Classroom Management (Transcript)
F5: I think for a lot of pre-service teachers the main problem is classroom management, you know. Anybody can come up with a lesson whether it's good or not good. Classroom management is something you really need to learn. Last year I struggled huge amounts with classroom management, I had none so I thought this year I'm going to go in from day one and that's going to be my focus which was actually the focus for PP3 anyway. So that worked out nicely. From day one I went in there as a teacher. I wasn't just somebody observing. I let the kids know that I had to be respected and I'd respect them back. Also I'd start my lessons in the same way. The kids would never sit at their desks at the beginning of the lesson, I'd always have them on the floor which was something different to what my mentor did but she didn't mind that I did that. That was just what worked for me. I found that by having them on the floor I had their attention, they weren't distracted and then they could go and do their activities. In certain lessons I took them outside for PE sometimes. They knew I'd set the boundaries at the beginning so they knew what was expected. I think that's important. If they don't know what's expected they don't, you know, they will just take a mile and they won't know what to do.
M2: To give you a very brief bit of background, sort of history, when I ... when I took my first job in the UK before I came over here to Australia I ... I modelled my teaching on simply what I ... how I'd been taught, having thoroughly enjoyed school myself it seemed the obvious thing to do with no mentorship, explicit mentorship sort of in place, it was the obvious thing to do and they were very strict on discipline and sort of classroom behaviour. And it's something that has been pointed out to me on lesson observations in the UK as part of how the system works out there and obviously on my rounds with my mentors, that that's something that just comes very naturally to me. I know this is not about me specifically but I seem to have a very good rapport. I can ... I can maintain a sort of respectful level. I show them element of respect, they show me their respect but they know where to, you know, they know where the line is quite ... quite quickly. So I guess I've never had any difficulty with it and I suppose ... my secret as such would just be I'm very firm, I'm very honest with them, and I don't really stand for any nonsense and it makes no ... if I was with a Year 12 class or a Year 8 class or Year 7 class as I was on placement with my Year 7 and 8, I just, you know I went in there, I got the sort of order in place, I spelt out very quickly what I expected of them and what they would get in return from following those guidelines, and it worked very positively. And I ... and I kept talking with them. I guess you know, never shouted at them but just had that sort of sternness, that sort of air, so a slight air of authority that maybe perhaps I wouldn't have had had I had the experience prior to going on placement. I do appreciate that for a lot of pre-service teachers that's actually the hardest element, that they are ... they've got fantastic sort of subject knowledge, they've got great pedagogy, they're got great activities but they can't just control their class, 'cause it's the hardest part. I ... it's almost, it's the reverse for me but I do find classroom management quite ... quite easy and easy is probably a bit derogatory, but I don't have too many difficulties with classroom management. So I suppose very ... communicate with them, you know, show them the ... you show them respect, that you're interested in what they've got to say and you know, develop clear guidelines from the off. The more you allow them to take early on the more it's going to be hard to pull them in later on.
M1: I think one of the most valuable classroom strategies I learned or picked up was that you need to settle a class straight away before you launch into your lesson proper. So there was a time when, well the first few times when I went in, I would just start a lesson straight away without ensuring that people, like the children ... not the children, the ... the students had their bags off the table, that they had their notepads out and their pens out and ready to take notes, that they were all facing forward. So I didn't do that. And because of that when I launch into the lesson they weren't listening and then to try to get them into ... into your lesson then becomes that much more difficult. So that was really good, just settling them before you started. And the other thing was, which ... which is a suggestion that my mentor made to me was that to keep your beginnings really crisp. And I wasn't really sure what that meant but what she was saying was to really have a sharp introduction that gets the interest of the students straight away. So I suppose the idea is to have a trigger activity or a really solid introduction that engages their interest, that makes the subject material relevant to their own lives so that they understand why they should be interested in the topic. So yeah, that was the second one. And other strategies I've observed teachers using was I had a mentor who was quite authoritarian and I could understand that because she was dealing with the VCAL students. And I was kind of struggling with that a bit because my own style is that I'm not as authoritarian in that way. So I didn't kind of agree with how quickly she came down on them whenever they misbehaved. So I kind of tried my own style. And it did work because I had this student in the class who was apparently, well he had a really low literacy level, he wasn't able to read that well and his handwriting was pretty illegible. And my mentor was saying that she, oh well, this ... this boy didn't really work for ... for her in class. And by the end of the five weeks that I was there, I managed to win him over and was actually doing some work. So I think that my style which differs from my mentor worked well with him. So it kind of shows that you know, you can have different teaching styles that will engage different kinds of learners depending on the situation.
F8: Having little techniques like my mentor would count back from five and so the students would stop everything and focus on her and put their hands in the air so little techniques to kind of draw them back, you know, when they were running riot was quite good.
F6: Things I've observed, the last ... first school I was at placed a lot of emphasis on the school values and actually use that in their dialogue with the students. For example, have ... giving everyone a fair go or showing respect, trust and they'd always say are you showing the values by doing that or you know, give someone a fair go, put your hand up if you haven't asked a question, you know, giving your classmates a fair go. Other things? One good thing I noticed was focusing on people ... students who were doing the right thing rather than those who are doing the wrong thing and I found that quite difficult to do myself when I was teaching because you're sort of trying to put out the spot fires and not ... and the students who were doing their work just let them keep going. But if you actually stopped the class if it's a bit noisy and say on, so and so is doing a great job, the students who were off task are sort of oh, they're getting rewarded and praised, maybe I should get back onto my work. So focusing on the good things rather than the bad things is a good strategy. Getting students' attention. I had to do a whole class. My first time I took a whole class activity the ... the noise levels were getting a bit out of control and I had to give next instructions but I was just ... I was focused on trying to get the instructions out rather than making sure everyone was paying attention. And my mentor suggested you just have to grab their attention and then wait for total silence before you give the next instruction so everyone's listening. And that ... that, I found that really ... seems simple, but when you're actually doing it, it's a little bit ... got to keep it in the back of your mind. And also getting attention, the clapping, that sort of clapping or I sat in on another class and the teacher said Willy Wonka and all the students went oompaloompa. And it just ... and they made it up themselves so just different strategies work for different classrooms, so just depends.
F4: What I was going to say is this year we did classroom management that was my focus. And so I did my PP and then mid semester I did a course on cooperative teaching and learning. And there was a lot of strategies in that course that I'm actually looking forward to refreshing myself prior to going in to PP4. Just to put into place with classroom management because I think it's given me a great comparison ...a comparison on what I was like before the course and what I'm likely to be like after in ... in regards to classroom management. And there's a few things, some students have the tendency to call out a fair bit and that's really hard to control. And there's this stressful ... and Narelle showed us in the ... in the course and that's something I'll be ... I'll be out getting, getting a few of those. And it's a bit of a novelty and it's quite tactile but it gives the students each an opportunity to speak out. Another thing that I'd like to use more in my classes is the community circle. So rather than everybody sitting up and looking up at you, everybody sits in a circle and everybody gets to see every other student and what they're contributing to the class. Well you can use it for sharing, you know, share groups or once they ... once they finished a lesson or a activity, they come back into the ... back onto the floor and they sit in a circle and everybody shares what they did in that lesson, how they went about it, you know, what were some of the points. But I think it's something that I'd like to incorporate on a daily basis, just so students can look at one another and hopefully it also minimises the distraction level that happens when everybody's so close together. And that way they can just look at one another and acknowledge each other's faces while they're, you know, talking. This class is probably the most challenging class and it's just perfect for a classroom management focus. There's ... there's a couple of students who've been assessed with learning difficulties and they have teachers aids come in. There's one student that's in the process of getting assessed and then there's about five students who have behavioural issues in class. So couldn't have asked for a more challenging classroom. And we were constantly, constantly applying different ideas like seating strategies, rewarding and praise. My mentor uses a token strategy where she rewards effort, good behaviour or cooperative behaviour and few different things and she gives out these little tokens and at the end of the week students get to select, depending on the number of tokens they have acquired, get to select on ... from toys to books to stickers. And she swears by that and it does, it excites the children, they look forward to that Friday afternoon where they can, you know, get their ... purchase their rewards. But there's still some issues that are quite challenging so I'm looking forward to applying what I've learned in cooperative teaching and learning to see if there ... there's a bit of a difference in the daily outcome of the class. But also takes time. I think when you're there on a daily basis over five days, once a week, it takes a little bit of time for the students to settle. Once you're there in that first week block they've gotten to know you and you've gotten to know them and their capabilities. A good classroom for me, just you know, looking at the basic layout, is natural light, open, well ventilated, so you know, you've got air coming through so it doesn't get stuffy throughout the day 'cause children just, you know, get a bit lethargic in the afternoon. But the layout has to be, you know, conducive to a good sort of teaching environment. One thing that I would certainly have in my classroom which I've only seen in one classroom in my placements is say a reading corner, a reading nook or just a quiet corner where, whether they do reading or take some time out. And I've only seen that in one class and that's something that I would make a sacrifice for and make sure I have that in my class, you know, whether it's ... you know, they finish their work early and they want to go and read on the couch or the bean bags or the cushions and I don't see that a lot. I don't know why. I know space is, you know, a bit of a scarcity and the layout of some classrooms and the size of some classrooms probably doesn't allow for it. But that's something that I would have in my classroom. Colourful. Students' works exhibited. Not too much, but I have seen classes that there's minimal student work exhibited so they do the work and whether it gets taken home or ... or shoved into portfolios, I don't know, but you know, I like walking into a classroom where you can see the students' current work, you know. And also, you know, quick points of reference where students can look up and they can find something immediately, you know, the general things like the months of the year, the days, the timetable, stuff like that. High frequency spelling words. So, yeah, that's probably a good classroom. There's a lot more to it but they're just some of the things.