· Discuss one question, confusion, or "I wonder...." from reading the Module.
How important is classroom management compared to academic standards? Teachers have to follow academic standards, but from this class and my other education classes, it is stressed that classroom management/creating a productive learning environment is also VERY important to be an effective teacher.
· Reflect on the statement "Teaching with a lot of control is easy. Handing control over to the students, and planning for every possible outcome, adapting instruction where they take it, is extremely difficult, but worth it." Why might this be so? How could you productively hand over some control to your students while still supporting learning?
The statement might be true because some students can feel overly controlled when they have no control over learning. If a student feels like this, they may reject a lot of the ideas and activities that a teacher wants the students to do. I had a teacher in 5th grade and in 7th grade, which were very controlling, and it made me not enjoy the class at all, and dread going to school/to that class every day. A teacher is taught to have control over the classroom at all times, so it is hard for teachers to do the opposite at various times. Also teachers can be very afraid of what might happen; a teacher cannot plan for every possible situation, which makes handing over control to students even harder, especially for a new teacher with not as much experience. A teacher could productively hand over some control to the students and still support learning by giving most of the control to the students, but making sure the students are still staying on task, are focused on the task at hand, and understand the task. A teacher could use Vygotsky’s theory of Zone of Proximal Development by helping the students when they need help with the material, since they have not mastered the skills yet, but allowing the students to do as much as possible before helping the student.
I'd say that classroom management is almost as important as academic standards. If the students don't know the information covered in the standards, they will be behind everyone else academically. Classroom management helps make learning possible and go smoothly. You should think of classroom management when you plan your lessons based off the standards.
ReplyDeleteIn any job one will need to try to accomplish more than one goal. Although it will of course be difficult, I think the two sort of go hand in hand. When the students are learning all their material in a timely manner, and are succeeding, that generally means that a good learning environment has been maintained. It's not really, in my mind, a matter of constantly thinking about both goals. One helps the other.
ReplyDeleteWell, if you notice the statistic that about 1/3 of all classroom time is actually spent on INSTRUCTION, good classroom management skills can help you raise that amount and take advantage of all of the classroom time you're given. For example, if you're students are well aware of some simple behavioral cues (like when to quiet down and how to take notes, etc), then they have more time to think critically or spend in discussion. It's true that if you spend less time on behavior, you have more time for instruction. It's definitely a balance....
ReplyDeleteI think you make some good points. As a teacher, it IS your job to teach the students particular things/information. So, ideally, they'll all get to the same end eventually, but that doesn't mean they all have to get there in the same way. The fastest most efficient way might be a lecture and memorize direct instruction model, but allowing students to explore will have some intrinsic motivation benefits.