We saw some visitors in our classroom yesterday. Miss Wilson and Mr. Trueblood, our newest teachers in the fifth grade, came to our room to observe classroom management. Afterward, they stuck around to interact with students.
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What did they see?
- Room Arrangement: with the classroom computers in the fifth grade, arranging furniture can be a bit of a challenge. It will take some creative problem solving to make their rooms more flexible. Doing so will allow more movement to occur within the school day and can make student work and collaboration more visible.
- Call-Backs: in our room, callbacks are a part of the lesson, they are positive, and they maintain student attention. We don't just have callbacks to get the class' attention when they become unruly. I address this (and other matters) in my book, There's No Busyness Like School Busyness.
- Peer Support: when children get stuck during a lesson and struggle with a process, their peers genuinely encourage them to keep trying. Students, not the teacher, initiate the applause. Our visitors picked up on this right away.
- Classroom Management: while I'm happy everything ran smoothly when Miss Wilson and Mr. Trueblood visited, that doesn't give them an example for dealing with more difficult situations. The truth is, most of my own management style is proactive. Our visitors recognized that the positive behaviors and procedures we demonstrated have been taught and practiced.
- Uninterrupted Conversations: this is something I trying to implement and master, this year - a classwide conversation conducted completely by students (without the teacher inserting opinions or questions to drive things forward).
