This week Laura worked with me on classroom management. On Monday, I took the majority of the kids through the hallway to get milk. While this doesn't seem that hard, when you have a couple kids who don't stop talking and a couple who like to be in charge, things get difficult. I had to be the one to tell them to stop talking, have them switch places in line, and even walk next to me. I learned that even the simple tasks can be a lot of hard work. Starting on Tuesday, I was put in charge of group directives on the noise level. Every time it started to get loud, my job was to say, "1, 2, 3. Eyes on me." Wait for attention and say, "remember to use your one inch voices please." It was a hard job. One of the things that makes it hard is that it is somewhat awkward to be directing someone else's class. The other thing that made it hard was that the kids would listen and heed the reminder for about 30 seconds and then it would get loud again. I learned that you have to have the right mix of sweetness and strictness, but if it's still not working to not be afraid to be more strict. Another classroom skill I observed Mrs. James using, and talked with her about is stopping poor behavior immediately and asking the student to join you somewhere else to talk. This can be used with a student saying something that might not be best suited for the classroom as well as poor behavioral decisions. Not letting anything go to far is helpful to everyone on the room, and the one on one conversation allows the student to talk about what happened, sharing their side, and is not as embarrassing. The whole skill is as simple as saying, "can you join me at my desk," or "why don't you and I talk about that latter."
This was a hard week for me because I have a difficult time with being loud and using my voice especially to give directions, but it was also a helpful week because I got to work on those skills with the support of Mrs. James and Mrs. Cardillo. This week was also a lot of fun. Getting to see all the kids act in the Enchanted Egg was tons of fun.
