End of the year...

In my previous blogs, I've kind of talked about how the students seem anxious for the end of the school year and how it's affected their behavior. Why is it that at the end of the year it always seems like the teacher starts to lose a little bit of control? Kids seem to be getting in trouble more, the teacher's are a little more frustrated. It seems like this is a reoccuring thing at all schools.

At my placement right now, I can tell that the teacher is a little frustrated with his classroom environment. He seems to be a little crabby at times, and when he's quick to punnishing the students recently and taking their recess away. Even if a kid is talking a little bit during class, there is no tolerance for that and his or her recess is gone. It's been a little awkward for me at times, because I want to try and be friendly with the kids and help them out, but I feel like I should step away a little bit and just observe. I've really enjoyed the times where I've gotten to take a group of students to a different classroom and work with them, because then I can really interact with them and get to know them.

Anyways, the teacher has been yelling at the kids a lot to sit down and be quiet. You just get that awkward feeling and not a good vibe for that classroom environment. I feel bad for the students, but I do feel bad for the teacher because the students are out of control at times. I do wonder though if he brought this upon himself, by the way he set the bar at the beginning of the school year. Maybe he let kids get away with things at the beginning and now he's paying for their behavior. If that's the case, then I definitely don't think that these kids deserve some of the punnishment that they are receiving.

That's another issue that has been going on. A kid lives for his recess and to take it away from him might just ruin his day. Threatening a kid over and over again is not really the answer at all, and all it does is make the student scared of you. I remember certain experiences when I was in school where a teacher might threaten me if I didn't start behaving properly and it really turned me off from the teacher. I know that teachers get frustrated, and I'm sure I will too but I want to make sure that handle myself in a Christ like manner. Handling discipline issues has been of the main things I've been trying to learn throughout my aiding experiences. This is probably the one thing that I'm most nervous about, because I remember what it's like to be a student and I wish some of my teachers would have done things differently.

A few things that I have come to realize especially during this aiding experience is it's important to set the classroom rules up right away and create an environment in the first week that you are willing and able to maintain. If you can start the year off by showing your students what you want your classroom to be like it will help everyone out. The students might do a better job of staying out of trouble which will help you out. But, it is very important to maintain this kind of environment. I'm sure it won't be easy at all, but it's very important. My teacher should have done this, because now he is paying for it at the end of the year.