For my teacher interview, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mrs. Lettiere a math teacher at Oak Lawn-Hometown Middle School in District 123. I used the following questions to shape my interview on classroom management:
1. Can you tell me about the subject you teach, what grades you teach and how long you have been teaching?
2. What is your philosophy on classroom management?
3. Has it changed from when you first started teaching until now?
4. What classroom management practices have you found been most effective in keeping your students engaged and on task?
5. How do you handle those students who seem bored or tend to fall off task (does this happen often?)
6. Do you ever offer free time outside of the classroom to work in the hallway in groups or any other type of out of the box methods to show trust in your students?
7. What disciplinary actions do you use in your classroom?
8. Have you used any reward system in your class and how has it worked?
9. Have you experienced any fails in terms of a classroom management plan that has not worked?
10. What advice would you give to a new teacher just starting out to best manage their classroom?
11. Any recommendations on classroom management resources?
She also talked about how you have to have a plan on how you will handle your classroom which is exactly why we as soon to be teachers need to learn about classroom management. She talked about how the years have gone on and how it seems that kids these days seem to have a lot more issues whether it be at home, or behavior problems at school and that there needs to be a plan on how to handle those types of kids and situations as to not disrupt the learning environment for the other students but be able to help those students who may need it or may be struggling at home or in the classroom.
At Oak Lawn-Hometown the class periods are 80 minutes long so in order to keep the students engaged and on the task they use a variety of activities within the 80 minutes to keep students moving and doing different things instead of just being lectured at for 80 minutes. There is a very set plan each class period they have a bell ringer, they do a group activity, they explore, and then debrief. With there being several things happening in this time period it helps keep the students stimulated on the tasks at hand.
She brought up "low floor high ceiling" to keep all students involved because all students are at different levels. Some students might be more advanced while others find the material more challenging. Often times when students are not being challenged enough they become bored, tend to fall off task, and start to act out. That is why using "low floor high ceiling" meaning finding that middle ground to make sure everyone is able to actively participate in an activity and be able to learn something.
When I asked the question of if there is ever a time that students are able to go out in the hallway on their own to work on class material. Mrs. Lettiere started to talk about a program offered at her school called algebra extension where those students who are at a higher level spend half the class with all other students and then halfway through they go to the library where they learn more challenging material however they are responsible still for all material covered in the regular class period. This puts a lot of self-management on the student as well as self-regulation it also falls under one of the school's expectations which is to be responsible. In something like this, there is a lot of trust placed on the student and it can really influence their success how well they self-manage and self-regulate which was also something widely talked about in chapter 13.
Something I really liked that Mrs. Lettiere talked about was the fact that at the middle school level or at least at her school they want the students to view the teachers as a team and so if there is a disciplinary issue the teachers do try to collaborate together to see if that particular student was just having a bad day or if other teachers are experiencing similar issues with that student and if so how other teachers have handled that student and what has worked best. There is a collaborative team effort among the teachers which I think is really nice, and I think for a new teacher it would be very helpful to have that.
There is a reward system in place at the school-wide level called PBIS where the students can earn tickets for good behavior and at the end of the semester there is a raffle and the more tickets the more chances a student has to win something so it helps encourage and influence students to behave well. She stated how positive reinforcement really goes a long way especially at the 6th grade level when it is the first time for these students at a new school, and something as simple as "good job opening your locker" can go a long way.
She stated how having the line of communication between teachers and parents is crucial to having a positive school year. Something they do before school even starts is a phone call home to parents so that the first communication they have with parents is a positive experience, because I think often times if a parent is hearing from a teacher it means their child has done something wrong so having those positive experiences have seemed to made all the difference.
Overall the big take away was to be consistent and stay consistent and make sure to set expectations right off the bat. The biggest thing that she said was important to do was to build relationships with your students and show them that you care. She said "the content is important, but students want to come to school and feel like teachers care about them", she said to make a point at the beginning of the school year to really develop those relationships and trust. She also stated how blogs and Twitter would be great resources to get in on conversations with other teachers on how they manage their classrooms.
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