As a future teacher
myself, I am always looking for insight into how to be a great teacher. Working in education for several years now, I
have learned that there are so many different strategies, practices, tools, lessons,
and resources that a teacher can try and utilize throughout their career in
order to be an effective and successful teacher. I have been fortunate enough to have had the
opportunity to meet and work with teachers from such diverse backgrounds. Every teacher is unique. With that in mind, every teacher needs to do
what works best for them, in their classroom.
Classroom management is such a crucial part of any teacher's daily routine. I believe good classroom management lays the
foundation for the success of that teacher, and ultimately, their students. More importantly, it builds relationships
that are necessary for a positive and healthy climate of any classroom. For this classroom management assignment, I
chose to interview James Gniadek, an accomplished teacher with over twenty
years of experience in the field of education.
James is currently teaching 7th grade Language Arts/Reading
for the Chicago Public Schools.
Not only does James have
a great deal of experience in working with diverse students, but I believe he is one of
those great educators who believe in passing on important and helpful
information to help other teachers. This
includes teachers who have been or may currently be experiencing similar issues
that he has faced in his career. I
learned a great deal of helpful information from this interview. Throughout the interview, I realized that the
style in which James manages his classroom is very similar to the style I wish
to have in my own classroom in the future.
I got the impression that James runs a very tight ship in his
classroom. Although I believe James is a
no-nonsense kind of teacher, I appreciated his response at the beginning of the
interview. When asked how he would get a
defiant and unwilling student motivated to participate in a lesson, he said, “I would take the student aside and do a
one-on-one to see if somethings going on at home…students come to us with
outside circumstances and if they’re still not willing to do the assignment
that I’m working on I might try to do a personal learning assignment
and see if they’re
interested in a topic and then I would match up the standards for whatever
activity I’m doing so this way they get credit at least and they’re doing something
that interests them so this way I get some kind of work out of them.”
There are so many teachers today
who do not bother to go that extra mile for their students and truly learn the
most effective way for them to learn. He
is the kind of teacher who would do everything in his power to reach his
students. I have been in classrooms with
veteran teachers who become so frustrated when they are unable to teach a
student through all the conventional ways of learning, that they do not bother
to take a different approach to help that student.
I believe by James being
more involved in the welfare of his students, he is creating an environment
that promotes more of an open door policy.
James really cares about getting to the root of the problem. CURRENT
APPLICATIONS: FUNCTIONAL BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT, POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORTS, AND
SELF-MANAGEMENT “Earlier in this chapter when we discussed coping with problem
behaviors, I cautioned you to first ask “why”—why is the student disrupting the
class or acting out? Teachers in both general and special education classes
have had success with a new approach that begins by asking a similar question,
“What are students getting out of their problem behaviors—what functions do
these behaviors serve?” The focus is on the why of the behavior, not on the
what” (Lane, Falk, & Wehby, 2006; Lane, Stage et al., 2008; Warren et al.,
2006) (283).
I have also been in
classrooms where teachers are afraid to “lay down the law,” so-to-speak. In my opinion, this inability to provide clear
expectations and a structural routine can only lead to lower achievement from
students as well as a lack of respect for that teacher. When asked to describe the management
strategies and techniques that he uses to maintain an effective classroom environment,
James shared some effective strategies that work for him in his classroom. One that I can definitely see myself using in
the future, is his doorbell strategy. James
recently implemented a system in which he uses a doorbell, which is hung in his
classroom, to signify transitions or to curtail his students from exhibiting bad
habits. More specifically, to control the
noise levels in his classroom. He does
this by ringing the doorbell via a small remote when his students are getting
too loud. "People actively “operate” on their
environment. These deliberate actions
are called operants. The learning process involved in operant behavior is
called operant conditioning because we learn to behave in certain ways as we operate
on the environment. The person generally
thought to be responsible for developing the concept of operant conditioning is
B. F. Skinner (1953). Skinner began with the belief that the principles of classical conditioning account for
only a small portion of learned behaviors. Many human behaviors are operants,
not respondents” (266,
267).
Hi David,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your interview with James Gniadek. What I noticed when comparing it to the interview I did with Debbie Swanson was that both teachers stressed the importance of building a relationship with your students, being flexible, and not escalating a small problem. One of my take away from your interview was the ability of getting the student back on task by just a look, a tap, or putting their name in an example of what is being taught. I can see myself using these strategies when I begin teaching. Thanks for sharing!