FIELD EXPERIENCE #9
Domain II, Competency 006
Subcompetency 1
Field Experience and Report #9
Kathy Hainey
I interviewed Miss O again for this FER. I thought it would be interesting to ask her about the differences between when she taught a regular high school English class and now that she teaches in the AEP (Alternative Education Program). She said that much was the same, but there were a few differences.
Miss O feels that the classroom climate has the most impact in her classroom and that the overall tone she sets carries through in her other management techniques. Her classroom climate is based on mutual respect. She points out that without respect being mutual, you really have nothing else to work with. As we know, we can’t expect respect unless we give it. She also keeps the tone positive, not only in her interactions with the students, but in interactions between the students, too. Evidently in the AEP, this takes more effort than it did in the high school to keep the students positive.
One of the ways Miss O sets the tone of her classroom is by following a routine when the students come to class and when they are ready to leave her class. Students really do like a certain amount of routine for security, whether they want to admit it or not. We all like some routine so we can know what the expectations on us are. We are more likely to be able to meet those expectations if they are consistent. She uses quotes of authors or lines from poems on the board or overhead for the initial focus when entering her classroom. Then the students take out the work listed on the board to review and to be ready when the bell rings.
Classroom seating is the biggest difference between her current position in AEP and her prior position in the high school. In the AEP, students are seated at carrels in order to work at their computer stations. In the high school setting, her classroom began most class periods with desks in the traditional rows. Then, depending on the activity for the day, the desks might be rearranged. For lecture or watching a video, the desks stayed in rows, but for a class discussion they would be arranged in a circle. For small group work or discussion, the students would draw up 4 or 5 desks in a grouping. In her current teaching situation, seating impacts her classroom the least because there is very little group work in the AEP.
Miss O states there is no negotiation on any of the rules in AEP. They are set in stone by the ISD and AEP. In her high school class, however, while those set by the ISD or high school policy were non-negotiable, the more minor ones, like when it’s ok to sharpen a pencil, were agreed upon by the class.
Regarding level of expectations, she says you "set the bar at the same height for all the students and then help them achieve". I liked the way she said that. She did say that it takes a little practice to not rely on the most dynamic students in the class for the majority of interaction. "It’s just something you balance out among all your students."
Immediate feedback is very important. In the high school she always tried to get the students’ work back to them by the next class period unless it was a research paper. Her point in such a quick turnaround time was that the sooner a student could make corrections or adjust their thinking on a concept, the more likely they would learn from the feedback.
Miss O’s high school class seemed to follow the thoughts in this chapter in Jacobsen. Some of the topics discussed are no longer under her discretion in the AEP, but setting the tone of the classroom, having a set routine, and maintaining high expectations for all students remain important in her classroom. The points she made regarding the differences between the high school classroom and the AEP classroom helped put this chapter into perspective as far as the atmosphere of the educational setting in which you are teaching.