[nobe-l] student teaching and advice

Wed Apr 7 00:08:30 UTC 2010

Faith,
  Your questions about classroom management and about grading were discussed in two different threads during the last week of March, if you know how to check the archives.  I'm pasting my two responses below, both written to a new teacher and not a student teacher, but they pretty much still apply, though having your own classroom will give you more ownership than you will experience during student teaching.  My response about classroom management is first, followed by my response about grading.
1.  Arrange the seats so you are never very far from the furthest student.  Mine
are in facing rows that are three deep, so never are they further than three desks
from my teaching area.
2.  Learn the voices as quickly and accurately as possible, as well as their laughs,
their friends, their noise-making habits like tapping pencils, etc.  These things
can help you cue in to who is where doing what.
3.  Establish that rapport with them as well and as quickly as possible, so they
feel you are a good teacher and are on top of things and are worth being obedient
for.  This sounds cliche, but it is honestly my biggest weapon.  If they like you
and think you like them, they will want to behave more often than not, definitely
more often than they would behave for someone they didn't like or didn't respect.
4.  Move around as much as possible.  Use proximity to keep them on their toes.
5.  Vary your lessons, activities, volume, pitch, rate of speech, gestures, participation
methods, and routines as much as possible to keep them on their toes again.  The
more interesting you keep things, the more they will be distracted from misbehaving.
6.  Keep up regular communication with parents, for good and bad things alike.  If
they know you have no problem calling their parents, they will be less likely to
goof around, especially if they know you might call for good things too.
7.  Choose your battles.  If a time one day has a low impact lesson that doesn't
matter much if they talk or are less focused, let loose a little, as long as they
know this is an exception.  Do not let them think this is you letting them walk all
over you, but if you get uptight about small things, you will squash the positive
atmosphere you are hopefully building, and they might misbehave more, even on those
big battles that matter most to you.
8.  Remember that in every classroom, kids misbehave.  Do not take their behavior
personally, unless it is good!  Smile!  You simply do the best with what you have.
Don't let anyone convince you that your classroom will always be the least controled
because you are blind.
9.  They need ownership in the behavior process too, like knowing consequences of
choices.  It is a joint effort.  Make those rules and consequences very clear, negative
and positive.
10.  I believe in seating charts.  They help me with voices and general management.
11.  Just as you shouldn't believe you can't manage behavior because you are blind,
you also shouldn't believe any of us that we have it all figured out, that our kids
never goof off, that our kids never exploit our blindness.  That is all totally false,
and if you as a young teacher think that we old fogies get it right every time, you
will quickly become discouraged.  We have rotton days too, but we've been picking
ourselves up and continuing onward for a period of several years, whereas you are
just starting.  So, our lesson to you?  It is worth fighting onward, if the profession
is your passion, even though the problems never ever go away.

Now the response about grading papers.

If there is tech to read handwriting, I'd love to know about it!  Smile!  I have
someone grade multiple choice and other objective things via a key I make ahead of
time.  I have someone read me handwritten essay questions, but I also schedule the
writing lab when I can for essay tests so they can print those answers from the computer
or e-mail them.  Our lab space is limited, so it doesn't always work, but having
readers read handwritten ansers is a royal pain, I'll admit.  It is slow and cumbersome,
but it is sometimes unavoidable.  I never have someone read me multiple choice and
such as it takes away time that is better spent elsewhere, and blind teachers need
every second of time they can get, in my opinion.  English is definitely one of the
most grading intensive subjects to be teaching.

Kathy Nimmer: Teacher, Author, Motivational Speaker
http://www.servicedogstories.com
http://guidedogjourney.livejournal.com
Even if the shadows of the valley hide your view,
You still must believe in the mountains.

> From: faith_manion at hotmail.com
> To: nobe-l at nfbnet.org
> Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 15:18:32 -0500
> Subject: [nobe-l] student teaching and advice
> 
> 
> Hello all,
> 
> I am having a meeting this Friday with some of the professors at my university to discuss student teaching. I will be doing my student teaching next spring. For anyone on the list who has completed their student teaching I have a few questions for you.
> 
> 
> 
> What was your experience? What worked? What didn't work? 
> 
> Did someone assist you in the classroom or was it just you and the teacher?
> 
> What did you do instead of having the kids raise their hands to answer questions?
> 
> How did you handle grading papers? I use Kurswell, is there any way to scann in hand written papers with this program? Does anyone else know any other trick for grading hand written papers/ assignments?
> 
> How did you handle classroom management when student teaching? 
> 
> Do you have any advice or suggestions in general?
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks everyone.
> 
> Faith Manion 
> 
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