Was your lesson plan effective for managing the class? Yes, both my lesson plans were effective for managing the class. The students were very well behaved, and they were kept busy doing tasks. They were not disruptive in any way, and complied with everything. However, there was one student who was distracted and was falling behind with the work. So I went over to him to help him out, and gave him extra assistance. Did anything unexpected happen? Nothing major unexpected happened during both lessons. The only minor thing that I recall happening was a student rocking up quite late to class. I went over to him to give him a quick overview of what was happening, and gave him all the worksheets needed. One of his classmates was really helpful and also helped him to catch up, and this is something that I commended her for. Did you provide a variety of activities? I did provide a variety of activities for the students to undertake. I made sure that these were interesting and appealing. I included images in my presentation for my first lesson, and this did catch the attention of the students. I also made sure that the worksheets I created were not full of the same questions, but contained a variety of different types of questions/tasks to challenge and intrigue the students. Were you satisfied with your timing, particularly for the end of the lesson? I was satisfied with the timings for my lessons. The first lesson finished with a minute or two remaining, so I was very pleased with that. However, the second lesson went about ten minutes overtime. The mentor teacher and the students were fine with this, and it was important that I didnt cut the lesson short. Otherwise, this may have negatively impacted on the learning process. Did you feel you were able to change things if needed? Yes, I did. Though it turned out that I didnt really have to change anything. I would put this down to my detailed lesson planning.
Was your organisation of materials and resources efficient and effective? Yes, my organisation of materials and resources was both efficient and effective. I obtained everything I needed a few days before my lessons, so I was well prepared. I even did all the photocopying I needed to do Secondary Placement well in advance, to save time and stress (that is if anything went wrong). I also asked about the facilities I would be provided with in the classroom for my lessons, so I knew what I had to work with. For instance, in the maths classroom there was no computer or projector so I had to make use of the whiteboards and worksheets solely. Did you plan how and when you would distribute and collect materials? Yes, I did. This has been noted down in both lesson plans. I distributed and collected the materials in a particular way in order to minimise disruptive classroom behaviour. Were you aware of classroom procedures and school disciplinary policy? How much did you know about your students? Yes, I was aware of the classroom procedures and the schools disciplinary policy through my mentor teacher and the handbook that I was given to by the school at the beginning of my prac. I had a few days to familiarise myself with these procedures and policies, before my class lessons. I didnt really know that much about my students, since I only had one 1-hour observation lesson a couple of days before my lesson. However, I did get a little insight into my students via my mentor teacher.
Maintaining a Positive Attitude in the Classroom
How did you demonstrate to the students that you valued them, and enjoyed learning? To demonstrate to the students that I valued them, I listened to them, sympathised with them, and showed that I cared about them. In order to do the latter, I got to know them, and helped them with things that they didnt understand. Just having a down-to-earth conversation with a student, I believe, shows that I value and appreciate them. So this is what I did, along with having a listening ear. Which aspects of your teaching style do you feel helped maintain class attention? The aspects of my teaching that I feel as though that has helped maintain class attention is that of using a variety of activities, which are simulating and interesting for the students. This then should allow for the learning process to take place. I also feel that altering the pitch and tone of my voice has helped maintain class attention, since using a monotone voice could easily bore someone to death. I also believe that my young age has played a role in this, since I can relate to the students and vice versa, and Secondary Placement this allows for a positive relationship to form. Therefore, the students are likely to pay attention due to this positive relationship. Did the students know what was expected of them? Yes, the students knew what was expected of them. During the lesson, I explained and showed the class what they were required to do. After this, if any students were still unsure as to what they had to do, I would kindly explain and show them again one on one. Were you able to redirect energies of attention seeking students? Did the students have enough to do? There was no need to redirect the energies of attention seeking students, since there were no students whom were actually attention seeking.
Yes, the students did have enough to do. In fact the students in the maths lesson didnt complete every question in the worksheets, so this was made as homework.
Dealing with Minor Misbehaviour
Were you aware of what was happening in all parts of the classroom? Did you know what each student was doing? I was aware of what was happening in all parts of the classroom most of the time, due to the small class numbers. However, when my back was turned to the class or any students, it was really difficult to be aware of what they were doing. So when I was walking from desk to desk, I took a mental note of what each student was doing. Then after a period of time, I would go around again and see if the students have progressed any further. Did you take action when you observed poor behaviour? Why? Why not? Yes, I did take action when I observed poor behaviour. Though, there was very little poor behaviour observed. So when I did observe poor behaviour, I would say something along the lines of: I dont like what you are doing! What should you be doing? If the poor behaviour continued, I would take action. Such action includes moving the student to another desk or even giving them rubbish duty. If these actions didnt work, I could have (but didnt) sent the student to another class. Did you use non-verbal cues? Yes, I made use of non-verbal cues quite heavily. These cues include eye contact, Secondary Placement pause, proxemics, and gestures. Though, these non-verbal cues must be reflected by the associated verbal cues. Therefore, in the case of poor behaviour, when using these cues, the student should start to realise that their current behaviour is not appropriate, and this may move them to correct the behaviour themselves.
Overall Comments Classroom management must be thought of when planning for a lesson, since the behaviour of the students can make or break a lesson In my prac, the students were relatively well behaved and they did respect my presence in their classroom Developing positive teacher-student relationships is important one way of doing this is by getting to know the students well Some students have individually tailored behaviour management plans, which all teachers must be familiar with