I had the pleasure to interview Megan Homoky. She has been working in District 170 for a total of 9 years, 8 of those years were in kindergarten and this year is her first year in second grade. She currently has 13 students in her dual- language class. She is a teacher that I aspire to be, she has a wonderful classroom management. The students love her, she is stern but playful with the students.
Classroom management is very important, if you don't set expectations for the students they will walk all over you. I have worked in classrooms where it's just plain chaos. Students getting off of their seats going to get water whenever they please, play with scissors, teacher is yelling trying to get the students attention and the kids were just not listening. It is very difficult to teach in an environment like this. I feel like Mrs. Homoky has of well-balanced, she stated in the video that she let students yell out answers whenever they have one and tries to let the students move around as much as possible. The student do this in a calm matter. Even when she has small distractions in her class, she does it in a calm manner, she cues by sitting staring at the student until they realize and then continues with the lesson.
Mrs. Homoky also talked about the importance of the smooth transitioning, When students know where to go without being told, I feel that is a teacher’s main goal. I have seen her students transition from center to center without any problems. The students know exactly what to get and know exactly where to look for their writing prompt. One student will change the centers when it time, meanwhile the students are working independently, Mrs. Homoky will work with students in small groups to target the students at their levels. Overall, this is a strategy that all the classrooms I work with also implement. In Kindergarten it may go a bit slower, but the teacher Mrs. Hernandez does a good job of having the kindergarteners to rotate between the centers. Now in December they will have questions here and there but for the most part are pretty independent.
The hearts that she mentioned are a physical incentive that the students are later able to “buy” different rewards in the classroom. This will follow the Premack Principle (pg. 273). The hearts would be positive reinforcement for good behavior they will receive a reward. Mrs. Homoky seems to understand her students and their young age. In a way this would tie into the “Functional Behavior Assessments” (Pg.248). She is able to assess the students and know that them not sitting still is more because is 8 and not because they want to make you mad.
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