Reflecting on concerns

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Reflection

When thinking about managing the learning environment there are areas where I feel confident and areas where I feel concerned about. I am a very systematic and organized individual, which lends itself to me being able to create a classroom that is systematic and organized. I feel confident in my ability to implement rules and foster a learning environment with high expectations. I liked what I learned about positive behavior interventions and support and feel confident that implementing this style of behavior modification system will lend itself to a positive classroom climate. If the next school does not use PBIS then I will recommend that the administrators look into bringing someone to do a staff wide training.

My ESL classes in the past have been small class sizes. This makes it easy for me to get to know students well and I am able to cater curriculum to suit their interests (i.e provide reading about soccer or horses) and fulfill their immediate needs (i.e learn vocabulary words for class reader). I have been able to in the past make the material interactive and engaging. I have only had a few instances of classroom behavior that  stumped me and I was able to get help from my mentor (usually as a special teacher my mentor has been the assistant principal). Having a mentor is key and at all the schools I have worked for I have been given one that had ESL training and helped me to navigate larger issues. I tend to give a lot of attention to individual students (for instance when misbehaving) and I liked how in the video (Teaching Channel, 2017) the teacher was encouraged to use “whole class narration” as a way to encourage individuals to change their negative behavior. The teacher focused on the positive and pointed out what others were doing that was appropriate (i.e I like how Sally, Tommy and Billy all have their notebooks open and are working on the journal entry). This is a great example of using PBIS to modify behavior positively that I will incorporate.

At the schools I have worked at many special ed students end up in my ESL classes. This happens by default because their learning disabilities can make learning a second language difficult, or they have a weakness in a certain skill (i.e a dyslexic student has a difficult time reading or an autistic student has a hard time with reading comprehension). Typically after a certain number of years in ESL and  growth on proficiency tests my regularly abled students would progress out of ESL. However, the special ed students may or may not progress out of ESL and need different ways of the material being taught.  I do not have any special ed training and that is an area where I would love some professional development. I have to be able to differentiate to a wide variety of abilities in one lesson and that can be challenging.

Another area I would like professional development to help me become more confident in my skills would be in dealing with defiant students. In my last teaching job I had a student who refused to do work and I had never encountered that before. It was a slow road, with not much progress and I was never able to see the final outcome (I had to quit the job due to family reasons). The article “When Children Are Defiant”  (Responsive Classroom, 2013) will be a great resource. It would also be helpful for me to meet with a special ed teacher and glean information from them about dealing with such behavior.


References
Teaching Channel. (2017). New Teacher’s Survival Guide Classroom Management Grade 6.
Retrieved December 9, 2017 from
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/new-teacher-classroom-management?fd=1
Responsive Classroom. (2013, April 16). When Children Are Defiant. Retrieved December 12,

2016 from https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/when-children-are-defiant/

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