Archives: respect

Being the “Mean” Teacher

On the last day before spring break, I was getting frustrated at the lack of participation that one of my ELL students was showing.  Several times I had approached this student to put down the phone and actually work on the project.  This student always sat in the back and assumed that I would not notice.  Because of this, I paid particular attention to those who sat at the back.  Near the end of class, I decided to be stern and let this student know that I would not put up with this behaviour.  I said to this student that I am keeping her for detention after school.

I could see that the other students who overheard were shocked.   The student was shocked too.  Chances are, she had probably never been given detention because she is a “quiet” student.  I was not going to give in to this.  I try to treat all students equally and she is no exception.  She said that she didn’t have time to come after school.  When I told her that if she didn’t show up, she would have to face the consequences.

I was there after school for detention and for supervising students who wanted to finish their ceramic project.  I waited and waited.  5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes…my student did not show up for detention.  I was disappointed but now I know what was the next course of action.  I will need to talk to her counselor and reinforce the fact that teachers are to be respected and that our demands and expectations are not trivial.

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Three Musketeers

The headache started in the morning when I arrived to set up for my first class.  Even though I knew that I needed plenty of time to set up and had arrived 40 minutes before class started, I still wasn’t finished setting up on time.  I had a student come in and help me with the chairs (luckily) but he would continue chatting with me.  This chatter, which I normally love, was in fact distracting.  I felt like my mind was in many places and I couldn’t focus the way that I needed to.  What I needed to do was to set up the individual stations and set up the glazes, bottles, and paints.  When the bell rang, I was mostly prepared but I still wanted to make things nicer.  For the most part, everything was in place and ready to go.  Mentally, I was still all over the place.  I had to gather my thoughts and focus on the task ahead- that is, presenting to this class and going over the notes I had prepared the night before.

I had to do a glazing demo which went well.  I think it did anyway.  I made sure to cover all the key aspecs about not getting glaze on the bottom or on the edges of the tiles.  In addition to that, I had to stress that the brushes be kept in their respective glaze jars so as to not mix them.  Doing the demo actually slowed my racing mind which was good.

When they were working, some of the kids work so fast while other work so slowly.  How do I find a balance between these two?  I am still working on this.  The kids who were “done” glazing were told by me to draw more designs for future tiles.  Because we had so many, I thought this was the most appropriate activity.

The class after was my ceramics class.  This class included the three most difficult students I had to deal with.  They were not cooperating and fooling around so my SA gave them detention.  After school, I came in to work with them and they worked very well.  The invididual working time was conducive to getting work done rather than sitting together and goofing off.  After that, I wanted to have a quick chat with them.  I was brutally honest and told them that their disruption gave me headaches.  I communicated that they worked very well on their own but that together, they lacked the discipline to complete any work.  They also distract each other from completing work.  I told them that what they were doing was disrespectful and that I want them to succeed.  The last half of my practicum teaching this class must end pleasantly.  This is their goal and they must cooperate.  First they will sit apart then if they’re good, they can sit together.  I felt good talking to them one on one.

The highlight of my day was working with the Challenge kids.  These kids are the ones who do enriched courses and today was a workshop day for them.  I signed up to teach them an art history workshop about Impressionism.  Unfortunatley, due to miscommunication, the workshop didn’t start until 20 minutes later when I finally found the students.  The students were more engaged than a regular class and one student was a whiz at art history.  I hope I inspired them to continue learning!

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Quiet Time

Today was the last day that the special needs class will work on their balloon pinatas.  Many were finished or nearing finished.  There were a couple of students who were still painting their balloons.  I knew that they probably wouldn’t finish their balloons in time but that was OK.  When they have free time, they can come back to their projects.  I did lend the ones painting their balloons (the ones who were behind)  a hand in painting theirs.  I didn’t want them to not have anything to talk about.  The working period was short today because I wanted a Show and Tell at the end of the class.  Perhaps they aren’t used to talking about their work let alone their art and I wanted to give them a chance to share their work.

I had them clean up about 15 minutes earlier than normal to save time for the quick presentation.  The class only consisted of about 12 students so it wasn’t going to take too much time.  I had each student come up to the front and hold their balloon out.  They flashed it around the room and waited for guesses to come in as to what the concept or main idea of their balloon is.  It started out a bit slow as the first presenter was quite shy.  I wanted to proceed with the presentation in the following manner:

Ask the class to guess what the concept of the presenter’s balloon is.

1. What is the concept of your balloon?

2. Describe why it looks this way (why did you choose those colours, designs, decorations?)

3. Are you happy with your balloon?  What about it makes you happy?

4. Are there any changes you would like to make to your balloon?

5. Open up the discussion to the class.  Do they have any suggestions?

After the first few students, I realized that they were quite happy with their balloons and would usually not have any suggestions of improvement.  I decided to remove questions 2-5 for a couple of reasons.  The first one being 1. They don’t seem to have any qualms about their balloon.  They are usually quite happy about their product and 2. We didn’t have that much time to spend on each of their presentations.  The bell rang with 2 students left to present but the class stayed regarldess to finish the presentations.  I realize that sometimes teachers can go over time, especially with non-timed presentations.  At least I got through most of them before the bell!

After the presentations were over, I told them that on Wednesday we would begin a new unit.  This new unit involves glazing ceramic tiles with garden scenes.  I had the help of my CS student to put together inspiration boards of garden plants and bugs.  I hope they will enjoy this project!  I only have them for about 6 more classes 🙁

The next class I taught was the Ceramics course.  Today the students were introduced to Peer Assessment.  They were given worksheets and were told to “interview” each other on their shoe concept.  I made sure to be very clear on filling out their names up top and writing the name of the student who they assessed.  I knew that it would take a lot longer than I expected so I gave them plenty of time.  I collected those sheets that were done and gave those who needed more time time to work on theirs.  I spent the rest of the time checking their sketchbooks and it took me to about the end of the period.  The class worked very diligently and it was very surprising.  The pairs that I arranged were meant to separate the friends and group people who normally don’t speak together.  For the most part, it worked.  It was nice to see them talking and this one particular student, who I normally have trouble with, seemed to work well today.  The class was quite pleasant.

One thing that continues to bother me is the student who continues to step on my toes and not deliberately.  The freedoms that she has been used to are gone and she doesn’t seem to understand that.  In my class, you must respect my rules.  Some difficulties I faced from this student include: not cleaning up after herself and disrupting the class during silent reading time.  Once again, I had to tell this student that this behaviour was not acceptable.  Sometimes they just need to be told that several times before they actually internalize it.

At the end of the day, I decided to talk to the head of the ELL department about my students.  It turns out that she was actually having a private meeting with one of the trouble student’s mother.  I believe they are quite aware of the situation I am facing with these students, but for me to touch base with several of the ELL teachers will only serve to benefit me and these ELL students in the long run.  Hopefully a solution can be found soon.

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Students Leaving the Classroom

This is a big pet peeve of mine.  Students who just walk out of class assuming that I am fine with it or don’t see them.  Yes, I do see you!  It’s rude and it concerns me because I am responsible for your welfare!  I think much of it is their belief that they may just come and go around a teacher who is not the “real teacher”.  Perhaps they want to see if I will let them go or if I will actually say something to stop it.  Recently, there was a student who enjoyed particular freedoms and decided to leave the classroom and do other projects knowing that I was the teacher.  It disappointed me because this student is a responsible and smart student.  I felt disrespected but my SA had a talk with this person and made it clear that it is my classroom now.  I know now that I can be more stern with these students because I always stick to my word and maintain high standards.

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