Teacher Interview

Here is the link to my Teacher Interview.  

As new teachers, we should all be looking to the previous generation for advice on how to manage a classroom.  They have had years of experience and they know what works and what does not.  I have many teachers in my family so I interviewed my mom, Mrs. Kroese.  Even though we have talked about teaching many times, we had never discussed classroom management.  This was a wonderful opportunity for us to have this conversation.  In this blog post, I will reflect on a few key ideas from the interview.  

The first idea that stood out to me was Mrs. Kroese's philosophy of classroom management.  She said you have to be able to enforce reinforcements and punishments.  In Chapter 7 Woolfolk (page 269), we learned about the importance of reinforcement and punishment as a way to make a behavior more prevalent or make a behavior disappear.  However, these strategies are completely useless if we cannot enforce what we are talking about.  Mrs. Kroese always made sure she could actually come through on promised reinforcements and put punishments into place.  

The next idea I found important was how Mrs. Kroese started the year on the right foot.  She said that you must be strict, especially at the beginning of the semester.  The motto "do not smile till Christmas" is something she believes in.  This reminded me of what Woolfolk said in Chapter 13 (page 522): "The ideal way to manage problems...is to prevent them in the first place".  In other words, we do not even want to have to use our management strategies too much.  We want our students to understand the rules right from the beginning.  This also ties back into the "Angry Teacher" video.  If that teacher had set up strict classroom policies the first day, he might not have ended up in that situation.  Mrs. Kroese was not mean or controlling, but she made sure the rules where known.  Prevention is key.  

The third idea is respect.  Mrs. Kroese said students must have respect for the teacher before they can have fun.  She said in order for them to respect you, you have to be consistent with punishment, not choose favorites, and care about the students deeply.  Woolfolk comments on respect in Chapter 13: "Students respect teachers who maintain their authority without being rigid or harsh, are fair and honest with them, demonstrate emotional support and caring, make sure students understand the material, ask if something is wrong..., and use creative instructional practices" (Woolfolk, p. 524).  Mrs. Kroese was carful to fulfill this criteria.  She added that if a student is having problems with teacher respect, she would take them aside and talk to them individually.  To make them feel heard, she used empathetic listening (Woolfolk, p. 539).  In other words, she listened to understand and showed that she is hearing them by summarizing what they said.  Respect is based on trust.  A teacher has to show that students can trust them.  

Another interesting point was having a good schedule for your student.  Mrs. Kroese talked about having a routine for the beginning of the day.  In Chapter 13, Woolfolk talks about the necessity of a good learning environment.  A huge part of this is structure: "They (good teachers) maintain their management system by preventing problems and keeping students engaged" (Woolfolk, p. 522).  As Mrs. Kroese said, students might not know it, but they need structure.  She always had an activity for them to do when they came into class each day.  This way, she could get situated while students had something to do.  Routine keeps a teacher sane.  

The final idea I want to highlight is the Mrs. Kroese's use of self-reinforcement (Woolfolk, p. 288).  She had a stop light in her classroom where she would move the children's names depending on how their behavior was that day.  All the students wanted to be on green and they would strive to stay there.  They could monitor their own progress and compare themselves to others.  This is similar to what they swim coaches did in Woolfolk (Chapter 7, p. 288).  Competition can be a great way to motivate students.  

Overall, this experience taught me so much about how to manage a classroom.  This task seemed so taunting at first.  How can one person be expected to control a whole classroom of children who often do not want to listen in the first place.  However, with the strategies provided in Woolfolk and the advice from an older generation, I feel more prepared to tackle the task of lovingly controlling a classroom.