Emily,
You mentioned in your second reflection about how your teacher prefers that the students remain calm, under control, and quiet. That is also what I had expected my teacher to want for her classroom as well. However, that is certainly not the case. In between classes, students are allowed to draw on her white board and sit at her computer chair. I have never heard her deny a student’s request to leave the room, and sometimes students just grab the pass and leave to go to the bathroom. Upon first glance, this may seem irresponsible, or that she gives her students too much freedom. However, she is building a mutual respect among her & her students. She gives them a bit of freedom and in return they give her respect. We frequently rearrange the classroom, sometimes even between classes to try to maximize student interaction and collaboration. If students in the morning classes aren’t collaborating enough, she’ll reword her instructions to facilitate more interaction. As we learned in Ed Psych, student interaction and collaboration is one way that students can have meaningful learning, and I certainly believe a lot of meaningful learning is occurring in my cooperating teacher’s classroom. I think this is something that I will work towards having more of in my future classroom, but I think it will take some time getting use to it. Through trial and error, I’ll find that fine line between encouraging collaboration and losing all control of my classroom.
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I completely agree with what you said in your post. I think that it is very important for students and teachers to build a mutual trust and respect for each other. I hope that I can work with my students and treat them in a mature way. Even in middle schools, I think it is important to respect the individual behind the student. I think a lot of teachers are so far removed from their students that they forget that they have different things going on besides coming to school each day. I respect what your teacher is trying to do in her classroom. I agree with you that there is a fine line between giving the students freedom without letting it get out of control. Thanks for your post!
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