Teaching thought

[velvetpage]

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.

Comments

[girlydoll.livejournal.com]

Well, we are moving back for July 2nd. Connor is or will be 4 then, and will be old enough to go to Junior Kindergarten. Gabriel is going to be 9 in October, and will have completed the 3rd grade in his school here Lecole Canadienne de Francais Division 4, which is a private French heritage school board for Saskatchewan.

I called the school board out here and they have NO CLUE as to a school board out in Ontario for French Heritage. If I can't get him into a French heritage school I would prefer to put them into a school that most resembles this one in funding etc etc. I know sometimes the catholic school boards are better funded in Hamilton, but I can't seem to get anyone to answer my e-mails either. It is terribly frustrating, and with my sister always "falling sick" nothing gets done and time is running out.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

There are two francophone school boards in southern Ontario, one Catholic and one public. There are three schools in Hamilton - two Catholic, one public. The Catholic schools are called Ecole Notre Dame and Ecole Monseigneur de Laval; the first is on Cumberland just west of Gage Park, the second is on the West Mountain near Mohawk and West Fifth on Bendamere St. The public school is called Pavillon de la Jeunnesse, and it's on the east Mountain in the building that used to be Sherwood Heights public school, on High St. right next door to my old high school. There are more schools for each board in Burlington and Grimsby, if you end up just outside the city.

If Gabriel is already in a francophone school elsewhere in the country, and given Rodney's heritage, you won't get any problem enrolling him in the public board. It used to be that enrollment in the Catholic schools was easier than it was in the English system, but that may have changed since Pavillon opened a few years ago. In any case, I know that all three schools offer full-day, every-day junior and senior kindergarten and full bus service, which the English boards don't do. The two Catholic ones also have an on-site daycare. I'm not sure if Pavillon does or not - they're a much smaller school.

Hope that helps.

[girlydoll.livejournal.com]

It more than helps, it is actually going to give me someone to harass on Monday. I am likeing the ideas of the catholic school Ecole Notre Dame and Ecole Monseigneur de Lava. Buses, full day every day JK is a major plus, and with daycare means before and after school programs, and even if I obstain, there is a bus system,, just like mimi anikin in Star wars 1,, YIPPIE