Description of the Experience
During my internship I had a year 8 History lesson with casual teacher supervising rather than my regular colleague teacher. This was a follow up to a research lesson the students had in the previous lesson on the Battle of Wounded Knee and the Battle of Little Big Horn. The aim of the lesson was to discuss the answers students had found to their questions and ensure all students had an understanding about the battles the researched. The first half of the lesson was teacher led. This task, however, proved quite difficult as I had four girls (out of my small class of about 15) who had the giggles, which proved to be contagious amongst them.
In dealing with the girls, I sent the leader of the group outside to compose herself, in the hope that the others could settle in the classroom, so that I could get back to running the lesson. This attempt to curb the silliness did not work as the girls kept going with their silliness and would not settle, which was disrupting the rest of the class. I asked the rest of the silly girls to go outside (under the supervision of the casual teacher) to settle and return once they had calmed down. I returned to teaching the rest of the class, who had been waiting for further questioning and instructions whilst these girls had been so disruptive.
Critical Reflection
This experience relates to my need to better myself in terms of classroom management. Element 5 of the NSW Professional Teaching Elements requires that “Teachers create and maintain safe and challenging learning environments through the use of classroom management skills.”
Two issues arose from this experience:
- the way I dealt with the girls
- the repercussions for the rest of the class
In hindsight, I realise that I should not have sent the girls out of the classroom, despite knowing that they were under the supervision of another teacher. In an everyday teaching scenario, where I would not have had another teacher available to keep an eye on them, this would not have been an option. Aside from the duty of care aspect, I also think that the girls quite enjoyed being out of the classroom, and continued to keep up their behaviour. The girls spent the remainder of the lesson (about half an hour) out of the room under the supervision of the casual teacher Rather than acting as a management tool then, to hinder their behaviour, it acted as an enabling device for their behaviour.
The rest of the class was disrupted severely from this incident. As the lesson was predominantly based upon my direction, this made it highly difficult for the other students to continue working through the disruption. Not only that, I was completely aware that the other students needed my direction, which made it quite difficult for me to perhaps make the best all round decision as my prime concern was the other 10-11 people in the class who were waiting and becoming unfocussed due to the giggling girls.
Improvements
In hindsight, it would have been better to keep the girls in the classroom, or else give them a timeframe to settle and return to the classroom. If need be, I could have given the girls the option to calm themselves on their own accord, or give them a consequence for their behaviour. If this did not work, and the behaviour continued, Head Teacher advice may have needed to be sought.
I think the biggest problem in the lesson was the lack of structure. Had there have been a clear structure, the other girls may have been able to move on with their work so that I may have more effectively dealt with the disruptive students. Alternatively, more students centred work may have also benefited this scenario; perhaps having a group sharing activity rather than discussion led by the teacher would have enabled the lesson to run more smoothly.
Reflection #2
Description of Experience
This experience happened towards the end of my practicum when my colleague teacher was no longer attending my classes. There is one particular student in my year 9 (top) English class(who for sake of ease will be referred to by the alias Lisa) who was highly unmotivated and often did very little work in class. Lisa often slipped under the radar when her friends were in class as she would either copy their work or ‘work with them’. On this particular day, however, Lisa’s friends were absent from school leaving Lisa sitting at an empty table in the room (by choice).
The task for the lesson was for students to do some background research on their laptops about a poet and then to annotate a particular poem. This was the structure we had been following throughout the poetry unit so the work was not new or unfamiliar to Lisa. When asked to take out her equipment and begin the task, Lisa sat there and did not lift her head from the desk. I attempted to reason with Lisa the benefits of completing her work, and reminding her that he work book was being collected in a week or two and that the time she wasted in class would only mean more of her own time to complete the work. Despite my attempts to reason with Lisa, rather than getting angry at her, nothing worked. I told Lisa that due to completing no work for the hour long lesson, she would be staying at lunch time. When the time came and the bell rang, Lisa walked out of the classroom, ignoring myself calling her back to stay. The incident was reported to the Head Teacher at lunch (straight after the lesson) and Lisa was called to the staffroom to complete the work during her lunch time.
Critical Reflection
This experience relates to Element 2 of the Professional Teaching Elements -“Teachers know their students and how they learn.”
The prime issue during this experience was my inability to get Lisa to produce any work for the hour long lesson. I was aware that Lisa, in the time that I had known her in my English class, had always been unmotivated. It was clear that English was not an interesting subject for Lisa, despite my attempts to produce engaging lessons using ICT, cooperative learning activities, student direction, choice theory, and much more. I had failed to find a way that would engage Lisa in her English lesson. Perhaps, despite numerous attempts to address students’ different approaches to learning, the issue may have been that this work lacked significance for Lisa.
I think an achievement in the lesson would have been getting Lisa to produce some work, even if it wasn’t the quality, or quantity, expected. It was not unexpected that this student was lazy and unmotivated, however, this was the first lesson where she did not have her friends available as a scapegoat for not producing work.
Another issue, that was not student based, was my response to the situation. I gave up trying and put it into the too hard basket. After battling all term to get Lisa to do work, and with the resistance I was facing in the lesson, I gave up. I gave Lisa a lunch detention and left it at that for the rest of the lesson. This was a poor effort on my behalf.
Improvements
In terms of improving my practice for next time a similar situation arises, I would endeavor to be more persistent rather than giving up. I think that rather than trying to convince the student of the benefits or reasons they should do the work, I should ask them what would make the work more interesting for them, and why they may not be interested to find the root of the problem and attempt to rectify this.
Another improvement for next time could be more task differentiation. Perhaps considering the Blooms/MI matrix may have given the student more options to choose from to reach the same outcome. If the work was too hard, a scaffold or simplified version may have been beneficial in that situation. Alternatively if the task was just not even remotely interesting to the student, maybe if there were options that engaged wit different intelligences the student may have attempted to complete some work in the lesson.
Reflection #3
Description of Experience
Towards the end of my practicum my Year 9 English class, in particular, were becoming a little too comfortable with having me as a teacher and pushing the boundaries, knowing that perhaps those little things they were doing were not my biggest concern. Some students began to listen to music from their laptops, others started to eat things in class and some were playing games on their laptops if they finished early.
These little things were not, as I’m sure the students were aware, my biggest concerns. Stereotypically, as a new teacher I was predominantly focused upon content and answering the questions/providing assistance to those who needed/asked for help. It may therefore, be 2 or 5 or 10 minutes before I would pick up on these little things.
Critical Reflection
These seemingly minor things at the time, when built up create a bit more of a problem. When students get away with one little thing it may not be such an issue. However, if the same few students continually get away with little things, their attitude becomes a bit more lax. This appears to be what happened in this class.
Due to the fact that I had become relaxed in terms of letting these things slide, it became more difficult to maintain that relationship with students whereby I would ask them to do something and they would do it. Students began to try and reason their way out of things or compromise the situation to work in their favour. My relaxed attitude towards some things was picked up by students who later tried to get away with bigger issues that were then harder to manage due to the precedent already set.
Improvements
In the event that a situation comes up like this again, I now know that regardless of the severity of the breech of conduct, some action has to be taken. The reaction, of course, needs to be in proportion to the severity of the offence, however, the important thing to note is that a blind eye is not turned.
Perhaps a way to combat these things happening and in turn having to remind students of school policy, would be to come up with a class set of expectations at the beginning of the term/year. If the students come up with the expectations themselves, and maybe even sign a declaration that they will uphold these expectations, then thy would only have themselves to blame for any consequences they may face.
