Classroom Management

Three main steps that I have incorporated into my classroom management plan are: controlling classroom set-up, putting conduct rules/expectations in the syllabus, around the room, and on the website, and contract with something they enjoy.

Controlling classroom set-up has cut down on many problems in the classroom. When students chose their seat, they sat with friends and sometimes acquaintances with whom they got into a lot of trouble with for talking and many other things. However, by getting to know the students, arranging the desks in single rows all facing the front of the class, and doing a seating chart, prevents many problems with the students, such as talking and procrastinating in class.

Another step that I liked was putting the conduct rules/expectations in the class. My cooperating teacher had the rules/expectations already on the wall, but the idea to point to them when the students are doing them is a great idea. This way they know exactly what rule they are breaking because it is spelled out right before them.

Finally, I think having a contract or agreement with them with something they enjoy is a great idea. I actually used this today in class and it worked very well. The students would not quit talking and procrastinating. So, I mentioned an interesting article that I found online last week, but only briefly enough to peak their interest. Then I told them that if they would quietly do their work I would read/discuss the article with them. This worked great, and the students quietly did their work.

Curriculum Action Plan

One area that needs to improve in my curriculum plan is my objectives. So, I plan to write more thoughtful and planned out objectives. It is easy to choose a word such as know or explain and then follow it with a simple statement, then you have an objective. It is also easy to simply make something up quickly without true thought if it is a reasonable objective for the students to achieve and/or if the instructional activities will actually achieve the objective. However, I plan to write better objectives because it is truly an important part of curriculum planning. For one of my classes, US history, it is especially important because of state standards and end of course testing. It is important to write objectives that will truly be utilized in the lesson and will allow the student to be prepared for the end of course test. For my other class, law education, it is also important to write good objectives even though their are no South Carolina state standards for this course. It is important that objective are created for each lesson and followed to make sure students are learning the proper material and are actually getting it. I plan to write better objectives and write them on the board each day so that the students and myself can know the objective and it is there for reference to make sure that we have met our objective.

Another suggestion that I will use to change my lesson plans and instruction is to use a variety of assessments. There are many ways to test students' knowledge and understanding. Typically teachers use quizzes and tests to test students knowledge. In addition to these types of tests, I use think writes, but there are many ways to test students knowledge. So, I plan to use many different assessments. I have planned a photo story, fishbowl exercises, and mock trials. Although these are not typical assessments, they are a great way to test students' knowledge. For each of these activities/assessments student must know a variety of skills and information to do well. For example, in mock trials students not only need to know trial procedure, but also the topic we are studying at that time in order to properly argue their point.

Finally, a suggestion that I will use in my instruction is to divide students by strengths. This suggestion is especially good for my law education classes because they consist of all grades and all abilities. I have already noticed that dividing students by strengths or putting higher performing student with lower performing students makes a big difference. Each student improves their skills and learning. The lower performing student learns material from a peer and the higher performing student improves his/her skills by repeating and explaining their knowledge.

One professional social studies organization that I have found very useful is the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). The services that this organization provides are many and are aimed at providing leadership, service, and support for all social studies educators. NCSS provides or has conferences and meetings, professional development, publications, social studies advocacy, and many classroom resources. The professional development that they offer include: summer professional development workshops, powerful and authentic social studies (Pass), and state and local conferences. I will definately join this organization. I would also like to attend their conference this year in Atlanta if I am able to go. One of my cooperating teachers, who is a United States History teacher, belongs to this organization. I get to see and use many of the resources that NCSS sends him on a regular bases. On the first week of the semester NCSS sent a packet with student surverys and quizzes. These quizzes were designed to determine students interest in and knowledge of social studies. Another set of surverys were designed to help students think about their future and college. NCSS provided a pre-paid enveloped to send the quizzes back and analyzed them at no charge. So, I believe that there are many resources that are useful for my student teaching and future teaching. These quizzes allowed me to see what areas to focus on in social studies.