End of First Year Teaching Reflection
“The learning outcome results from students’ work, not the teacher.” This was my thought before I was a teacher. Now it has been changed to that “teachers play the most important role influencing students’ learning outcome.” An important element I want to focus on in this reflection is classroom management skills a teacher have and firmly use them as I believe the classroom management is the most important skill a teacher need to have, especially in elementary schools.
After one year teaching 2nd grade in an elementary school, I do believe that teachers are more important than the students’ own characters on students learning process and academic performance (learning outcome). Before being an elementary teacher, I believed that teachers are just “helpers” on students’ learning process. I believed that students’ personal characters play the most significant roles on their learning outcome and academic performance. It did not matter the teaching way the teacher gave to students, students will learn eventually. There were only smart and not smart kids to make their learning outcome differently. Teachers had nothing to do with it. I thought the teacher was only influencing the learning process (students are happy or unhappy in classroom) but not learning outcome as I grow up feeling that I got high scores and outstanding academic performance because I was a smart kid. Now I am totally overturning my ignorant thought.
At very first week of teaching, I actually have no idea what and how to teach. I know I need to teach this and that but I don’t know how. I was more likely spending my time and waiting for the time went through so I can call it a day. I don’t personally feel that students learned anything from me after the first week. Also, I felt that students were getting bored and started to talk with others or just not listen to me. I then asked my husband, who is also working at the same elementary school, the way he teach students. I then found that I was doing it in a wrong way, teacher centered and trying to have all students listen to me whole day long. I thought that is the way I learned when I was a child and it worked very well on me as a student. However, it just didn’t work on my students, or at least not worked on most of my students.
I then opened up my notebook in which I took some notes from first year teacher training and Dual Language Immersion Chinese teacher training. I marked some teaching strategies and copy some activities or teaching ideas from other teachers lecturing over the training. Also, I searched some scholar articles about teaching strategies, as well as other teachers’ teaching experiences from internet. I felt so much better on teaching at second week. However, I then found out that I spend lots of time telling students to quiet, to sit down, to not talk too loud, to listen to me, or “yes you can go to the bathroom”, “no you can’t sharp your pencil now” and so on. I then found that I don’t have enough time to go through my lesson plan. It is, in some degree, because students are only with me for half day in DLI program. Yet the more important is that I spent too much time on trying to have students to do what they were supposed to do. That is, I didn’t have a good classroom management and my lesson plan was useless at the time with poor classroom management.
From the experience at first two weeks of teaching, I strongly believe that without a good classroom management, a perfect lesson plan is useless. I then, again, opened up the notebooks for some useful notes I took. I read some articles and watched some videos about classroom management skills. I write down more skills and strategies on my notebook. I felt so good while I was reading and watching these articles and videos as I can see I would do well on these skills. They are easy and I can see they are effective as well. However, they didn’t work well for me at my first week trying them out.
I did what I have learned but failed because I was not firmly using these skills and strategies. At every first few days of trying these skills and strategies, I noticed the difference when I use them. However, I failed again when students kept doing the same thing and I can’t give students the same responses. For example, I am a believer of positive way on classroom management instead of negative way. Thus, I always find two or three good behavior students (who are looking at me and listening to me) to move their clips up on behavior chart before I move one student’s clip down. However, I myself found that I can’t stick with the rules I set for myself. I sometimes move students’ clip down without moving someone’s clip up to set an example for these misbehavior students to see. Students may not encouraged to stay in good behavior as they didn’t see good examples. Or students may get mad or feel it is not a big deal of moving clips down. That is an example when my classroom management fails.
Another example is that I sometimes accidentally broke my own rules and set a bad example for students. I told my students that they can’t go to bathroom while I am teaching math. However, I sometimes just forgot it and allowed students to go to the bathroom on math teaching time. Or I sometimes allowed students to sharp their pencil while I am talking but sometimes I said no to students who asked me the same thing. There are so many examples that I didn’t do well on my classroom management at the first week trying because I didn’t insist to do it. Thus, I found that I need to stick with what the rules are and firmly use them without any excuses.
Besides firmly use my classroom management skills, another important element in classroom management area is “to eliminate small fire so it won’t become a big forest fire”. Students’ misbehavior is like fire in classroom which will overflow to entire classroom. Therefore, I always pay my attention on those students who is easy to present undesired behavior in classroom. When I see any sign of misbehavior, I need to stop it right away instead of waiting until it become a big fire. That is, to prevent is more important than to cure. For example, I have a student who is very easy to get distracted in class and he tends to like to talk to others while I am teaching. I would ask him to come up and help me as a little helper after few minutes I am teaching or when I see him can’t sit still and I know that he is going to distract others. It helped to prevent him to talk to other students and keep his focus on what I am teaching. Also, it makes him feel that he is special at the time to be my little helper.
Students would feel that they don’t know what to do and what to be expected with a teacher who does not insist comply with the classroom rules and procedures. In this situation, misbehavior is not students’ fault but the teachers’. I have learned from the first few weeks. I then tell myself to insist on my classroom rules and procedures. It is more difficult than I thought it would be. However, when students have standard procedures and clear classroom rules to follow, they know what and when to do and it helps a lot on classroom management. A class with a good classroom management helps a lot on what I plan to teacher, especially we need it so much in Dual Language Immersion program’s tight schedules.
After reflection of myself at very first few weeks, I feel better to teach students something instead of just wasting time with students like the first week I did. I noticed students’ learning difference myself after I keep trying new teaching strategies and, more important, insist on my classroom management. I then believe that teachers are very important on students’ learning process and outcome performance because I saw even the same student performed differently when I changed my teaching strategy. In my classroom now, as a language learning classroom, I insist to have students to speak target language every day in school, to have some activities, to have students to play computer games I designed to assist their learning, and more. Now I am not a teacher who try to control the class and speak all the time. I feel good when I can keep learning and trying something new that I still keep researching some teaching strategies and experiences from professional articles and other teachers in school or from the internet. Hopefully I will be a better teacher who teaches students what they should learn while they are having fun in classroom.
After one year teaching 2nd grade in an elementary school, I do believe that teachers are more important than the students’ own characters on students learning process and academic performance (learning outcome). Before being an elementary teacher, I believed that teachers are just “helpers” on students’ learning process. I believed that students’ personal characters play the most significant roles on their learning outcome and academic performance. It did not matter the teaching way the teacher gave to students, students will learn eventually. There were only smart and not smart kids to make their learning outcome differently. Teachers had nothing to do with it. I thought the teacher was only influencing the learning process (students are happy or unhappy in classroom) but not learning outcome as I grow up feeling that I got high scores and outstanding academic performance because I was a smart kid. Now I am totally overturning my ignorant thought.
At very first week of teaching, I actually have no idea what and how to teach. I know I need to teach this and that but I don’t know how. I was more likely spending my time and waiting for the time went through so I can call it a day. I don’t personally feel that students learned anything from me after the first week. Also, I felt that students were getting bored and started to talk with others or just not listen to me. I then asked my husband, who is also working at the same elementary school, the way he teach students. I then found that I was doing it in a wrong way, teacher centered and trying to have all students listen to me whole day long. I thought that is the way I learned when I was a child and it worked very well on me as a student. However, it just didn’t work on my students, or at least not worked on most of my students.
I then opened up my notebook in which I took some notes from first year teacher training and Dual Language Immersion Chinese teacher training. I marked some teaching strategies and copy some activities or teaching ideas from other teachers lecturing over the training. Also, I searched some scholar articles about teaching strategies, as well as other teachers’ teaching experiences from internet. I felt so much better on teaching at second week. However, I then found out that I spend lots of time telling students to quiet, to sit down, to not talk too loud, to listen to me, or “yes you can go to the bathroom”, “no you can’t sharp your pencil now” and so on. I then found that I don’t have enough time to go through my lesson plan. It is, in some degree, because students are only with me for half day in DLI program. Yet the more important is that I spent too much time on trying to have students to do what they were supposed to do. That is, I didn’t have a good classroom management and my lesson plan was useless at the time with poor classroom management.
From the experience at first two weeks of teaching, I strongly believe that without a good classroom management, a perfect lesson plan is useless. I then, again, opened up the notebooks for some useful notes I took. I read some articles and watched some videos about classroom management skills. I write down more skills and strategies on my notebook. I felt so good while I was reading and watching these articles and videos as I can see I would do well on these skills. They are easy and I can see they are effective as well. However, they didn’t work well for me at my first week trying them out.
I did what I have learned but failed because I was not firmly using these skills and strategies. At every first few days of trying these skills and strategies, I noticed the difference when I use them. However, I failed again when students kept doing the same thing and I can’t give students the same responses. For example, I am a believer of positive way on classroom management instead of negative way. Thus, I always find two or three good behavior students (who are looking at me and listening to me) to move their clips up on behavior chart before I move one student’s clip down. However, I myself found that I can’t stick with the rules I set for myself. I sometimes move students’ clip down without moving someone’s clip up to set an example for these misbehavior students to see. Students may not encouraged to stay in good behavior as they didn’t see good examples. Or students may get mad or feel it is not a big deal of moving clips down. That is an example when my classroom management fails.
Another example is that I sometimes accidentally broke my own rules and set a bad example for students. I told my students that they can’t go to bathroom while I am teaching math. However, I sometimes just forgot it and allowed students to go to the bathroom on math teaching time. Or I sometimes allowed students to sharp their pencil while I am talking but sometimes I said no to students who asked me the same thing. There are so many examples that I didn’t do well on my classroom management at the first week trying because I didn’t insist to do it. Thus, I found that I need to stick with what the rules are and firmly use them without any excuses.
Besides firmly use my classroom management skills, another important element in classroom management area is “to eliminate small fire so it won’t become a big forest fire”. Students’ misbehavior is like fire in classroom which will overflow to entire classroom. Therefore, I always pay my attention on those students who is easy to present undesired behavior in classroom. When I see any sign of misbehavior, I need to stop it right away instead of waiting until it become a big fire. That is, to prevent is more important than to cure. For example, I have a student who is very easy to get distracted in class and he tends to like to talk to others while I am teaching. I would ask him to come up and help me as a little helper after few minutes I am teaching or when I see him can’t sit still and I know that he is going to distract others. It helped to prevent him to talk to other students and keep his focus on what I am teaching. Also, it makes him feel that he is special at the time to be my little helper.
Students would feel that they don’t know what to do and what to be expected with a teacher who does not insist comply with the classroom rules and procedures. In this situation, misbehavior is not students’ fault but the teachers’. I have learned from the first few weeks. I then tell myself to insist on my classroom rules and procedures. It is more difficult than I thought it would be. However, when students have standard procedures and clear classroom rules to follow, they know what and when to do and it helps a lot on classroom management. A class with a good classroom management helps a lot on what I plan to teacher, especially we need it so much in Dual Language Immersion program’s tight schedules.
After reflection of myself at very first few weeks, I feel better to teach students something instead of just wasting time with students like the first week I did. I noticed students’ learning difference myself after I keep trying new teaching strategies and, more important, insist on my classroom management. I then believe that teachers are very important on students’ learning process and outcome performance because I saw even the same student performed differently when I changed my teaching strategy. In my classroom now, as a language learning classroom, I insist to have students to speak target language every day in school, to have some activities, to have students to play computer games I designed to assist their learning, and more. Now I am not a teacher who try to control the class and speak all the time. I feel good when I can keep learning and trying something new that I still keep researching some teaching strategies and experiences from professional articles and other teachers in school or from the internet. Hopefully I will be a better teacher who teaches students what they should learn while they are having fun in classroom.