Classroom Management

Three classroom management strategies that I will try to use in future classroom settings....

1. My cooperating teacher advised that I create a seating chart for a class I was about to add on and begin teaching. He suggested this because they were his most energetic class and gave him the most trouble from a classroom management standpoint. With his help (because he knew the students better), we created a seating chart and I have had very little trouble with the students in the class. I think it was helpful for two reasons: the obvious reason is that I was able to move students who would talk to one another non-stop away from problem areas and the other reason was it sent a message to the class immediately that I was serious about them behaving in my class.

2. I have found, especially in the honors classes I am teaching, that it is extremely important to always have a next step and make my transitions from activity to activity as smooth and quick as possible. When the students have any dead time they are prone to turn to the side and ask their friend a question or become distracted by something outside. When they have instructions for the next task on hand; however, they ideally do not have time to begin causing any problems.

3. When I am lecturing, I like to incorporate a lot of questions and class discussion/participation. For the most part the students are willing to go along and I really appreciate this, but occasionally, side conversations will spring up that are distracting from the main lecture and the front of the class. When this occurs, I stand up front quietly with my hands crossed, looking at the students who have begun talking to one another. Everyone quickly notices that I am not trying to talk over the other conversations and ususally the problem settles itself very quickly.

Curriculum Unit Suggestions

I planned on doing an activity in my curriculum unit that taught marginal tax rates by assigning groups of students a fictional salary that fell within different tax brackets for different groups. It was suggested that I include examples of a job that might go along with their designated salary. This would benefit students by giving them a specific real-world connection with the salary they were assigned and make the activity even more personally relevant. This increased relevance would improve the students’ interest and understanding for why it was important to learn the material.

In my lesson on state and local taxation, it was suggested that I use a graphic organizer when I go about explaining the difference between regressive taxes and proportional taxes. There are several types of graphic organizers or ways to visually represent this on the board which would be a great way to facilitate learning of this difficult concept, especially for students who learn best in a way other than through notes and lecture. Play money or a “false economy” using beans or another kind of money substitute and then levying certain kinds of taxes on the students would be an easy way to visually represent this concept.

For my Google Earth lesson on taxation as a cause of revolutions, I plan on beginning the day with a few quotes from famous leaders about taxes and how people perceive them. However, I did not include specific questions about the quotes or how I planned on putting the quotes to use other than reading them. I would probably be good to have 2-3 specific questions about who the intended audience was or the background of the speaker in order to get students to understand the quote on a deeper level. Having the students pair up and discuss the quotes would be a way to have everyone participate and think out loud.

Professional Organization

The National Council for History Education is an organization committed to “promoting the importance of history in schools and in society.” They provide a communication network for educators who wish to share their ideas and get ideas from others. They also host a conference for members to get together and learn about new ways to teach history. An online publication provides articles about teaching history in schools.

As far as professional development, an NCHE Colloquium put on by historians, teachers, and curriculum specialists as well as the yearly conference provide opportunities for teachers to learn how to better teach their subject matter. The Colloquium is unique to NCHE and they pride themselves in the individual attention and discussion that can occur.

This seems like a good organization to join, and I would certainly be open to hearing from a team in the colloquium setting. It seems to be important to remember that as a teacher you can always learn how to teach material in a new way that perhaps will make sense to your students. I think after I have been teaching for a while it will be difficult to change how I approach the material.

I do not know if this will be particularly useful this semester; however, as I look to the future it will be good to keep in mind the various professional organizations.