Lesson+1+Post


 * Lesson 1 (6/21/2011)**
 * 1) Take a quiz that provides a way to assess a teacher's classroom management profile.
 * 2) Discuss what you have discovered about your style. Has this proven to be enlightening? Share your thoughts.
 * 3) What are the strengths and limitations of each style? How can you improve your teaching style without changing it?
 * 4) Pages 10 – 14 of the //**Professional Teachers Handbook**//suggest an inventory to get to know your students informally. Adapt this inventory for your classes and administer it. Post your revelations. Why is it important to get to know your students’ interests and abilities outside the classroom? Explain your thoughts about this exercise.
 * 5) What elements of your teaching style work well for high achieving students? Low achieving students? In what ways can you close the achievement gap by managing your teaching style?


 * My post**

After taking the quiz, I discovered that my classroom management style is authoritative. I scored 12 points in this category. My second highest points were a tie between the authoritarian style and laissez-faire style. I scored 4 points in the indifferent style. I feel that the description does describe my style of classroom management. I feel that I really need to have a relaxed classroom so that my students feel comfortable. If they aren’t comfortable, it will be really hard to get them to speak Spanish since they feel funny speaking Spanish anyway. I think that that is one the limitations of the authoritarian style - the students may never feel totally comfortable in the class, but the classroom is kept under control. On the other hand, perhaps with the laissez-faire style, the students are too comfortable and not a lot of learning happens in this classroom. The indifferent classroom management style, in my opinion would have many classroom management issues because of a lack of planning. Having many activities and a good lesson is one key to good classroom management. I know there are areas that I can improve on, for example, cell phones, chewing gum and eating in class. One area I feel that I have improved on is waiting for students not to talk while I’m talking. I will just stop teaching and wait if students are talking during “comprehensible input” time. It makes them feel uncomfortable if I just stand there waiting for their attention. For me, it is an effective classroom management tool. There are two things I have done in the past to get to know my students informally at the beginning of the term. I have the students complete an assignment called “Todo lo mío” all about me. In the booklet, the students answer questions about themselves. If I can get them graded in time, I will hang the booklets on the walls for Back to School night for the parents to see. Furthermore, since I require them to answer in complete sentences I can assess their writing and spelling. Problems with these skills tend to transfer to Spanish. The second way I get to know my students informally, is by giving them a questionnaire on the first or second day of class asking information about the students much like the questions in Xia's and Bettie's post. In addition, because Spanish is so student-centered (they learn to describe themselves, discuss likes/dislikes, describe friends and family, their school day, etc), I feel that the entire semester I’m getting to know my students informally. I often add this information into my teaching. Finally, I feel that it's not only important for me to get to know my students, but also the students to know the other students, so we will play a class "bingo" game where they have to ask the other students questions to get to know the other students in the class. Middle and low achieving students tend to do well in my class. However, while the high achievers do well, I really need to look for ways to push the high achievers. The high achievers are the ones that tend to get bored in my class. I get frustrated with them because while they have mastered what I’ve taught for a test or presentation, they aren’t challenging themselves to use what they’ve learned in speaking Spanish. To try to help this issue, I’m going to try having a separate grade for “charlemos” or chat time when we are exclusively using the target language. Hopefully this will encourage them to use more Spanish in the classroom.