When I accepted a job teaching middle school and high school kids, I was nervous about pacing (having only taught college at that point); I was nervous about not having the safety net of a textbook at this CI-only school; but mostly, I was nervous about classroom management. The pacing I am still getting the hang of (sometimes, I still find that I need to slow down a little), but mostly I just expect my students to perform to higher level, which most of them do. And, the lack of textbook, while initially scary, has been one of the most freeing parts about the job.
As for classroom management, I am still learning. I remember my own eighth grade class torturing a new teacher to the point he left education after his first year. I was determined not to let that happen to me. In my first year, I was rigid in routines and procedures. I had scoured pinterest in search of the perfect rules that would make my classroom run like clockwork. There were procedures for just about every daily activity in class. As we moved through the year, I learned to lighten up a bit on the rules and procedures and found what worked best for me and my students. (I still use callbacks for quieting the class and getting attention; the kids know my expectations for when they enter the classroom and for all of our different CI activities; and my only rule is RESPECT which covers just about everything). I am not a disciplinarian. I lead my class in a relaxed and even way. Kids know what is expected of them, and for the most part, they behave well. I have found that the most important part of classroom management is developing a safe environment for all of my students. I work hard at getting to know each and every one of the kids in my class. I greet them each day at the door; I ask them how they are doing; I keep up-to-date on their activities and what they love and hate. I also share my life with them--they know what I did last weekend, and they know about my family. I think relationships are the key to classroom management, and CI allows me to learn about my kids while staying on topic (PQA for the win). All of my students know I care about them, and it leads them to do and be better in class. This is not to say that I do not have my challenges. I have students push boundaries. The difficult students are the ones I try to identify from day 1. These are the students I work the hardest at building relationships. I also try to find the reason behind their misbehavior, because usually these kids are not acting up with no reason. This year's class has been one of my most difficult. The first few weeks, I had to set rigid boundaries while learning about my students. It took well into October before I started to feel like I had won over most of the kids in the class. It's still a work in progress, but I do believe that this method of teaching leads to positive relationships with students which in turn leads to more easily managed classes.
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