What Runs Your Classroom?

Last year when I completed my 40 hour practicum in Ed. 103, I think I approached it all wrong. I spent most of my time taking mental notes of how the teacher handles her class, and not so much on how she teaches. While I believe that there are strategies teachers can use to effectively teach AND manage the students, I think it is a common mistake to put classroom management before learning theory.

Now that I'm in 106 and taking a 20 hour practicum, part of me is relieved to be taking 107 at the same time, while the other part wishes I had taken it before doing any practicum.

I am finding it difficult to associate learning theory with how I'm seeing teachers teaching.

I am enjoying my practicum, and think the teacher I'm with is a great teacher, but when she has a rough time she handles the class by going up to the front and taking notes on the board. When I watch this, I don't see active mental engagement changing at all. The students who weren't paying attention or participating in the first place, still aren't participating. The students who were previously cooperating in groups or with partners are now losing the social interaction.

It also changes the lesson to a less than ideal process that is not concrete to abstract. When students first learn the notes and definitions, they may not have the experience to apply it to a situation. It messes up the scaffolding, and I don't think it helps students learn.

But the problem I see here is that things like this are easy to fall back on. When students aren't cooperating, or are being disruptive, and you're strapped for time and need to think fast, who wouldn't consider a tactic that forces the students to be silent and let you have control as the teacher?

The two teachers I've been assigned to for practicum this semester and last semester had different ways of managing the class, but what they had in common was that their methods were directly linked to their lesson plans. Whether there are ways that the two do not link, I'm not sure, but I think there are clear negative examples of the linkage.

Playing a video and giving students a worksheet to fill out while watching it? Yes. That is a good way to keep the class's volume down, but it is also a good way to put everyone to sleep and prevent true learning/understanding.

What do teachers think when they wake up every morning? I'm starting to think it's more "I hope my students behave today" when it should be "I hope my students learn today."

In a sense, I suppose Prof. Kruse considers classroom management when he decides how to teach. When the same people participate in class discussions, and other people remain quiet consistently, we start discussing in smaller groups at our tables. This is a strategy better associated with learning theory because it takes advantage of social, AME, and developmental aspects of learning.

To an extent, I think classroom management runs classrooms--and unfortunately has a negative impact on students' learning. Too often, teachers resort to negative tactics. Why aren't they putting their students before their patience?