While I love how well the students can stay on-task, part of me thinks that there is something missing from the classroom. There seems to be a lack of energy and enjoyment in the classroom, and I'm wondering if that is due to the kids being so well trained. I'm not sure if this is really that big of a deal since the kids are learning and are relatively engaged with the material. I just wonder if getting the students to really buckle down and focus comes at the price of losing some of that 8-year old excitement and energy. It feels as if there is a slight lack of community and that the class is solely meant to be as a place where you sit and learn. Perhaps there is just more play in the earlier primary grades and that's what I miss seeing. Even though this class never ceases to amaze me by how well third graders can behave, I find myself longing to be back in my first grade class where there is a little more energy and chaos for me to feed off of.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Enjoyment vs. Productivity
My dyad placement has been an interesting experience thus far. The students in my class are wonderful, and I'm certain their good behavior is a result from my cooperating teacher's classroom management methods and her personality. The kids are very self-sufficient and are almost always on task. Rarely does the teacher ever need to raise her voice and keep the class in check. It seems as soon as the kids are away from the teacher, they transform from quiet, focused third graders into your typical energetic 8 and 9-year olds.
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Great topic! I sometimes feel the same about my main placement classroom. My cooperative teacher is really firm, she expects(and is really good at getting what she expects)students to be completely quiet while they work on their individual assignments or anytime she teaches. On one hand I admire her work,but on the other I wonder if these expectations are not a little too much for first grade children. I have been in front of the classroom a few times and the students have not been as quiet with me as they are with her. Still, they were working and the level of noise in the classroom was one that I find acceptable and that I could tolerate and work with. I started asking myself how much I have to emulate my cooperative teacher's habits. It is her classroom, after all, and I cannot make my own rules. The children need stability and a clear set of rules and expectations. If her expectations are what they are I will have to comply, but it is hard sometimes, because part of me wants to give the students more freedom to express themselves and just be children. And then there are other questions: if I give them more freedom how will I know when it is too much? My cooperative teacher told me several times that if we are not strict and we do not reinforce the rules now it will be much more difficult to do it in a few months, during the spring or summer. So it might be a better idea to trust her experience and follow her advice. I guess I will get the chance to experiment and to see what works best when I will have my own classroom.
ReplyDeleteI understand where you are coming from. I have experienced a similar situation in my dyad placement as well. While establishing an environment where students understand the need for personal responsibility, being diligent about their work, staying on task, etc., is important, I feel that we should always feel our student's joy and enthusiasm. I mean, these are eight and nine year old children, afterall! Perhaps the students in your dyad placement would benefit from a designated time for some fun community building activities or a bit more freedom in the classroom. It's hard being unable to implement ideas we have when we want to, but at least we can use these opportunities to think about how we hope to structure our own classroom environments in the future.
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