After a long year of remote learning, it feels great to be back teaching in person and in an actual classroom again. However, many children are still getting used to this adjustment. In addition, some students have not had any experience in a physical classroom due to the pandemic. I am currently placed in a kindergarten classroom, where many of the students have never been in an actual classroom. My cooperating teacher takes pride in her classroom management strategies and she is still struggling to get some students to behave appropriately. Is anyone else seeing this issue in their placement classrooms? What are some of the classroom management strategies that you have seen being implemented in order to prevent inappropriate behavior? Help!!!!
I’m also in a Kindergarten classroom this semester and my first day was on Friday. Before I started, my cooperating teacher had texted me giving me a heads up about the current state of her classroom. Many of the students in the class have never been to preschool or school in general so this is their first time in a classroom. This made me nervous because I was used to working with children who have prior knowledge of being in a classroom. When I was there on Friday I really got to see what my cooperating teacher was talking about. Simple tasks can often take more time than they need to. For example, when the students start their day they need to take out their red folder, put away any snacks/lunch boxes, put their name on the calendar, and put their backpacks away. The teacher has to do a lot of prompting and guiding the students because if not they will just sit at their desks. She makes sure to call the students by their groups. I think this helps keep them organized so that they are not all going to one place at once. If she doesn’t do any of these things a ten minute morning routine could turn into twenty minutes. In addition, I noticed that there are a handful of students in that class who need to have things constantly repeated to them. The teacher seats these students at the front where they can be close to her. Another thing that I noticed my cooperating teacher do is that she always makes sure to keep something in front of the students. They always need to be doing something playing with clay, letter tracing, puzzle, or art activity. She knows that if they don't have something to do that's when the inappropriate behaviors come out. I’m also noticing that since some students haven’t been in a classroom before that they aren’t understanding certain cues in the classroom. For example, when the teacher asks a question, students raise their hand to answer her but a lot of them just raise their hand and have nothing to say. Eventually, they will get the hang of it. While it is looking really bumpy right now and stressful, my cooperating teacher is hopeful that by November the students will be adapted to this new environment.
ReplyDeleteDeanna Issa-
ReplyDeleteI have been placed in a 5th grade classroom for my clinical practice. Although I do not have a younger age group, I do notice slight behavior issues with my class such as calling out, and talking over the teacher. I have been with my cooperating teacher for about over a week and since the students are at a higher grade level, the teacher tends to talk to them as a group if their behavior is out of line. For example, last Friday, the principal had to come into the classroom and explain to the teacher that her class was extremely loud in the hallways while dismissing the students to their classrooms. Stern yet calm, my cooperating teacher talked to them and explained how they should be expected to behave in the hallway and that they are setting the example for the other younger students. What I would recommend for behavior strategies for younger students is talk about rewarding students (sticker chart, token economy etc.) and at the end of the week, the teacher could bring in supplies (pencils, erasers, toys etc.) to give out to the students to show that their good behavior is being recognized. I believe the younger students will love this idea and eventually learn to behave correctly in a classroom setting. Good luck with the rest of your clinical!
I am also in a kindergarten classroom this year. The first day I was there was pretty chaotic because they had only been at school for a week and they had moved from a large classroom to a small classroom. Also, there SmartBoard has not yet been delivered. Regardless of this, the second time I observed was much smoother. I have not yet seen a specific behavior management strategy for the class, though I have only been there twice so far. They are pretty well-behaved all things considered and are even quiet in the hallway due to the poem the teacher reads aloud and the student's echo. So far, even on a Friday, the students are not too rambunctious. They are always doing something during the day, so there is no time for students to get rowdy or distracted. My teacher also compliments the students who are behaving the way she wants, which is a positive way to draw attention to what she wants to see, rather than punishing what she doesn't want to see. So far, so good!
ReplyDeleteEleanor McAloon
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