On Classroom Management
Ok well, this one isn't about literacy. But it's definitley related. Because if you want your kids to learn at all, you need good classroom management techniques. Or else you will find yourself spending half of classtime just trying to get the kids to behave. Unfortunately, our graduate program doesn't include any coursework on classroom management. I decided to bring this up in my methods class (there's just three of us in the LOTE group!) and so our instructor gave us each a different book on classroom management to review. We have to present the main ideas to each other this weekend. I'm psyched because I just got Office 2007 and I made a pretty spiffy powerpoint presentation (I haven't had powerpoint since my undergrad days!) so I thought I'd try and share it here. Trying to put it online kind of messed it up a little bit and some parts look funny or unclear. But I hope that you can get something useful out of it for your own use in the classroom.
Very cool presentation. One of the things I really liked is the point that students need to learn self-monitoring and control. If a student behaves in your class but not in other venues, have they really learned anything. At best, they're behaving because of whatever external structures you've put into place, but they haven't learned self management. If one of our goals as teachers is for students to become independent learners, self management is part of it.
One other point I'd like to make is that I greatly appreciate how your methods teacher responds to your needs and interests. That is one of the signs of a good teacher.