Goals and Progress

When it comes to classroom management, I have the most valuable thing a teacher can have: experience.  Although I have only been building this experience for my two years teaching, I have learned a tremendous amount about my students, my school, and my community.  I believe that all schools are uniquely their own and come with their own set of quirks and idiosyncrasies.  Learning as much as you can and getting involved in school groups and events can give you such valuable information.  Getting more involved has also built up another important facet of being a teacher, respect.  Respect and trust has been one of the most important elements to my success at my particular school, I believe.  By taking the time to consistently show up for students, they will not just HEAR about how much I care for them, but they will see and feel it.  If I am completely honest, this has been the biggest proponent of my classroom management.  I have had no success with traditional methods of discipline or any other form of negative consequences like giving detention or kicking students out of class.  That it not so say that students will not be held accountable for their actions, but I have learned the most effective way to do it for my kids in particular.  This is not something that any teacher can learn in a book and it is definitely not a one-size-fits-all concept.  What works for one school may not work for mine, and visa versa.  When it comes to cultural differences, the most effective thing I have done is to just get involved.  Ask the students questions, let them talk to me about their interests and their lives, let them show passion for their hobbies, and really listen and soak it in.   If I notice a student is particularly interested in a certain sports team or player, I’ll do my own homework and check up on whatever it was so I can make a conversation another day, even if I am not interested in it myself.  The brightness and happiness that results when a student is SEEING that you care about them is infections and drives me to do better at work every day.  There is always more I can do and learn and I don’t plan to let that type of learning slow down.

One of the goals that I mentioned was helping my students to not only be successful in their own classes, but to expand their success across the board in their other classes and activities.  I have made some steps to this by having fun little incentives for students who showed improvement from their quarter one to two grades, or for those that are achieving at a high level in other classes beyond mine.  I have been casually mentoring a fairly large group of kids on student & study skills that they can use across the board.  I frequently check up on and support my students’ progress in their other classes.  For example, I set aside some bits of extra class time for the students to work on and ask for help with a cumulative English project that was coming due.  I want to continue to do more to help support my students beyond just my class period each day.  I can see some early benefits of this and I want to continue to make more progress of my own in this area.