With Classroom management strategies fresh in my mind I went off bushy tailed to a year 6 substitute teaching day. This became a unique experience to test out different theories as I was teaching three different year 6 classes with many different personalities and completely different classroom teachers.
My first class (my previous prac class) were well behaved on the whole. There was one student who refuses to do any work he doesn't feel he will enjoy and is generally disruptive in class. I began by ignoring him during the teaching experience. I started by calling out his name, just letting him know that I knew what he was doing and this was followed by him moving to the back of the classroom and lying on his back/throwing a ball in the air. The other students were very well behaved as they were completely ignoring him. As this student was not disrupting any one I was happy to leave him where he was and call him up to the front once all the work had begun. This worked quite well as the rest of the class was into the lesson and beginning work.
My first class (my previous prac class) were well behaved on the whole. There was one student who refuses to do any work he doesn't feel he will enjoy and is generally disruptive in class. I began by ignoring him during the teaching experience. I started by calling out his name, just letting him know that I knew what he was doing and this was followed by him moving to the back of the classroom and lying on his back/throwing a ball in the air. The other students were very well behaved as they were completely ignoring him. As this student was not disrupting any one I was happy to leave him where he was and call him up to the front once all the work had begun. This worked quite well as the rest of the class was into the lesson and beginning work.
Thinking about what worked in this lesson, I noticed that I continually negotiated with the students. "If you are able to work quietly for the next 20 minutes we can go out and do 10 minutes of sport at the end of the session". Or, "Just complete two more questions and then you will be done". It is really interesting how I have to provide the motivation for the students and they are unable to or I do not give them an opportunity to develop their own self-motivation.
In the other classes, I noticed similar trends, lots of negotiation. I was however very quick to stamp out negative off-task behaviours when they occurred. Making sure students were doing what they were meant to be doing and that the work that was meant to be completed was finished in a suitable time.
So what does this mean for next year? Well it contributes to the idea that a balanced approach is required in the classroom. Students need to be set boundaries but they are there to learn. They will learn most productively if they enjoy what they are doing and that will require different sort of activities which test what they know and to the limit of their abilities.
I love it!