Follow up:
For those of you who asked me to do a follow up on my experience and involvement within the classroom I am happy to report that these last two weeks have certainly progressed from where I was in my last blog post. Although there are still times when the class is independently working and does not need any help, my cooperating teacher has been very inviting and enthusiastic about including me into classroom discussions, activities, and the "behind the scenes" managing power points and grading tests. I look forward to the relationship between the students and I progressing and that they become comfortable enough to ask me questions about school related content or telling me how their weekend/day was.
As I began to think about what I wanted to teach my class for the upcoming unit-plan I realized that I had become more consumed worrying how the students would behave while I taught my lesson and less consumed with thoughts of how they would benefit from said unit-plan. Immediately, I became a little anxious about teaching the class. Not only am I still getting to know the students but now I am at a standstill wondering how or if it is my place to discipline/redirect students during my time in front of the class. Because this is a Senior class they possess many of the stereotypical traits for this age range. They are talkative, more socially advanced (referring to content), and some seemed to have already "checked out" for the year/day. As I have said once before my cooperating teacher seems to get along great with the students, is very fun and converses with them in a manner that is familiar to them. However, as a person on the outside looking in, I see this student-teacher relationship backfiring at times. There are times when the class in constantly talking while she is lecturing or explaining instructions, and other times when students are using their cell-phones. The most recent incident that surprised me was when she was giving instructions on the essays they would be correcting. One of the students then stated "are you dead A miss?" My cooperating teacher then said that she did not understand his question and then proceeded to give notes on the essays when the same student said "I said are you dead a**. I don't want to," Some of the students laughed and my cooperating teacher ignored it and went on to the next slide. As our Wong and Wong textbook from Core 1 explained how establishing good classroom management practices from the very beginning resulted in fewer behavioral issues you will deal with later on, I am unsure on if it is my place to say something to students if they do happen to be disruptive during my scheduled teaching time. Once I teach my lesson this will be the first (beginning) experience I will have as the teacher, and since it is not my classroom I am not sure what to do?
What do you guys recommend I do? I am already plan to talk to my CT about my concerns, but I am curious to know what you guys would do in this situation? Would you feel comfortable semi-disciplining students?
