Select 3 Things you have learned this quarter and describe how your thoughts changed, developed, or were reinforced by our course work. Be sure to connect to readings and/or class discussions.

This quarter I really started to think about logic and the psychology and the tactics that we use in the classroom. I have seen them of the strategies used frequently in the classroom, but it was nice learning the processes behind them. Out of all of the class days I think I learned, so much from the day we talked about rewards and how to deal with problems in the classroom. This day really made me think about how I’m incentivizing my students to behave, along with the negatives and positives of the method. In school these systems were often put into place and seemed like they were always part of the classroom and that that was the only way we can reward students for their behavior. Then I loved learning about the strategies that I could use to manage class behavior. During my lessons this quarter I feel like it was something that I had to constantly work on, because it is something that I’ve never had to do before besides just worrying about the content. Another important idea I got was the Lifeskills and doing mini lessons to go with books or short videos. I think this is a great to address problems rather than just providing students with another lecture they get to see a situation play out in a book. To me this seems better than just talking about what is going on directly in the classroom and provides context for the students to see how the problem can be solved.

    Identify one challenge/concern/question you still have about classroom management. Explain your thoughts about this issue.

For my I think my concern would finding the authority that I believe in and trying to build a classroom community that can thrive. When it comes to the first few years of teaching it can be difficult to find yourself and be firm in what you believe in because you are still trying to figure out. It can be hard when things don’t go as plan and students don’t react the way you want them to the temptation to resort to old easier methods seems nice, rather than sticking to what didn’t work. However, as teachers we need to reflect on why something might not have worked and the changes we could in the future to make it happen.