Classroom Climate

Classroom Organization-
For my classroom I would like to have tables, not desks but tables, preferably rounded or the half octagon table that you can put together. I really like those tables because you can set them up in the common rows set up, or put them together for groups, or shape them together for a discussion circle. I don’t want my classroom to be the typical math décor classroom. I want to find posters of things that my students enjoy but hidden in it there will be some sort of math. For example I have a poster of someone playing music, along with the person playing a guitar there is a sin curve along with it showing different amplitudes of her playing. Along with my physical set up I have to worry about my curriculum set up too. I’m going to be teaching in Maine so of course my curriculum is going to match in some ways to the MLR’s but it’s not going to be completely based around it. I want my students to learn things that are going to be important to them in the real world. I will still have some of the content where they will be wondering why they are doing this math, but the bigger emphasis will be on the real- world aspect of the math. Right now as an education student I would like to think that I will use creative and exciting assessments for the students to show me what they have learned, but at the same time I may have to squeeze a test or a quiz or two in once and a while. I don’t plan on using test as my major assessment. I don’t want the students so think that if they don’t do well on the tests then they fail. I want them to realize that if they don’t do well testing they will have some other way to show their understanding of the content.

Motivation-
NEVER USE GRADES AS MOTIVATION. I had teachers who did that and it would freak kids out. Some kids get a lot of baggage from their parents if they don’t do well with their grades, so using grades as a motivator can sometimes freak kids out. As a teacher I want to motivate students to do their work by having them do engaging activities. If I motivate them by giving them fun and creative activities to do, that way I don’t need to bribe them with something in order for them to want to learn.

Discipline-
When it comes to my thoughts on discipline in the classroom I have a hard time thinking about my opinion. I hate disciplining, because I have a hard time finding the middle. At the beginning of the year I would like to have my students along with myself come up with the classroom rules. I think that students should be involved with this because it will help them; 1.) Remember the rules better, 2) Respect the Rules more, 3) and maybe adjust them when they see something going wrong in the classroom.

Classroom Setup-
One part of my teaching style that I’ve never been quite sure on is how to group my students when we do activities. On one hand I believe that you should mix students because it is good to have all types of learners mixed together. They can all bring something different to the activity. On the other side of things, sometimes students that are at the higher level of thinking may take over and not give the other students a chance to share their ideas towards the activity that they are working on.