Welcome to Student Teaching! This is an exciting, rewarding, and challenging semester. You will emerge a changed person! Besides knowing the policies, understanding the courser requirements, and staying organized, you will begin teaching your own lessons and running activities in the classroom every day. This is a good time to really start thinking about your classroom management skills. Be an observer/researcher of your mentor teacher - note different routines and procedures she/he has in place. Ask for handouts, take pictures, gather artifacts to help you remember how to implement similar routines in your own classroom. Also, be sure to ask your teacher how he/she taught the procedures to the students. Teaching procedures takes time and tenacity, but once they are learned, they will save you enormous amounts of time and will make your classroom run smoothly.
Another area to research is how your mentor teacher disciplines students who are off-task. For example, what does he/she say to get a student's attention or to redirect a student? Take down the one-liners and practice saying them with confidence in the mirror. If you say something succinctly and with confidence, you will demand a student's attention. You have to believe students will listen to you and say it like you believe it. AND, you have to consistently follow through with your discipline plan, the consequences, and the rewards.
As a new teacher, I would ask students "Is that what you are supposed to be doing?" when they were off-task. This allowed them room to answer in smart way and did not inform/remind them about what they were supposed to be doing. So, one tip someone gave me and that I have used successfully is to state in a firm voice (without raising my voice) what the student is doing and then tell the student what he/she should be doing.
Example: Jake you are talking to Kylie. You should be reading your book. Please turn around and read your book now.
This month I will write about classroom management - you can't have an effective lesson if your classroom is not well-managed!
