velvetpage (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
velvetpage) wrote2006-04-07 06:37 am
velvetpage) wrote2006-04-07 06:37 am
Teaching thought
This is a comment I posted in a friend's journal, but I thought it would be important to share it here. It's about my answer to the question, "How do you control your class?"
I think I became an effective teacher on the day that I realized my kids needed something from me emotionally, and if I gave it to them in a firm-but-fair way, they'd give me respect in return.
They need to feel that they're important to me - that I honestly care what happens to them and how they're feeling. If they don't believe that I feel that way, they're never going to try to please me, and my class will be total chaos.
There are, of course, other elements to effectiveness in the classroom. There's a certain presence I project when I need their attention, accompanied by a simple hand signal or verbal cue, that usually works for me. There's an expectation that they are capable of behaving as I wish them to, and that they need to make every effort to do so - but also that mistakes happen and we'll deal with them when they do.
But the key is that honest empathy. If for some reason I don't feel that for the majority of my class, or they act badly enough to damage it partway through the year (as happened last year) then my job takes a sudden downswing.
People ask me how I control 25 kids and get them to do what I want. The truth is, I don't control them. They control themselves, because they want me to be pleased with them and easy to get along with.
I think I became an effective teacher on the day that I realized my kids needed something from me emotionally, and if I gave it to them in a firm-but-fair way, they'd give me respect in return.
They need to feel that they're important to me - that I honestly care what happens to them and how they're feeling. If they don't believe that I feel that way, they're never going to try to please me, and my class will be total chaos.
There are, of course, other elements to effectiveness in the classroom. There's a certain presence I project when I need their attention, accompanied by a simple hand signal or verbal cue, that usually works for me. There's an expectation that they are capable of behaving as I wish them to, and that they need to make every effort to do so - but also that mistakes happen and we'll deal with them when they do.
But the key is that honest empathy. If for some reason I don't feel that for the majority of my class, or they act badly enough to damage it partway through the year (as happened last year) then my job takes a sudden downswing.
People ask me how I control 25 kids and get them to do what I want. The truth is, I don't control them. They control themselves, because they want me to be pleased with them and easy to get along with.