My teacher Mr. M has been teaching for nearly 40 years. Being a very tall man with a *very* deep voice is his basic classroom management plan. When students get rowdy and off topic, whistling loudly and saying "HEY!" seems to quiet them. Students do not have assigned seating or lab partners, and in general it seems to work well enough. I have noticed many students whispering and talking frequently during the class when he is teaching. When it gets out of control he will move students in an attempt to limit the chatter.
When he lectures he general talks and expects students to take notes. He also writes the important points on the chalkboard so they can write it down. He is a TERRIBLE speller (worse than me!), but he uses it as an opportunity to interact with students. The first day of school he assigns one student to be the designated spell checker, but all students see it as an opportunity to correct the teacher.
As he is an older teacher, technology beyond the chalk board and occasional overhead do not feature prominently into his teaching style. His classroom also does not have a projector so it is not as if he is not utilizing his resources. Students also watch video clips not infrequently. I know that he enjoys doing labs and tries to have one every week. In general the labs tend to be very cookie cutter, but his discussion and conclusion questions do require students to think and draw conclusions from their observations.
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Hey Kate, your teacher sounds like his experiences have made his "whistle and HEY!" technique work well for him. I hope to not have to yell to my students to get them to quiet down.Haha I like that there is a designated spell checker. I will need one of those for myself. I like that you have labs every week even if they are cookie cutter. Students need to have some hands on experience and I also like that your teacher makes the students think during the discussion questions. Good luck the rest of the semester.
ReplyDeleteI think it will go great. His first parts of class are not well used, and the last part of class is chaotic as students pack up nearly 5 minutes before class is over. He doesn't see it as a problem, but I know I hope to reclaim those minutes in my future classroom.
ReplyDeleteMy teacher also uses the overhead for notes! It is so boring! No wonder the kids don't like to pay attention! I really like power point for the ability to tie in a lot of pictures and graphs. My teacher spends a lot of time going from the overhead to the projector with pictures. I guess they are just used to these old fashioned methods!
ReplyDeleteAlso there simply isn't a projector in the classroom. While it is possible to borrow one from the library it is not efficient to get it everyday, plus other teachers need to use it too.
ReplyDeleteToday however he did use an Opaque Projector. Think old school ELMO to project pictures from varies textbooks and resources. Every kid in every class loved the crazy contraption.