Teacher Interview
There were a lot of points that I found super useful, some of which being about classroom management. Mrs. V has talked a lot about how important it is to go over different expectation behaviors in the classroom, especially in the beginning of the year. The terminology that the kindergarten teachers are "expectant versus non-expectant behavior." This is an easier way to talk to the kids about the behaviors that they do and makes behaviors a lot easier to understand, especially when kindergarteners are just learning the basics. She stated that it takes a lot of time and patience to create these types of expectations in the classroom. Something that really stood out was how she talked about the importance of having a calm tone with students at all times. She mentioned that it is okay to be firm when talking to students, but the point gets across best when you are calm with students. She mentioned that it is so important to let students know that mistakes do happen, but that it is okay and that they are still cared for, because let's be real, mistakes are inevitable. I hope that I can be a teacher that talks to all students in a calm manner, and to remind myself that student's are always learning and to properly behave. This reminded me of when Woolfolk stated a passage about gaining student cooperation. In fact, Woolfolk stated something that is very similar to what Mrs. V said about the first few weeks of kindergarten. "During kindergarten and the first few years of elementary school, direct teaching of classroom rules and procedures is important" (Woolfolk 490). This is exaclty what Mrs. V said is the part that is essential for classroom management and demonstrating to students how to act in the classroom. This is essential for every grade level, although there are variations as well. Kindergarten will be much different from the classroom management of middle schoolers, which are who I want to teach. However, although different expectations for those grades, having different rules and procedures will help in every grade level. I hope to have a set of rules and procedures that will help myself teach properly in a middle grades classroom.
Throughout the interview, we talked a lot about rewards and consequences. An example that Mrs. V gave was the "red, yellow, and green light" system. Mrs. V gave me her honest opinion which I was happy about. She does not like this system of consequence, she said that she believes this kind of system to be degrading to a student. The reason that she said this is that she wasn't sure that it even works. She believes that kind of system puts students on the spot and doesn't actually teach them anything about their actions - I would have to say, I agree with her. Woolfolk states in her textbook that reinforcers, whether positive or negative, are supposed to strenghten or decrease a behavior (page 258). The point that Mrs. V gave is that it doesn't really give students an idea as to why their behavior is bad or good, some students may like this type of attention, some students will always have a red light. This type of consequence does not actually show students much of the consequence of their actions. Rather, Mrs. V would much rather use a system that works with an individual student, as a last resort. She stated that working as a class or community has a much greater effect on students than pointing fingers at students individually. I liked this method much more than a system that singles students out in front of the whole class. An example that Mrs. V uses is that if students are behaving positively as a whole class, she will reward the students with 15 minutes of extra recess. This allows the students to understand that their behaviors, as a community, can result in a fun reward such as a longer recess. This is similar to Woolfolk, when she talks about token reinforcement systems. "A token reinforcement system can help solve this problem by allowing all students to earn tokens for both academic work and positive classroom behavior" (Woolfolk 268). This shows an aspect of community working together, whether using actual "tokens" or not.
Mrs. VanderNaald gave me such great advice about classroom management. She told me how lucky I was to be at a college where they talk about this because when she was a student, (at Trinity!), she was never talked to about management. One of the first things she told me was how to be firm and start management on the first day of school, especially as a first year teacher. She said, it is best to start off right away and not to hold off until the next day. Another point of advice that was given to me was to take cues from my students. She mentioned that not every strategy that works one year will work the next year. She said that each year there are new students, and new strategies go along with those students in order to make classroom management work. I loved this form of advice as I have never heard a teacher mention something like this; I thought that this was honest and insightful and that it made a lot of sense, especially to an upcoming teacher like myself. Overall, I thought that this was a great project that helped me connect real life situations connect with readings from Woolfolk. I was honored to have interviewed and worked with an experienced teacher and am excited to incorporate different kinds of classroom management with my future students.
Mrs. V. reminds me a lot of my own kindergarten teacher - a little older, wiser, sweet and calm. She seems to have a lot of wisdom and has gained much knowledge over the years. I'm sure she can see huge differences in the way kids act over the last 30 years. I too see this in older students (like you). It was great to hear her talk about her disdain for public displays of students' behavior, like moving clips. I agree - that can be humiliating for students.
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