Week 1 of Solo Teaching

Michael 1952

And so begins the trials and tribulations of student teaching.  I may be exhausted, but I will reflect here....

In third grade, the students have a ton of energy.  That energy can be productive and destructive. Dealing with it and making choices of how to deal with it is a hard battle.  You can be really lieutenant or a drill sergeant.  I like to assess each situation and deal with it on a case by case basis.  What I need however, is a clear set of rewards and punishments.  In my future classroom, I know from my experience here that there needs to be consistency with punishment and rewards.  When reflecting with my mentor teacher, she suggested that I be more strict with the students.  For those who are talking out of line or not on task give them a punishment or have a consequence to their action.  I cannot agree more with her.  However, the problem this week while solo teaching was finding those punishments and consequences.  In my current classroom there is no real consequence except for losing 5 minutes of recess or whatever you feel that moment.  The kids could care less and their behavior does not improve.  In the short 2 weeks of solo teaching, I am not going to set up a rewards and consequence system for the kids to forget when I leave.  From this experience, I know that this is a HUGE thing I must consider when setting up my classroom norms.  The students must have a CLEAR understanding that behavior A will result in consequence A, and behavior B will result in consequence B.  When behavior A happens in September or March the consequence will be the same in September or March.  Now, I just need to figure out how to set up that system.  Hopefully, I will get a job at a school where I like how the school wide system works.