In the article, "It's People, Not Programs", the two teachers, Mrs Smith and Mrs Jones, taught their classes in an old beaten down gym. Because they knew how to use the environment they were given to the best of their ability, the students did not even notice that their class was being held in an old gym. The main reason why this type of an open classroom can work is because of the teachers' experience with classroom management. A good teacher must know how to handle students in certain situations.
While I observe I notice that the worst thing to do to get your students to be quiet when they are getting too loud, is to say, "Shh!" twenty million times. This simply does not work and the students will just ignore it. A couple of ways to get students to simmer down is to have a signal such as putting your hand up in the air, giving a stern look and remaining silent, or shutting the lights. Writing students names on the board is not going to get them to stop misbehaving, it simply is going to make them disrespect the teacher, as seen in Mr. Lewis' classroom.
Another reason why these teachers succeed in such a lacking environment is because they know how to constantly get the kids motivated by doing creative projects instead of having them remain in six rows of five. Kids need to move and they need to keep their minds moving as well as their bodies.This is why lecture does not work as seen also in the article.
As soon as I read the part about teachers succeeding in a difficult environment, I thought about all those schools in need which are being under funded. These schools need these excellent teachers, but since maybe they can’t pay as well or have a bad reputation, the “good” teachers are being scooped up by the “better” schools. This just keeps the cycle going. How can we get those teachers who make their environment work for them into these schools? Is there anyway to make teachers “better” in order to pickup the slack?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Dina that shh does not work. Shh is simply a delay, the students will continue to talk after a few moments. Great teachers can teach almost anywhere. Like you stated the key is motivation. Without being motivated the students aren't going to care about what they are learning.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. I would hate to have my name written on my board if I was misbehaving as a student. I would definitely get embarrassed and never really feel interested to learn in the classroom anymore. Like you mentioned, I think turning the lights off is a good way to signal that the noise level in the classroom is too high. I actually observed this a high school classroom and thought at first it was something to do in an elementary school but it actually works with older students too. The best thing to do is get students to honor your discipline codes in the beginning so they know what you want and what would happen if you went astray from those rules.
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