according to how ready their team is, or how clean their desks are, or if they are paying attention. A common phrase that I hear often is “this is doable. In class they prefer not to use terms such as this is “hard” or this is “easy” because we are all at different levels, and although it might be easy for some it might be an area of struggle for others, and all the work is work that the students can all do if they put themselves to it. Undesired behavior for this classroom I believe would be students giving up or not trying at all.
From what I have seen I do believe that all students have the same expectations around their behavior in the classroom and even in the school. Although I have noticed that one or two students get called on a little bit more to refocus or get back on track. Some differences that I noticed between these students and the rest, is that they tend to get distracted easily or give up, they don’t have the patience to try and try new strategies or once they make one mistake they feel like they can’t instead of learning from that. From my experience I have heard the same language being used towards girls and boys, they both have the same expectations in the classroom. When it comes to their behavior towards different teachers, the students are still respectful and polite yet you can tell they seem much happier when they are with their teacher and I think this is because they’ve created a relationship and they already know her and what she expects from them as students.
Education 240 