Module 4- Teaching Practice

Module 4

In this past week, I have started to see my students get over the "Honeymoon" phase of the beginning of the school year as well as start to test their limits of what they can get away with in the classroom. I have kept my same rules of no cell phones and no music and talking should be kept to inside voice noise level. The class was very loud on Thursday, so I am changing the seating chart in the classroom as well as spending 15 minutes in class Monday to address my classroom expectations again in detail. My hope is that by addressing it Monday will mean that in the future, I will not have to waste as much effort and energy to handle students who fail to meet my expectations on classroom conduct. Along these lines, I am finding that I need to create extreme structure for my algebra 1 classes that are large, 27 and 32 students, while my Honors Algebra 2 students I need to become more laid back and less hands on and let my students take control. I am very on the fence about letting go of the reigns in my honors class because I am so new to this environment and do not want to be in the situation where I give my students an inch and they take a mile, as so often is the case. My honors students are easily motivated and have incredible work ethics, but I am still concerned because they are freshmen and sophomores. 

If my class was Honors or GT and they were seniors, then I would have no problem letting my students run the show in class everyday as a way to prepare them for college and make the classroom a student centered learning environment. My Honors students,  however, sometimes lack the courage to speak up when they are unsure or are too embarrassed to admit they are wrong or confused. I am working to create a growth mindset in all of my classes to encourage participation and have been thinking about keep a list on hand for every class and rewarding consist effort and involvement through candy and food because that is always a good motivator. 

All in all, managing the classroom is my biggest concern and main thing that I wish to develop this year. Along with this, I believe that my planning needs more detail and modification for my classes. I have a teacher in my school who is a department chair who will be assisting me rather than my department chair because he is so busy filling in for a teacher out on injury leave. I am enjoying my co workers and all of the assistance they are providing me as far as tips and lesson planning.