This week was very interesting in terms of behavior issues. Monday the class' focus and ability to complete any academic work went into a tailspin. Thinking back on Monday's event, the catalyst to the lack of focus and numerous behavior issues was one student who is on IEP for behavior issues and ADD who was having a bad day and on an individual tailspin. This was not the first time the class as a whole has had a bad day full of behavior issues, but it was the first day my MT witnessed the class behave this way. It was interesting to me to see how my MT handled the class and attempted to refocus them on learning. Most management strategies my MT attempted were unsuccessful on this particular day.
My MT and I reflected during our afternoon prep time about how the morning went, how we both responded to the students' outbursts, and what we could potentially try to do to help the afternoon run more smoothly. I feel as though being able to witness a veteran teacher's strategies for classroom management of a class that has gotten unruly was extremely beneficial at this point in my teacher development since I have, up until this point, been given very few classroom management strategies for an unruly, or difficult, class.
Monday I learned a lot more about what it takes to run a successful classroom aside from helping students to understand academic material.
Hopefully you learned some important lessons or strategies; it's also important to keep in mind that no one set of strategies is going to work in all circumstances. Thus, it is important to continue to be flexible and to find out what works with each student. This itself requires getting to know each student. It is through these relationships that you will be able to respond effectively to your students needs and behaviors.
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