Josh Pidkowa Education 2500 logbook/reflective Journal

Practicum 3: Wednesday, May 17 2017

Today was the third day of my ED 2500 practicum, and for today's journal entry I would like to focus on
classroom management. I have chosen to write about this as today required an immense amount of it. The
students were difficult and rowdy throughout the day, and I felt my first inkling of being stressed out and
overwhelmed. Though there were a number of different events that could be examined, I would like to focus
on one instance in particular. At one moment during the afternoon, not long after lunch, I had difficulty dealing
with one of my students. After I had noticed that he had not progressed on his assignment since I had last
passed his desk, I enquired as to why. He told me that another student (who sits across from him) had been
bothering him and that he wished to move to a different spot in the class. Upon offering him a different seat he
suddenly changed his mind and refused to move...despite retaining his stance that the student opposite him
was a distraction and that he would not be able to complete his work while sitting across from her. He became
obstinate and refused to listen to my authority. I did not know what solution to take and informed my TA so
that she could remedy the situation. She had a discussion with the student out in the hall, and the issue was
soon put to rest, the student complying with her request.

The above event was my first moment of paralysis in the classroom. I had asked a student to take an
action that I deemed appropriate to the situation...an action that he had actually expressed a clear desire to
take. However he had refused and I did not know what to do. Why had the student acted this way? I honestly
do not know. Perhaps the time of day had something to do with it, after all, we had finished the lunch break
and perhaps he was wound up. Perhaps he had been having numerous negative interactions with the other
student for that day, and my asking him to move instead of her seemed like an injustice. I simply am not sure
why he reacted as he did, but it was my deer in the headlights moment. How does a teacher manage
situations like these? After all, what can a teacher do if a student refuses to respect their authority?

Since starting my practicum (however short it has been so far) I have never seen a student fail to
comply with the requests of my TA. She commands a type of quiet authority that all of the students appear to
respect, and even if they are wildly misbehaving they capitulate when she tells them to move desks, sit out
from an activity, or separate from a peer that is distracting them. I have never seen one of them say NO! and
flat out refuse...so I had no model on which to base my behavior. I felt rather ashamed to have to go to my TA
and get her involved in the situation, but I didn't know what else to do. It crossed my mind that perhaps I
should have then moved the other student once he had refused...but I didn't wish to appear to capitulate to
the demands of an obstinate student. What precedent would that set? I ask a student to do something, they
whine and refuse, so a back down and do as THEY ask? It didn't seem appropriate to me, but perhaps it would
have worked. The thought that kept coming back to me was that I am a new person to these students, a person
they have not cultivated a relationship with yet, so therefore I have not had the opportunity to develop the
same authoritative position in relation to them yet. But that raises a very interesting and difficult
question...how does one cultivate such a relationship? I am not used to positions of authority, I have never
been a boss of other people in any of my employment history. Though I am often a leader in social situations
(like say building a fence in my backyard with friends), those types of interaction are among peers who willingly
take their positions of their own accord (either leading or following by choice) and whose interactions are
entirely voluntary. Being a teacher is different. The students are not necessarily in the classroom due to their
own will, and they are not (necessarily) voluntarily taking a position under an authority figure. They have to do
so because those are the rules...and sometimes they aren't going to want to follow those rules. This is
something that I have absolutely no experience in, and to be suddenly faced with a problem that I didn't have
the tools to solve really rocked me back on my heels.

Also, the situation is complicated by the fact that I am a student teacher. I am a GUEST in this
classroom, a guest of the school and of my TA. The last thing I would want would be to take an action that
would be frowned upon by my TA, and since I had no real guide to follow (as I had not witnessed my TA deal
with such a situation) I was left somewhat lost. The strategy that I have seen my TA use a number of times,
though not in this exact situation, is the threat of talking to your parent(s) after school. I wish I had thought
to try that approach, but I failed to think of it at the time. Though the students typically respect my TA's
authority, the talk to your parents line seems to be extremely effective at getting students to end their
disruptive behavior when other methods fail. Of course, simple strategies are not enough, and I realize that a
respectful relationship must be cultivated at all times in order to keep a classroom under control. The difficulty
that this task poses I find extremely overwhelming to think about. Without commanding authority and respect
(even over students in grade 1!) a classroom could quickly devolve into utter chaos. Figuring out the steps to
developing this type of relationship will be a big task, but an absolutely essential one if I wish to be an effective
teacher.

Following the event I couldn't help but ponder how much things must have changed over the past
century; in times past such actions would simply be answered by a swift smack with a ruler or strap but
obviously those types behaviors are entirely inappropriate (not to mention illegal and cruel) in a classroom
today. I should note that when my TA solved this problem she did so by pulling the student aside and
explaining the situation to him and what I was trying to do. The conversation went something like this:

Do you know what Mr.. P was trying to do?

It's not my fault! I don't know why he was trying to get me in trouble!

Well, you were having trouble concentration while working near xxxxx and Mr.. P offered to move you.
Does that sound like he was trying to get you in trouble, or that he was trying to help you?

Oh.

Instantly he understood that I wasn't trying to come down on him, just trying to fix a problem. Somehow I
hadn't communicated that properly. Once he understood that I was just trying to help him he had no problem
doing as I asked. This is an area that I have such little knowledge or experience in that I will need to do much,
much more learning and I think this currently represents the biggest challenge I have faced so far.