Amy Reflects
Amy sat down over the weekend to re-write her program. Her anger turned to retrospection. Was her program really vague or was it a mismatch in expectations? Either way she needed to produce a program that had the elements of a ‘good’ program.
As she reflected over the first 8 weeks at PHPS Amy’s thoughts moved from the negative to the positive and she started to recall all the good discussions and creative work the class had produced. She also thought about how the students seemed to enjoy the books she had read and how they all (including Dale, Thomas, José and Jack) seemed to enjoy the singing, role playing, and building the volcanoes in their groups. She was impressed with what Sally could do and she was beginning to think that Sally’s mother was right, she wanted to do more for her and then there was Sam. His social skills were deteriorating and his obsessive behaviours increasing. Amy was curious as to why the students seemed to work so well together some of the time but not all of the time.
How could she get this class under control? How could she get the trouble makers to conform? How could she encourage Jack to stay at school (for a whole day)? How could she determine what discipline techniques would work best with those who were not doing their work and with those who were acting out in class? How could she get the students to work better in groups? Had she started off on the wrong foot? What was she doing wrong? Could the problem be due to the student-centered approach she was using? Perhaps the other teachers were right? What could she do at the school assembly that would prove to the staff at PHPS that she was a competent teacher?
Amy sat down over the weekend to re-write her program. Her anger turned to retrospection. Was her program really vague or was it a mismatch in expectations? Either way she needed to produce a program that had the elements of a ‘good’ program.
As she reflected over the first 8 weeks at PHPS Amy’s thoughts moved from the negative to the positive and she started to recall all the good discussions and creative work the class had produced. She also thought about how the students seemed to enjoy the books she had read and how they all (including Dale, Thomas, José and Jack) seemed to enjoy the singing, role playing, and building the volcanoes in their groups. She was impressed with what Sally could do and she was beginning to think that Sally’s mother was right, she wanted to do more for her and then there was Sam. His social skills were deteriorating and his obsessive behaviours increasing. Amy was curious as to why the students seemed to work so well together some of the time but not all of the time.
How could she get this class under control? How could she get the trouble makers to conform? How could she encourage Jack to stay at school (for a whole day)? How could she determine what discipline techniques would work best with those who were not doing their work and with those who were acting out in class? How could she get the students to work better in groups? Had she started off on the wrong foot? What was she doing wrong? Could the problem be due to the student-centered approach she was using? Perhaps the other teachers were right? What could she do at the school assembly that would prove to the staff at PHPS that she was a competent teacher?
