For the rest of this school year, I am a building sub for a local Montessori school. I have been able to cover grades Kindergarten through 9th grade. It has been a great experience meeting a lot of teachers, staff, and students along the way. For this observation, I was able to observe a mixed age class with grades 1-3. The teacher I was observing has been at the school for six years now and has been a teacher for much longer. This last week, I was able to be in this teachers' class for the day to help out and observe. We will call her "teacher one". During the middle of the day, I went over to another 1-3 class and observed for 20 minutes to just observe any differences in teaching style, methods, etc. This short 20-minute observation was with a new teacher who had just completed her residency and has taken over this class from another teacher that left. We will call this teacher, "teacher two".
In teacher one's class, she began the day with everyone sitting in their assigned spots on the rug. There, she went over the days schedule and expectations along with a short language lesson. Throughout the day, the schedule was followed and students had clear expectations on what they were to be doing during each item on the schedule. Everyone did silent reading at the same time, everyone had snack at the same time, everyone did computer work at the same time, everyone had writing practice at the same time. During the class, teacher one has a bell on the wall that she will "ding" quietly to get her students attention to be able to let them know to clean up or to transition to the next activity. When working on assignments, teacher one had a magnetic board with the students' names on magnets, if a student needed their work checked or had questions and needed help, they simply switched their name over to the other side and we knew they would need us.
When I went over to teacher two's classroom, they were combining snack and work cycle time where students are able to choose which activities they want to work on but are expected to be working on something the entire time during that time. It seemed like most students were focused on their snack and not doing work. A few students were focusing well and doing what they were supposed to be doing. A few other students were trying to get their computers out and teacher two said they could if they were doing one specific math game. They did not have a system for checking off work other than simply raising their hand or getting the teachers attention.
I learned a lot during these observations. Students (and kids) really thrive off of structure and clear boundaries. One of the things my own residency teacher told me was that students need rules and boundaries and that as the teachers, we need to set those and never allow students to cross those boundaries because if we do, then they push and push and push no matter how often you stick to your guns after that. It is really up to us, as educators to maintain the structure and boundaries for our students to create the best learning environment possible.
Allowing the students to take accountability by switching their names over but also teaching them patience by having to wait for their turn to come up was really genius. Also having a bell that the students can listen for to know they are transitioning to a new activity was also a very good idea. This created a calm atmosphere and was a quiet way of letting the students know that it is time to clean up etc. Keeping the entire class on the same activity and doing only one activity at a time seemed to be much more effective than combining activities or allowing students to veer off of the activity they were supposed to be doing.
This reaffirmed what I had learned during my own residency. Boundaries and structure are very important to the classroom. It is difficult enough to keep 20+ kids on task without allowing side quests to occur. This was a good experience to have right before summer as I am beginning my first full time teaching position in the fall. Being able to keep these lessons in mind while I manage my own classroom will be very helpful. I discussed these differences with teacher one and she agreed that having that structure for the students is one reason her classroom runs successfully (most of the time, because we all do our best!).
#reflectivepractice #research
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