Something I have been eager to practice during student teaching is classroom management. While techniques for classroom management can be taught, they need to be put into practice in the classroom in order for me to become well-rounded in managing my class while implementing a lesson at the same time. Now that I am finally in person, I have had the opportunity to observe my mentor teacher's style of classroom management as well as put it into practice for myself and grow in an area that I want to feel strong in.
While we have small class sizes due to COVID which lend themselves to better behavior and class engagement, there are always the students who struggle more than others to stay engaged. I have found that a blend of encouragement and flexibility with these students works best in getting them to focus in on their work and achieve their objectives. For example, recently we did a pumpkin drawing lesson with students where they used oil pastel to draw pumpkins guided by instruction and then they were allowed to watercolor a background of their choice. While most students were excited to watercolor, others did not like the fluid nature of the medium and found it frustrating. By being flexible and allowing these students to choose their medium they stayed engaged and completed their work. Others were quick to "finish" even though their backgrounds were still primarily blank. I found that by gently encouraging them to fill in all of the space that I got little to no resistance and they would continue to work until their art was done. This of course didn't always work, some students simply would not continue to work despite my encouragement. I found this is where flexibility and compromise were key. Forcing student to do their work doesn't help me or them or our student teacher relationship. To resolve this I offer students options. If they don't want to finish their pumpkin they can work on a free-draw or coloring page but this is within the understanding that the pumpkin assignment must be finished at some point.
In the past I would have struggled to have this flexibility with students. It can be difficult to stray away from the vision I have in my head as far as how I want a lesson to go. I have realized it's important to pick and choose your battles. I want to continue to apply this flexibility to my management and in the future I will envision this flexibility as a part of my lessons. By doing so I will continue to grow into an educator that can provide every single student with an experience that is valuable to them.
While we have small class sizes due to COVID which lend themselves to better behavior and class engagement, there are always the students who struggle more than others to stay engaged. I have found that a blend of encouragement and flexibility with these students works best in getting them to focus in on their work and achieve their objectives. For example, recently we did a pumpkin drawing lesson with students where they used oil pastel to draw pumpkins guided by instruction and then they were allowed to watercolor a background of their choice. While most students were excited to watercolor, others did not like the fluid nature of the medium and found it frustrating. By being flexible and allowing these students to choose their medium they stayed engaged and completed their work. Others were quick to "finish" even though their backgrounds were still primarily blank. I found that by gently encouraging them to fill in all of the space that I got little to no resistance and they would continue to work until their art was done. This of course didn't always work, some students simply would not continue to work despite my encouragement. I found this is where flexibility and compromise were key. Forcing student to do their work doesn't help me or them or our student teacher relationship. To resolve this I offer students options. If they don't want to finish their pumpkin they can work on a free-draw or coloring page but this is within the understanding that the pumpkin assignment must be finished at some point.
In the past I would have struggled to have this flexibility with students. It can be difficult to stray away from the vision I have in my head as far as how I want a lesson to go. I have realized it's important to pick and choose your battles. I want to continue to apply this flexibility to my management and in the future I will envision this flexibility as a part of my lessons. By doing so I will continue to grow into an educator that can provide every single student with an experience that is valuable to them.