Friday, June 28, 2013

Chapter 4 Book Club Entry

Chapter 4: Charting Progress

Imagine next year is completed. Using the system described in Chapter 4, 
you've faithfully charted your own behavior, as an instructor and your students’ 
progress. Looking back, what did you learn?

Yay Yay Yay! I completed a WHOLE year of faithfully charting my own behavior as an instructor AND my students’ progress. Kudos on outstanding effort and growth! Looking back on a challenging but highly successful year, I have learned…

1. My primary goal in the classroom is not to “control” students. We use the term “manage” student behavior, but before I could be successful with managing others I had to learn to manage myself. By maintaining composure and consistently following my classroom management plan, I was able to make rational decisions all day about instruction AND how to handle each and every classroom behavior thrown my way.

2. By tracking my students’ individual behavior patterns, and analyzing classroom trends, I was able to see a correlation between my score as a teacher and their score as a citizen of our classroom. As my consistency increased, their misbehavior decreased, optimizing time on task and overall instructional time. Coach B has actually found the most precious gift any teacher can possibly have… more TIME!

3. Consequences, both positive and negative, are as natural in our world as Newton’s Laws of Motion, or Supply and Demand. “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” As I tracked my behaviors and compared with the students’ behaviors, I began to realize that the students were learning, from my calm, consistent adherence to the management plan, that for every action they make, there is a reaction. When smart choices are made, rewards are given. When poor choices are made, they are provided the opportunity to practice a more acceptable behavior. During these “practices” (of only about 2 minutes) I was given an opportunity as well - - the opportunity to prepare my thoughts and respectfully approach each situation rationally. I had enough time to remind myself of the 7 common teaching mistakes so that I could avoid them during this interaction and prepare my body language and tone to communicate that the consequences were not personal, just the reaction caused by the student’s actions.

4. Finally, and most importantly, I came to realize that “grow or die” applies to our students as well. Based on my behavior in the classroom and my consistency, passion, and preparation I am encouraging, inspiring, and ultimately leading growth in my students, OR sadly, contributing slowly to their academic death. Which would I rather do? Grow my students through example and instruction. Or, kill them with inconsistent, ineffective teaching and management techniques that breed chaos. It is a choice that I must make with each decision, every day. Although it is seemingly a very daunting task, it is one that WBT helped me accomplish!


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