106: Assignment 3

The article "Assuming the Best" essentially says that students come to school with a desire to behave well and learn in a safe and structured environment provided by the instructor; and that we, as instructors, should be aware that students come in with such a mindset.

It goes on to provide a variety of methods that would allow us to create such a safe and structured environment that would allow us to reach pass the "noise" that prevents us from communicating clear behavioral expectations effectively. Those strategies include using volume, tone and posture to communicating firmly but in a manner that displaying a genuine sense of caring. A two-by-ten strategy is also mentioned, where teachers spend two minutes a day caring on a conversation with a problematic student regarding anything the student may want to talk about. This forges a positive relationship with the student and in most cases the student’s behavior improves. Breaking things into steps, something I do frequently in the classroom, is also listed – as are behavior rubrics (something RSMS uses with Zone 0, Zone 1 and Zone 2 [levels of noise]) and the use of visuals.

I feel I can be much stronger in the area of two-to-ten. We recently had a family literacy night at Barnes and Nobles where students came after school to do a read aloud and an activity with their teachers. R was one of the first students that came. He constantly proves to be a challenge to work with in class – he is always wiggling around uncontrollably, making disruptive noises, drumming on his desk and forgetting his homework. Whenever I communicate my expectations when he begins to display misbehavior, he often rolls his eyes and on a rare occasion will fix behavior only to resort to the same misbehavior five minutes later. From my perception of the situation, I thought R must have thought lowly of me – that his eye rolling was prompted by a strong dislike for me as a teacher and for school in general. When I walked into Barnes and Noble that night, R caught a glimpse of me walking in from the corner of his eye. The biggest smile came across his face and from across the store I could hear "Mr. F!" being yelled. He, with friends in tow, ran up to and gave me the biggest hug I’ve received this year, from any student. I was surprised – was this the same student that constantly rolled his eyes at me at class? Perhaps this student is longing a positive relationship with me – perhaps I can make the school environment a safe and more structured environment for him where he feels like he is a valued and appreciate part of the class and of my life.

The second article "Warm Demanders" follows in a very similar vein to the first. It focuses on building a strong relationship with students that makes them aware of the fact that you truly care for them. The article talks about holding high expectations and simply not holding them but insisting that students meet them. I know students are aware of what my high expectations are, but I don’t know if they feel like I truly believe they can meet them. Over the next year, I will need to insist that all of my students meet those expectations and make it very clear that I believe each student can.

Another question the article raises for me, is whether or not I am truly in touch with the culture that my students come from. Although I speak a little Spanish, my pronunciation is always corrected by students when I attempt to speak it in class. I know little about the life style in the area that I teach – what a normal weekend looks like, what religious beliefs are held. All of these things occasionally make me feel as if I am an outsider in my own classroom – which creates an obstacle in fostering relationships with my students. Additionally, I tend to forget that many of my students come from different cultures and backgrounds, and that I need to go beyond attempting to simply reach out to the Spanish-speaking cultures that are present in my classroom. Each student has a different life and it is my responsibility to become more in touch with what their life looks like outside of school. So far I feel like house visits have been incremental in doing so – but again, I am simply not able to do 80 house visits for the 80 of my students. I am motivated, however, to find away to truly get to know each of my students and their respective cultures.