Goals prior to practicum starting:
1.) Write down all successful routine management strategies to implement for the beginning of the year
2.) Read blogs/books on supportive year start strategies.
3.) In my first week implement strategies that my coaching teacher has already started and suggest new ones if there are any that I notice could work.
Reflections after practicum ended:
When I first started my final practicum, I observed my coaching teacher and how she implemented classroom management in the classroom throughout the first week. I constantly would ask for feedback from my coaching teacher on my abilities to give instruction and manage behaviours.
I learned that it is important to do your best to stay consistent with routines and rules. For example in my first couple weeks I remembered that the coaching teacher had a rule that students should be using the washroom at recess and lunch rather than asking during instruction time. During the third week, I realized I had been saying yes to students when they asked to use the washroom during instruction time. I did some self-reflection and noticed that when I was occupied supporting students and students came up to me, I forgot to check the time and if it was close to recess or lunch, I should have told them to wait 5 minutes and see if they needed to still go.
What I noticed in this rule was that less students asked as I kept reinforcing the rules. They had been used to what my coaching teacher had reinforced, and although I had been unintentionally altering the expectations for that week, I was able to remind the students of the expectations and for the remainder of the weeks, I noticed how reinforcing the rules was affective to better classroom management. Less students were getting distracted and disrupting the class to use the washroom. They were able to take accountability and they remembered to use the washroom during recess and lunch.
Another classroom management strategy that I used was clapping to get the students attention. It seemed to work quite affectively. Students started to get their hands ready to clap as they noticed I was about to start the clapping. Some were great at “stop and listen”. Others, it took some time for them to understand that they clap after I am done clapping and not while I am clapping. Some needed a verbal prompt to have eyes and ears to the teacher.
I have appreciated growing in my journey as a teacher and I believe that I have created a good understanding of what positive classroom management looks like. I plan on continuing in my abilities to affectively manage a classroom and any behaviour that seems to disrupt the classroom routine.
I recognized quickly that this one student who had quite a busy body needed frequent body breaks to release his energy. Another teacher in the school had mentioned how she had seen another teacher in the school use an interesting and effective strategy with her students. By having the student push against the whiteboard or wall, something sturdy and push with all their strength. I thought it would be a good strategy for my student and so I offered him the option of doing this. He started doing it and it seemed to work out well as he often made a good choice to use this strategy as a regulating option. Another option that was effective for him was doing jumping jacks in the pod until he was ready to come back to the classroom and continue his work. I started to implement this into this students day routine as I felt that it was supportive for him. My coaching teacher was supportive of my decisions as well.