Week1+Reflections

=Week 1 Reflections = =Lesson 1 - Introduction and Classroom Management =

What strategy will you use to get the attention of the class? Why? Will you have difficulty in this area? To obtain the classes overall attention after they have been assigned a task and are working on their assignment with a buddy and/or a group, I feel this task can appear challenging at the best of times. To be respectful of the creative learning process within the flow of ideas between partners, I am currently quite fond of the countdown method being 5.....4....3...2..1. Looking back many years when I was a student in Senior Public, I remember how it was always so important to finish my last comment. By giving a twenty second leeway, I feel the students can quickly finish their conversation for now.. and be eyes on, ears open and mouth closed, waiting for their next instruction. Being shown several strategies, I feel that I am quite comfortable with this method and can project my voice when I need to and can wait until all students have finished talking.

=Lesson 2 - Motivation and Minds On =

What are your thoughts about the use of rewards and punishments in class? Do you think competition is a good way to motivate your students? When thinking about whether to reward or punish a child in class, I have a lot of emotions as to the potential grey areas of this topic. I feel this links into your own core values, with your thoughts of mutual respect, creating an environment for learning and allowing the student to engage in choice. Whether this is the beginning of the year and you are building trust, or it is a crucial time in the childs development due to impressionable years from external sources (i.e. peer pressures, media, cultures and religion), the students have their rights to be in charge of their own motivation. Focusing on mutual respect, and trust I can see how setting up rewards and punishments can really bring down the overall moral of the students. Sure, you need some basic rules on how to effectively communicate in class, and be respectful to the various diversities. However, if you were a student who chose to disrupt the learning of your fellow classmates, I would have to intervene. But, I can make a choice on how I intervene to reduce the escalation of a full punishment and allow for the student to realize how this interruption, might have been improved next time so that you do not interfere with your peers right to learn. If I were to take the road of a punishment, I feel the student can turn inward, as the entire day, even if they did a fantastic job on an art project, or scored a goal in physical education class... all they would remember is how I punished them in class. From this punishment and embarrassment, they are being punished again as now they also will not get the reward I have created for good behaviour. So, I have now affectively punished this child twice and when I am trying to build their intrapersonal skills. How are all of the students going to feel, as it could have happened to anyone and how are they going to trust me? Would you want to open your mind and learn from this teacher? If I want to bring in a reward, this reward is for the entire class and I have done this because I wanted to and it is never to be associated with an extrinsic motivation, to encourage a child to engage.  Now referring to using competition as a motivator for your students. I feel this should be used, only if you have done Multiple Intelligences (Connell) and it is clearly identified that this particular class has a large portion of students that thrive on competition. Another way to address this, could be a path or a footprint where the students create their own competition within themselves, relating back to intrapersonal skill. By allowing the student to track their initial goal at the beginning of the year and to try to achieve it by the end of the year. You can focus on many aspects to develop the child in the three big categories of physical, social and intellect developments.