Guest Speaker

I really enjoyed the guest speaker that we had last week. I feel that she provided some very insightful ideas in regards to classroom management and rules. The speakers recommendations that rules should never be phrased as "If... Then" type statements was a new concept for me; I like this idea as I think having rules phrased positively is more likely to leave a lasting impression with the students, and hopefully they will remember them. In addition, I liked her recommendations of preparing and planing rules, routines, and procedures early in the school year, and communicating them clearly; I feel that early implementation eliminates confusion for the students in what is expected of them. Also, I believe that if teachers construct and implement rules at the beginning of the year the students will not be surprised by the consequences of misbehavior. This being said I feel that the consequences of student misbehavior should also be outlined.

Further, her idea that "children do well if they can. If they can't, we need to figure out why so we can help" was very intriguing for me as it directly relates to a goal that I have set for Block I which is: To learn how to incorporate a variety of teaching strategies into my lesson plans to meet the diverse needs/multiple learning styles of all students. By doing this I will be "figuring out" the needs of my students so they can do well.