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Professional Competency 6
Professional competency 6 has to do with our ability, as teachers, to maintain control over the classroom so as to create an environment that promotes student learning and social development. We must be able to establish routines that will help with the smooth running of the class as well as anticipating any issues that may arise, with regards to both organization and student behaviour.
My development
I believe that I have achieved the ‘proficient’ level of mastery with regards to this competency. During the internships, I learned many things about classroom management and have had the opportunity to apply different tactics. From the beginning of each internship, I implemented and maintained certain routines and rules in the classroom. Breaking the rules or not respecting the routines had established consequences which students knew would be enforced if necessary. In the high school internship, I learned to remain in control of the classroom no matter what issues came up and I did so with very little disruption to the flow of the lesson. It is in the elementary school internship that I still need some work as I am not used to teaching students of such a young age and thus require more practice to find the tactics that really work well for me as an elementary school teacher.
Artefacts
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This picture of a weekly report that I had to write for my supervisor illustrates my development of the professional competency. Even when left alone with the groups, there were no classroom management issues. Students respected me as the authority in the classroom. I circulated often to manage on and off task behavior. I would raise my hand and count down from 5 signaling for students to go back to their desks after group work and regain silence the same way that my CT would so as to maintain consistency and ensure the smooth running of the class.
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This picture is from the letter of recommendation that my CT wrote for my nomination for the Phyllis Shapiro Award. It demonstrates that he believes that I have greatly developed my skills in classroom management. I have gotten far better at instructions giving which helps students understand better what is asked of them therefore making sure that students can focus on the task at hand rather than doing other things. I constantly monitor on and off task behavior. I created a relationship based on mutual respect and trust making the classroom a far more enjoyable environment in which students were less likely to cause problems.
In order to maintain control and respect in the classroom, I used the full body listening technique they called “Listening Larry”. Before we started an activity that required their attention or whenever we had lost their focus, we used “Listening Larry”. We would visually go over the body parts with the students and have them repeat after us to make sure they were in fact paying attention. “We listen with our eyes, with our brain, with our heart, with our legs, with our arms, with our mouth, and with our ears”. This was the most constant technique used to maintain control along with explaining that there would be consequences if they did not listen and remain respectful.
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