The opportunity to visit a variety of classrooms served as a scale I can use to find my balance in the classroom. For almost every classroom decision a teacher makes, there is a broad range of options from which to choose, especially when it comes to expectations of student behavior. This is an area I am still vague about. I know my methods will be influenced by my school, the district, the principal, my co-workers and the student population, but I also need to establish my own course to follow because my students will look to me for cues.
One of the first ideas that came up in my course work at UWB is that learning is noisy. I liked this quote "A silent classroom is not necessarily one where learning is taking place." Not sure who said it but I agree. My CT certainly does not have a silent 5th grade classroom, but she does have times where she expects no noise from students. One of those is when they are seated on the rug and she's giving a mini-lesson. As the lesson progresses, so do the opportunities for students to contribute. When the lesson is over, the transition back to their seats is expected to be done QCQ - quickly, calmly, quietly. If not, "FREEZE! Come back, Let's try that again."
My CT does not use a microphone so it was interesting to observe a first grade classroom where the teacher used a mike. Despite the magnification of her voice, students still talked out of turn. She did not choose to correct behavior every time but she did send out reminders that when she's talking they're listening or when one of them is talking, everyone else is quiet. If she stopped every time someone blurted or wiggled or whispered, she'd be stopped all the time because the energy these kids are trying to harness is turned up to high. I liked the way she used a quiet voice and didn't raise her voice above conversational volume.
The teacher I worked with for science class in Lake Washington School District had a very soft voice and used the microphone in fun ways. When students were working and she wanted their attention, she would say quietly and in a sing-song manner, "Oh, Students?", and they would reply "Oh, Yes?". She also used the student mike which sparked interest in participating and made it so even the quietest student could be heard.
As I take on more responsibilities at my main placement, I'm finding that by the end of the day, my throat burns. The students test my limits and I say "FREEZE" more than I'd like. I want to use the microphones during my weeks as teacher because I think it "clicks" that the teacher is talking in a more obvious way and prevents him/her from being drowned up by the ebb and flow of student wiggling.
Another issue I ponder is the use of the rug for mini-lessons. Yes, it's great to have students at your feet with their eyes looking upward at you, engaged in the lesson. The problem comes when students aren't as little as they used to be, nor as comfortable with their legs crossed as they used to be. It's difficult for me to sit cross-legged for 20 minutes so I can relate to their wiggling as the lesson gets longer.
On the other hand, I've experimented with letting them remain at their desks to hear the lesson but there are many distractions available to them. I hope to be able to work with the classroom set-up and seating arrangement to allow students to easily move their chairs into "auditorium rows" for mini-lessons without the risk of hitting people on the head with chairs or taking away from learning time. I might also try out "Girls on the rug, Boys in chairs", taking care to switch off, or "Front row, criss-cross, back rows legs tucked under", letting students decide which method is more comfortable for them.
If I expect to keep my students' attention, I know I've got to have expecations in place for when they are to be quiet and when noise is expected. There's got to be some of both. I think it's important to consider my students' needs so that they will see I'm wanting them to have as much success as possible and there's more than one way to get there.
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