Thursday, October 18, 2007
Guest Speaker
Colleen was an excellent speaker today! I found her insights on classroom management very helpful and inspiring. The whole idea of modelling and teaching good behaviour before students have the chance to do it is so important! I never thought of using the phrase "In our class, we dont throw erasers" as much as before. I have always experienced teachers saying the "if you" statements which i now understand to be inappropriate as it tells children that they can do it but will be punished, which as she said, may not affect everyone in the same way. So, the solution....prevent the problem before it starts!!!
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6 comments:
I completely agree with you, SD! I thought it was a very valuable experience to have a guest speaker come in and speak about a topic like classroom management (that is not always mentioned in our other classes). I found the topic very beneficial and relateable- one of my students in grade 3 has ADHD, and it was great for me to have her remind us that for students with disorders like that, you have to "practice until it works". Sometimes it is difficult to remember that those students do not consider or remember what consequences come with their actions, so having Colleen remind us and talk about techniques to get us past that was great.
I too felt that having the guest speaker come in to talk with us was a worthwhile experience took away many things but particularly, as you both mentioned that it is necessary to teach discipline rather than just reacting to it. Behaviour modification will only encourage the problem and as she noted, students will begin to manipulate the system. Instead, it is important to realize that how children behave when no one is looking is the true indicator of good classroom management strategies. Another statement that resonated with me is that students WANT to do well and so we need to ensure that each student gets what they need to succeed.
Oh yes! One more thought. It is no coincidence that PARENTS and PARTNERS are spelled in a similar way and look a lot a like. Teachers should not be on the opposite side of the spectrum from parents. Work together in order to help the student in the middle.
I also agree with the previous posts. I thought Colleen's talk was excellent and very informative. It is true, we have not touched much on classroom management in any of our other classes, and it is such a huge part of teaching. I think that one of the biggest challenges I will face in Block I is maintaining control of the classroom. As well, I now realize how important it is that teachers and parents work together as a team in regards to discipline. As a future educator, I will try my best to be approachable with parents and encourage "working together" as a team in order to get the best of our the students! Overall, I feel we all greatly benefited from Colleen's words of wisdom.. it was great to hear stories from an expert in the field!
I, too, really enjoyed the talk with Colleen. She has such a neat speaking voice, very calming and inviting. She brought up some really interesting points about the "practising of events". I had never heard about "practising" recess and assemblies. It sounds like these techniques are helpful and beneficial for classroom and school management. In addition to her words of wisdom, the book she read to us was VERY neat. It had a very clear religious link to it which would be great for a Catholic school. She had such a calm and confident demeanor as she read the book. This really encouraged me to listen and become involved in the storyline.
All in all, Colleen is a great public speaker and I truly feel like this talk was beneficial for me and I will take these suggestions with me as I begin my teaching block.
I felt that our guest speaker Colleen had immense amount of knowledge about classroom management and student behaviours. Her discussion was very interesting and helpful, and her stories and experineces were very insightful. During her talk, I thought and reflected back on my own school expereinces and presently on my current situation and was able to see many connections and practices that I could incorporate into my own classroom or that were onced used on myself. For example, the use of proximity. I think that everyone may have experienced this technique at some point in time. One really important aspect Colleen talked about was that "Children do well if they can. If they can't we need to figure out why so we can help" and I think that as upcoming teachers, we need to keep this in the back of our mind.
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