When observing I had the convince of working with two teachers on the same grade level, but the female teacher had been working for the same school for twelve years and the second a male who was on his first year of teaching. Having the chance to observe both I was able to compare and contrast their method in classroom arrangement and classroom organization.
Ms. Ambriz has been working for the same school for about twelve years, she sees herself as a strict teacher with strong teacher leadership. At the time she had three rows with two paired desks where the student are can work with each other or by themselves. She like to able to walk around the room and to and that is the best way to do it. When testing she rearranges them into rows of individual desk, she also added the students know they will be testing due to the arrangement and immediately begin to whine about the fact they will be taking a test. She doesn’t like group work when she feels that kids deserve it, she puts them in groups of no more than four. She informed me that the Dallas school district loves to see classrooms arranged in group so the kids can have discussion but she hate it, she know her students don’t have subject related conversations and would rather not have them in group year round just on the rare occasion she lets them work in groups. She finds that with the current arrangement she feels more comfortable and so do the students, students can get have a partner but only when the lesson calls for it. Considering she has been teaching or twelve years, her wall were not as impressive as one might think, she had a bulletin board with school wide information, a poster with rules and consequence and equations that were hand written by her on large paper at ...
... middle of paper ...
... aisle to assist every individual student’s need, she had room to pace around a student isn’t paying attention and the students were sitting in pairs but doing their own work. Mr. Bravo was the center of the room and attention but students were still welcome to add their question and interact with hi if need to. Both teachers created the classroom atmosphere they wanted and what see to work with them and they way they want to teach to their students. Classroom arrangement will vary in many different ways depending on the type of teacher you think you want to become and the way you want your students to interact with each other or the teacher. The arrangement of a classroom can be welcoming for student involvement or deny it, let the teacher help students as a whole or in smaller groups, and even let the students know of the day’s activities without saying a word.
As a teacher in training, I have very limited in-classroom experience and depend heavily on the expertise of professors as well as a variety of books and articles published on education. I am convinced that a learner centered approach to instruction is of fundamental importance and that it will inform most teaching decisions I will need to make to become an effective educator. Knowing as much about the students before school even begins will help structure the content material and guide the instruction methods. Along with this, knowing what the school provides in terms of environment and materials will help formulate a plan to give students every possible opportunity for achievement and success. Wong (2005) defines classroom management as “all of the things that a teacher does to organize students, space, time and materials so that student learning can take place” (p. 84).
In my twelve years of teaching experience, one thing that most of my colleagues have struggled with at some point in their career has been classroom management. Classroom management is one many keys to instructional success. Unfortunately, many have left the teaching field due to lack of knowledge of classroom management best practices.
As part of the module practical teaching programme, I have been helping out in the homework club of an inner city primary school, one hour per week for the past twelve weeks. All in all I think I it was a very interesting experience and very beneficial in terms of my learning as a teacher. I had a number of valuable experiences and below are two of the most important in my opinion.
Classrooms of today are full of students with varying learning abilities and styles, therefore teachers are put in a position to involve each of their students equally so that everyone has the greatest chance of success in their learning. There are many different ways teachers are able to set up the learning environment in order to maximise teaching and learning and cater for the diverse needs of their students. I will attempt to discuss in detail some of these strategies and unpack the potential advantages and difficulties that follow.
According to Sapona and Winterman (2002) teachers implementing this model in their classroom include six comp...
Interestingly something as simple as seating or the placement of classroom material can affect the management of the classroom (Snowman & McCown, 2013). This brings up the third question- How are the physical features of the classroom positioned? Areas that will be used by multiple students at a time are considered high-traffic areas. These areas should be spacious enough to keep students from being bunched in a small area. High-traffic areas include the teacher’s desk and pencil sharpener (Snowman & McCown, 2013). Also, visibility should be optimal. The teachers should be able to clearly see the students and the students should be able to see any and all instructional presentations and displays presented. (Snowman & McCown, 2013). This will ensure that the teacher is able to intervene on any behavior that is not acceptable and will ensure that the students are able to see all important material needed for their learning. To ensure the class and instruction time runs smoothly, teaching material and student supplies should be available when needed and accessible (Snowman & McCown, 2013). Lastly, as Snowman and McCown (2013) advise, “the arrangement of the seating, materials, and equipment should be consistent with the kinds of instructional activities the teacher favors” (p.
Research findings regarding classroom managements have been applied in three domains in educational psychology: in-service and pre-service teacher preparation programs, teacher assessment and evaluation, and teacher’s pedagogical knowledge (Emmer & Stough, 2001).
For teachers to be effective their classrooms should be open, encouraging and safe environments, where a strong student-teacher relationship can be achieved (Marsh, 2008). Students should be treated with respect in order to meet their need for belonging (Eggen&Kauchak, 2010). The layout of the room and resources need to be well considered allowing different areas for different activities (Bennett &Smilanich, P. 1994) keeping in mind space for easy movement and creative work. Seating arrangements, noise level and room temperature all need to be taken into account when planning the classroom to maximise productive lea...
There are slow learners as well as a mixture of fast learners in every classroom. These should be taken into consider and activities should be planned accordingly so that slow learners will not left behind and fast learners will not be bored. There are students with learning difficulties which will affect the teaching learning process. These should be taken into consider and teachers need to avoid things happening which as an effect in the teaching learning process. Behavior such as disruptive and destructive shows similar characteristics. These behaviors need to be discussed with the parents and necessary actions need to be taken to create a good atmosphere in the class. Also teachers will be able to identify different cognitive levels and learning styles. Some students learn through audio, some need to see visually while some of them learn by writing. So as teachers we need to have all these learning styles in a lesson to fulfill each individual. Planning should be done accurately which helps in the teaching learning process. Teachers play a great role in handling different children in the classroom. To build up an effective teaching process, these facts need to be taken into consideration. Teachers could think of different ways that they can implement in the classroom in the process of teaching and learning. Group method is one of the main teaching
My teaching career has been spent learning how to provide appropriate support, guidance, patience, & understanding, as well as to enhance academic growth & success, for all students. My purpose as a teacher is to enrich and inspire the lives of young students with moderate/intensive needs by providing access to information instead of functioning as the primary source of information for students to flourish. My teaching methods will be to create an environment ripe with opportunities for discovery and exploration which will allow all students to learn at their own pace, generate questions and construct knowledge, while providing hands-on practice of skills in authentic situations as well as to make learning intriguing and meaningful to all students. Carefully planned and constructed learning environment will also allow the teacher more time to meet the individual needs of each student. Another important factor to a well-prepared learning environment is to facilitate learning, and providing students with balance and consistency (2004). Young students require a balance between various classroom dimensions, including activities guided by the teacher and independent work, quiet work and active work, gross motor and fine motor activities, and open and closed aspects to the curriculum and classroom materials (2004). Consistency is also a required condition for learner success. Schedules (daily and weekly), the enforcement of classroom rules, and student expectations should not be in flux but remain consistent. Without a sense of consistency in the classroom, school life would lack the necessary feeling of safety and reliability young children need to focus, to take risks, and to t...
The classroom embodied the stereotypical music classroom with its various instruments scattered around the room. Every inch of the wall and door was covered with music notes while chairs encircled the room. Besides the teacher’s desk, there were no other desks in sight. The students had to sit on the ground in the center of the room away from the instruments. Even when playing instruments, the students sat on the ground. Although the setup was very different from a general classroom, it was appropriate for the kinds of lessons that the teacher taught the students. The teacher did not hand out any worksheets or assigned homework so the students did not need any desks for writing. Since the classroom was already small and cramped, having desks in the class would have impeded on the activities that the students performed.
Over the course of observations, I learned that there is no one way to do anything in teaching. After a few weeks of observing, I was relieved because I thought that I could stop worrying so much about doing the “right” thing with the students. I saw a successful teacher doing, or neglecting to do things that went against what I had been taught. I incorrectly assumed that the choices the teacher made about how to organize the day, approach a lesson, or manage the classroom were mostly a matter of personal preference and that several approaches would produce equally desirable results.
The school that I visited was new. It was the first year of the school opening. The school board had combined two schools into one, so the students had to adjust to their new environments and new individuals. They seemed to be getting along well with each other. Since the school is new the teacher has to adjust to new problems that araise. Times for the subjects and times for using the computer labs change. So the teacher must always be fixable for anything. In this observation of this classroom I learned about the enjoyment of teaching. How you have to adapt to each of the students.
During the first day of school, a variety of different students enter the classroom. These students are excited and nervous, they have their parents by their sides who are observing the classroom walls and arrangement. From the minute the students enter the classroom, students are observing the classroom environment and notice the everything. Everything in the classroom needs to have a purpose, but provide a pleasant environment. When preparing and organizing the classrooms, teachers need to consider the different variables that impact the classroom. Classrooms can be disorganized if the walls are cluttered and have no meaning The organizations of the desks, the wall decorations, and the seating arrangements significantly impact the physical environments. Students are like sponges, they soak up everything that surrounds them. In the article A comparison of actual and preferred classroom environments as perceived by middle school students in the Journal of School Health stated “studies have shown that classroom environments are closely related to a number of aspects of student
The one belief I had about teaching that has changed since I began this unit, is that all teachers, more or less, taught in the same way. Perhaps this is a belief that I had formed from my own time at school, where all my teachers taught in the same way; some were more or less effective, but I wasn’t aware of them using theories or methods as such, more that they were or weren’t kind people. This belief has changed and it has really opened my ideas to the many creative models, and instructional methods a teacher can use.