What I currently do?
When I am teaching my class I have a plan which gives me an idea of what I want to achieve and the activities that I will be asking the students to do to learn whatever I am teaching.
While I am teaching I am scanning the room and checking that my students are engaged. If they are I give them praise and if not I remind them of the expectations. As I am sitting or moving around I am aware of the childrens emotional reactions to the topic. If necessary I review what I am doing, reflect on how it is being received and repair the lesson if it needs it (Finlay, 2009).
As a thoughtful teacher who is mindful of her students attention spans, interest levels and social interactions, I often make decisions on the spot to change the lesson if I feel that my students are disinterested, or I quickly add some movement such as move to a different part of the room with a partner. My initial idea might have been to play a whole class game or do an activity together but if my students are restless I send them off with a buddy where they can move freely or interact differently. This is rapid reflection (Zeichner and Liston 1996),as it takes a split second in my long experience to read what is going on and gauge whether or not I am successfully delivering what I expected to. Often if the lesson does not go as planned I feel incompetent and beat myself up.
Now I have started this blog and started to unpack what I do and how it makes me feel I can relate to Yang (2009) who suggests that the blog is a place to voice doubts, struggles, discomforts, and successful and unhappy teaching and learning experiences with others who have shared similar scenarios.
As a rule most teachers at times can feel not good enough or have a sense of shame that they are not better at reading a situation. Reflecting and looking closely at what we do in our practice will help all of us develop skills to make us feel better about ourselves as professionals.
Finlay, L. (2009). Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/files/opencetl/file…
Larrivee, B. (2000).Transforming teaching practice: becoming the critically reflective teacher. Reflective Practice, 1(3), 293-307.
Zeichner and Liston (1996) differentiate between five different levels at which reflection can take place during teaching: Reflection on action - reflecting on something after you’ve finished to make changes for next time.
Yang, S., H. (2009). Using blogs to enhance critical reflection and community of practice. Educational Technology & Society, 12(2), 11-21.
Yang, S., H. (2009). Using blogs to enhance critical reflection and community of practice. Educational Technology & Society, 12(2), 11-21.
Marianne, I think the most important thing to do with a busy and vibrant class like yours, is to read the signs from your students as to how engaged they are. I think you do that brilliantly! Also I admire the fact that you are willing to reflect and then make the necessary changes to ensure fully engaged students. You are definitely on the 21st Century train...toot toot!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Marianne. I think what you do with the movement is great. I too use to use music to move my kids around when I see the crest of the concentration wave about to go. It's a great way to get oxygen into the body and blood circulating. I went to some courses years ago by Rich Allen and Karen Boyes where I learnt a lot about learning styles.
ReplyDelete