This week I paid special attention to the classroom management in my observation class. I have to preface my response by pointing out that I am currently observing the 7th and 8th grade honors classes in a catholic school. When forming my response to this post, I somewhat wished that I had more diverse circumstances to discuss, but that's not the case here.
The students' day begins at 8:00 a.m. The students enter their homerooms, put their things away, then quickly and quietly take their seats. At 8:05, the class stands to recite "Hail Mary" and "The Pledge of Allegiance, " after which is followed by watching the "Channel One News." When the news is over, the teacher and students discuss the current events introduced on the news. If there is still more homeroom time after the discussion, the students read quietly at their desks until it's time to move to first period. In the four weeks I have been there, I have not seen any display of the students not following this routine or the classroom rules thus far. On rare occasion, the students have gotten a bit chatty and had to be told to quiet down a bit, which they do immediately.
The behavior patterns in the 7th and 8th grade science classes that come into the room for first and second period are no different. The students come into the classroom, get their books and notebooks out and sit quietly until class begins. The ONLY redirection I have seen thus far is a simple "quiet down" from the teacher and the students ALWAYS quiet down immediately. I have not witnessed any situations where disciplinary infractions were necessary, nor have I seen any rewards for good (or more like expected) behavior. I have noticed that the teacher DOES have very high expectations from these honors students. A discussion took place again today with the 8th graders about their transition to high school and the teacher asked each student if they had registered for their classes yet. She said that she expected all of them to be registering for honors courses, as that is most certainly the level they should be performing at. All of the students that had to take placement tests to register for honors courses indicated that they passed the tests and were placed into honors courses.
I almost feel like it's a bit of a disservice to me as a future educator that I have not witnessed any disciplinary/reward worthy behavior. I think I would really benefit from seeing how a teacher deals with these behaviors. I have discussed this with my observation teacher and she has invited me to sit in on her afternoon 7th and 8th grade science classes, as they are not the honors students and although she admits that their behavior is not often punishable, they do have to be redirected more often and she does offer more rewards for positive behavior in those classrooms. I plan to attend the afternoon classes at least twice in the next several weeks to observe the difference from the morning classes and I will follow up this blog with my reaction to that observation.
UPDATE 4/1/14: I had the opportunity to sit in on the 7th and 8th grade science classes in the afternoon on 3/25/14 and 4/1/14. As far as behavior is concerned, the afternoon classes are a bit more chatty and a bit louder than the honors classes in the morning and had to be redirected to quiet down more often. They were quite antsy and seemed to move around in their chairs a lot more than the morning classes, but still I saw nothing that required any major disciplinary infractions. I can't help but wonder if these afternoon students were acting this way because they are on a lower learning level or simply because it was later in the day and almost time to go home and that is what was making them more rowdy than the morning classes. Perhaps these students behave similar to the honors classes when they are in their 1st and 2nd period classes? I also wonder if my observations were swayed because I was precisely looking for the behavior. The teacher had already explained that the afternoon classes were more rowdy, so my opinion may have already been biased. Although there was a slight difference, in the behaviors of the afternoon and morning classes, it was nothing extreme by any means.
The students' day begins at 8:00 a.m. The students enter their homerooms, put their things away, then quickly and quietly take their seats. At 8:05, the class stands to recite "Hail Mary" and "The Pledge of Allegiance, " after which is followed by watching the "Channel One News." When the news is over, the teacher and students discuss the current events introduced on the news. If there is still more homeroom time after the discussion, the students read quietly at their desks until it's time to move to first period. In the four weeks I have been there, I have not seen any display of the students not following this routine or the classroom rules thus far. On rare occasion, the students have gotten a bit chatty and had to be told to quiet down a bit, which they do immediately.
The behavior patterns in the 7th and 8th grade science classes that come into the room for first and second period are no different. The students come into the classroom, get their books and notebooks out and sit quietly until class begins. The ONLY redirection I have seen thus far is a simple "quiet down" from the teacher and the students ALWAYS quiet down immediately. I have not witnessed any situations where disciplinary infractions were necessary, nor have I seen any rewards for good (or more like expected) behavior. I have noticed that the teacher DOES have very high expectations from these honors students. A discussion took place again today with the 8th graders about their transition to high school and the teacher asked each student if they had registered for their classes yet. She said that she expected all of them to be registering for honors courses, as that is most certainly the level they should be performing at. All of the students that had to take placement tests to register for honors courses indicated that they passed the tests and were placed into honors courses.
I almost feel like it's a bit of a disservice to me as a future educator that I have not witnessed any disciplinary/reward worthy behavior. I think I would really benefit from seeing how a teacher deals with these behaviors. I have discussed this with my observation teacher and she has invited me to sit in on her afternoon 7th and 8th grade science classes, as they are not the honors students and although she admits that their behavior is not often punishable, they do have to be redirected more often and she does offer more rewards for positive behavior in those classrooms. I plan to attend the afternoon classes at least twice in the next several weeks to observe the difference from the morning classes and I will follow up this blog with my reaction to that observation.
UPDATE 4/1/14: I had the opportunity to sit in on the 7th and 8th grade science classes in the afternoon on 3/25/14 and 4/1/14. As far as behavior is concerned, the afternoon classes are a bit more chatty and a bit louder than the honors classes in the morning and had to be redirected to quiet down more often. They were quite antsy and seemed to move around in their chairs a lot more than the morning classes, but still I saw nothing that required any major disciplinary infractions. I can't help but wonder if these afternoon students were acting this way because they are on a lower learning level or simply because it was later in the day and almost time to go home and that is what was making them more rowdy than the morning classes. Perhaps these students behave similar to the honors classes when they are in their 1st and 2nd period classes? I also wonder if my observations were swayed because I was precisely looking for the behavior. The teacher had already explained that the afternoon classes were more rowdy, so my opinion may have already been biased. Although there was a slight difference, in the behaviors of the afternoon and morning classes, it was nothing extreme by any means.