Ginott, H. G. (1965). Between parent and child. New York: Macmillan.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\nFor all that we\u2019ve been prepared for in class and in past experiences, to be the teacher is a heavy role. But an enjoyable one. Over the two week practicum, I\u2019ve watched the push and pull relationships between the teacher and their students and the difference between the regular teacher versus a teacher coming in for an hour or two. I can\u2019t say my experience is conclusive to all classroom environments. There might be similarities here and there, but like any situation where humans are involved, every classroom is going to be different.<\/p>\n
I could write my inquiry of the power of a teacher\u2019s presence on a class and what happens when that presence is a different one, but I\u2019m sure there are already papers on this. But I digress, because it still baffles me. My class, for instance, goes into a hyperactive mode the moment my school advisor (SA) steps down from the official teacher position (not when she leaves the room, but when she hands the reins over to someone else).<\/p>\n
The first time I was faced with this, I was blown away by how loud the class got almost instantly. My SA had a meeting, and a teacher on call (TOC) that\u2019s in the school frequently came into the class to lead Fine Arts\u00a0before\u00a0I would take over for their daily physical activity (DPA). Even with a percentage of the students out of the class for band, the classroom was unusually loud from what I\u2019d witnessed before. Once the class was all-together and we were headed out for DPA, the noise level and the disobedience got worse. I still managed to get attention and attempt to teach them a new game \u2013 it was for naught. They fell apart within seconds and had nothing but complaints, so I allowed them to start playing a different game they new well and off they went (still with complaints). I was discouraged, near tears, but the TOC\u00a0turned to me and said, \u201cThey are running around, aren\u2019t they? Then you\u2019ve done your job. Don\u2019t worry about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next time I was more prepared for this reaction. My SA was going to be in the classroom with me, so I don\u2019t know if it was more her presence than my preparedness that kept the chaos to a smaller amount, but things went better because I was ready and more confident in my plan. I stood up in front of the class, commanded their attention, and began to teach once I had it. It\u2019s true, there are many things I have to work on with my teaching abilities (like waiting\u2026 always waiting\u2026), but I felt like I had better control of the moment than the previous lesson.<\/p>\n
It wouldn\u2019t be until a week (and a number of lessons, good and bad) later that I would find that quote and have an \u2018aha\u2019 moment. \u201cI am the decisive element.\u201d I<\/em> decide how the class is going to go with how I approach it. If I\u2019m apprehensive like I was with the DPA lesson, I am going to have less control. If any experience taught me that, it was a Remembrance Day lesson I attempted, when I was not at all prepared. If I walk in like a teacher, like someone who has this knowledge, and is passionate about teaching it, I will have more control over how that lesson will go.\u00a0If I go in, and I say to myself \u201cyou\u2019ve got this, they can do this\u201d, I might have a better chance at maintaining control. I have faith that those students can sit there, and can be engaged, because I\u2019ve seen it. I know they can. I just have to remember that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m going to start this with a quote that I found in my SA\u2019s filing cabinet that definitely helps define the experience of the two week practicum: \u201cI have come to a frightening conclusion. I am the decisive element of the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35960,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[716],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/vglover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/vglover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/vglover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/vglover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35960"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/vglover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/vglover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/vglover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/vglover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/vglover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}