Marc
Finks
Module 4
– Unit 6 - Activity 4
Video and
Reflection
Both Mr.
Torres and Ms. Felix are first year teachers. Even though they have different
approaches, I do like their attitudes about how they want to interact with
their students from the first day of class. Mr. Torres keeps stating that he’s
nerdy, which I think some of the ‘cooler’ kids may sneer at, but I think he’s
trying to show the students that it’s okay to be smart and to like odd things.
He smiles a lot and shows personal photos and tells them that he believes that
school should be fun, rather than boring, and then he had the students create
name cards and introduce themselves to each other.
All of
this is an excellent way of building rapport with the students and creating a
classroom environment where the students get to know each other a bit, which
can help them to feel more comfortable with one another and respect each other.
However, he didn’t seem to notice students using their cell phones, and didn’t
really establish any rules or expectations besides having fun, and so that is
something that will lead to classroom issues for him later on. As Marzano
(2009) noted, “Regardless of how well behaved students in a given class might
be, they still need rules and procedures” (Marzano, p.117)
Ms.
Felix’s goal was to set an environment where kids respect each other and
themselves. She does a good job of establishing routines and having the
students come up with rules and possible consequences because this can help the
students believe that the rules are fair because they came up with them
themselves. She tries to do a “superstar” project where each student has to
write something on a piece of paper to say why they’re awesome, but she doesn’t
seem to understand why her students are reluctant to do this. She says that she
wants the students to know that she cares about them and that she believes in
them, but showing them this through interactions with them, and just having
them write something on the first day of class that other kids may tease them
about are two different things.
Both Mr.
Torres and Ms. Felix have great interaction with their students one-on-one or
in small groups, and the students seem to feel that they can trust them and
don’t hesitate to ask questions. They also both come up with great,
collaborative projects that are engaging and can help build class rapport, and
from the scenes that were shown in the video, the students do seem to get along
well.
However,
both teachers have serious control issues. In one of the classes, the students
were just joking and making rude comments when the teacher asked them to do
something and there wasn’t any negative reprisals. One of the mentors mentioned
how teachers need to change their tone and pitch of their voice to show that
someone has done something wrong and that they’re displeased, and this is
something I completely agree with. Students should trust their teacher – like
they can trust their parents – but, just like
their parents, students should recognize from the tone of voice if they
are behaving satisfactorily or not.
I’ve
also had the issue that Ms. Felix faced during the confrontation where none of
her students wanted to do the work or respond to her questions. It’s a horrible
situation, but I think that teachers oftentimes views that situation from the
wrong perspective. It’s not that the students want to make the teacher angry or
for themselves to get in trouble. It’s more about that they either aren’t sure
how to complete the assignment, and/or they are afraid that they’ll look stupid
or feel embarrassed if they try to do it and fail. I have found that when the
directions are very clear, and there are certain steps that the students know
for sure that they can complete without any help, then they will be much more
willing to do what’s asked of them. As one of the mentors said, we expect
students to know how to do everything that we ask of them, and we often forget
that they probably don’t understand what we expect for them to do.
At the
end, both teachers seem to have positive relationships with their students. Mr.
Torres works really well one-on-one with his students and he has a great
relationship with them. And I really liked Ms. Felix’s incentive program where
she lets students retake tests. As she mentioned, she changed from averaging
their scores to just giving them their best scores because the goal is for them
to master the material. I think the fact that she shows that she truly cares
that the students are learning, as opposed to just testing them once and
getting a grade written into the test book, is something that the students can
recognize and respond to.
References
-
Marzano,
R., & Brown, J. (2009). A handbook for the art and science of teaching. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
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