Wow. The past month has put me under more stress than anything I have ever done before. I was consistently subbing in a first grade classroom with 22 students, in a huge classroom. I thought 22 students would be easy considering I dealt with 32 at one time during my internship, but when you have multiple defiant students, students with anger issues, students that refuse to do work, and more tattling and bullying than I've ever seen in my entire life, it makes things a lot more difficult. I am not writing this blog to bash other teachers and their styles. I did learn a lot from being in this classroom though, some things that were positive and some negative.
First off, I learned how important it is for students to learn routines and expectations. The classroom seemed really disorganized and chaotic because students did not know what they were supposed to do most of the time. There were two doors in the classroom and if I asked students to line up for a special some would walk to one door and some would walk to the other, showing me that they did not know the routine for lining up. Simple routines, such as going to the bathroom, lining up, packing up for the day, entering the classroom, walking in the hallway etc. need to be taught, especially at such a young grade, so that students know what the expectations are at all times.
This classroom also reminded me how much I dislike centers, especially when you have no extra hands to help. Very rarely did I have a parent come in and help with centers in the morning, but when I did the extra set of hands were very helpful. But most of the time I was on my own and had to create back up plans on the fly, which I have become really good and thinking on my feet and changing the direction of a lesson based on the student's response/reaction. When I was on my own I could barely focus on my reading group because it was so loud, students would come to me and interrupt, or students were fighting/not getting along. Students looked at centers as a time to goof off, play games or sit around and talk to friends instead if practicing their reading, phonics and writing. When you do centers by yourself students are not working at their best, they try to get away with doing what they want, or they see it as a social time and not a working time. Centers are only beneficial when most of the groups have an adult keeping them on task or if students know what the expectations are during centers.
One thing we did during my internship year that was good for behavior management was the fact that the behavior of each student was recorded on their behavior chart and needed to be signed by the parent EACH NIGHT, along with doing their homework. In the situation I was in the only time the parents knew the behavior of their child was if I sent a note home at the end of the day or if I talked to the parent directly. It was very unorganized and very difficult to get to each of the parents and the notes were supposed to be signed and brought back to school, but they never were. Parents seemed to have no clue the procedure for students with bad behavior, so not only does classroom management need to be explained to the students, but also the parents. Plus there was no consequences for students and their behavior. they did not have to tell their parents what 'color' they were on and they did not make the connection between the fact that when they are well behaved they earn pennies to be used to shop at the class store. It was all done very secretively. Students did not physically put their pennies in their containers and when they shopped they didn't understand why their friend had a lot more pennies than them. It goes back to having set expectations POSTED in the classroom for the students to see and to be referred to when needed. (Classroom rules were not visible to the students).
There are so many more things that I did not agree with in the classroom and things I took away that I do not want to include in my classroom, but I will keep the rest to myself. So all in all it was a very stressful position, but I know in my future classroom the importance of having a classroom management plan, having set expectations visible in the classroom and to teach routines for EVERYTHING you do in the classroom so students know what to do at all times.
