For each week's post, you can answer the question below. Each week we will focus on a different disposition or element of the Conceptual Framework. Feel free to post your own questions for your classmates as well.
Respect:
How did your supervising teacher express respect in and out of the classroom? Provide concrete and behavioral examples to that relate back to the characteristics of the dispositions.
Think about the following aspects of respect in your answer:
- interactions with students, parents, colleagues, observers
- reflects on performance
- courteous, polite, and friendly
- sensitivity to diversity
Obviously when working with children with special needs, we are not going to be expecting/giving out the typical respect that we do to "regular people". The school where I observe really exemplifies respect. The teachers never mock the students, and when a student needs to be rebuked or reminded to behave, the teacher does it in the firmest, but nicest way possible. Additionally, some of the teenagers are frum and some are not, so they respect the halachik needs that need to be kept(i.e. the women do not touch a boy who is shomer negiah, and they do not make a certain boy go swimming when it is mixed). They also thank and reward the students when they act properly, and are nothing less than friendly to the teenagers.
ReplyDeleteThere is a chart a Green circle that means good, a yellow circle that means doing ok, and red circle, which means behaving badly. When a kid(s) are misbehaving, she tells them to stop and to focus on what they are doing. However there are 27 kids in her kindergarden class and so it gets a bit out of hand, so if a kid is misbehaving she removes his pin from the starting point, the green smily face to the yellow smiley face. The teacher will move it back to green if he his behaving and respecting the teacher. Or, she will move the personalized pin to the red frowny face. She says, "One two three eye on me," which works and she will also tap her legs and ask for them to follow and tap her head and so on till she gets all their attention. There is a helper that is there in the morning and an assistant. The teacher allows me do help with the kids which is great.I will tell some kids wh are talking to turn around. There were two girls in the class that were talking about a girl sitting next to them at the table I let it go on, because I was standing right there so I thought if I stood there they would stop. The they started whispering, and I told them to stop. I walked away to help a boy with his project, but unfortunatley they were still gossiping. I felt bad for that poor girl. They are 5...already?
ReplyDeleteThe teacher that I observed was respectful towards her students. After explaining one of the assignments, she noticed a few groups were doing it wrong. She stopped the class and told everyone a mistake one of the groups made without mentioning names, to help prevent everyone else from making that same mistake. She did it in a respectful way. Also, she mainly called on the students who were raising their hands. She respected that those who did not raise their hands did not want to answer. However she did call on certain students that did not raise their hands some times when she felt it was necessary, to involve them and include them.
ReplyDeleteI actually keep noticing this disposition in my teacher. She is so respectful of the diversity among her students. It's a Jewish school, and the diversity is most apparent in the religious levels of the students. I don't want to get too specific (our confidentiality policy), but it's obvious that the teacher is not one of those people who looks down on people who are different from her. The class involves a lot of discussion, and she is always careful to respect her students' opinions, even when she disagrees with them. She really meets them on their respective levels. The effect this has on the students is that they feel confident and comfortable to voice their opinions, because they're not afraid of being looked down upon. The teacher is also very careful to reflect on her reactions to things that happen in the classroom. She once asked me my opinion about something that had occured in a class that I had not attended. It was obvious that she was bothered because she was afraid a comment she had made perhaps made her sound like she didn't respect a certain lifestyle choice of most of her students. She was really bothered by the possibility, and it made me realize even more how careful we have to be as teachers to be respectful.
ReplyDeleteChana mentioned something that I've always wondered about. As a teacher, how do you know when to call on a student and involve them, and when to leave them be? It seems like hit-or-miss a lot of the time to me.
ReplyDeleteI want to elaborate on what Ruthie said about "respect" regarding children with special needs. I agree with Ruthie, and I think that it's extremely important to respect children with special needs. Even if their physical or mental capacities are impaired, they are still people and they deserve to be respected.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I think that it's important not only for the child, but also for the teacher. If the teacher treats each and every child with respect, she will feel differently about them. She will feel that each child is special in their own way. This very likely will cause her to invest more time and energy in helping each child succeed. Therefore, I conclude the respect is an integral disposition for an educator and especially a special educator!
One thing I've noticed about many teachers is the different ways that they speak about their students. Some, particularly in the younger grades, will share information right in front of the kids, as if the students won't notice or care. The teacher that I work with often will share looks of exasperation with me, which is probably instinctive, but not necessarily positive. A different teacher that I recently observed made time to explain, etc. about the students after class, when the kids were not present, something that gave me more respect for her as well.
ReplyDeleteThe main classroom in which I observe recently got another, much more challenged, student. I was impressed with the way that the teacher explained certain ones of her achievements to the other students in a respectful manner, leaving little room for mocking, etc. This student needed more rewards more often, but the teacher explained how these tasks are much more difficult for her and everyone should recognize her achievements. I thought that was an important way to respectfully show the students respect for each other as well.
In regard to Chana and Avigails' question, I agree that it seems really hard to know without knowing the student well enough and how much to push. I think that for "knowledge" questions, it's not fair to embarrass a student by asking and risking that he won't know. Personally, I hate oral quizzes, where the whole class may see you fail one question, and not realize that it was too stressful to answer or you really know other answers. Kids figure out who is smart or challenged scholastically on their own, and I don't think that putting kids on scholastic stage is very respectful. Perhaps though, in opinion discussions, etc, more voices need to be encouraged, sometimes when they don't volunteer themselves.
The teacher I observed was respected by her class, and they all followed the rules. However, I was not impressed by her respect towards her students. She yelled a lot, and was not very sensitive to the kids who needed help. I think that sensitivity and kindness, combined with firmness, are crucial to respect. While you do need to be disciplinary, you need to do so in a nice way. It’s a balance, because they can’t treat you like a doormat, but they still need to feel cared for and important. The teacher I observed was very good at the discipline part, but I think she needs to work on the sensitivity part. Nonetheless, she is a very good teacher, and she really does try hard to do her best.
ReplyDeleteMy supervising teacher expresses respect in the classroom in a few ways. When a student is speaking she makes sure to listen to him or her carefully. When a student is speaking out of tern she tells them "I listened to you when you speak, now its my tern." I think this helps the students feel respected because she truly is listening to what the students have to say and expects the same in return. She also corrects the students if they forget to say please or thank you to one another. However, sometimes I think it can come off as a little harsh. I think her goal is to teach the students to be polite and treat everyone respectfully.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to calling on a student who doesn't raise their hand, I think it is a really big issue. I think sometimes it might be necessary to do so to keep students paying attention. However, I remember teachers doing that when i was in school and feeling really embarrassed if i didn't know the answer.
ReplyDeleteThe teacher who I am observing is very respectful of me, but at times I am not sure about the students. There were certain disciplinary that she took which I felt was an embarrassment to the child. Additionally, there were times when she gave me a funny look if a student answered a question incorrectly, that said to me, "wow this child has his head somewhere else." She gives good feedback, but sometimes I think she should give a little more to students who are incorrect instead of simply saying, "okaaay." She is polite, yet I would not call her friendly. She is a tough, older woman. Because her classroom is multicultural she has to accommodate all her students. I have never seen her do this in the time I was there, but I have never heard her say something from which another child would take offense.
ReplyDeleteI had the same problem with oral quizzes as Nechama Leiba. Even if I kwew all the answers I was still very nervous during the quiz. Written quizzes are a much better option. In regard to calling on students during the class, teachers will call on those raising their hands the most frequently, but they should make sure to call on the ones not volunteering as well. I do not remember if Dr. Erenberg said this or if I read it somewhere, that teachers should call on the child who is not volunteering, and then pose the question. If the student still does not know, she should give a choice of two or three answers.
ReplyDeleteAlso it is really important like Nechama Leiba said not to talk about the students in front of them.In one classroom I observed, the teachers spoke loudly about how they do not listen, and all the other different issues. There was a very negative feeling in the room. Children are not stupid, even young students realize that they are being spoken about.
I recently observed a class in which there is a lot of discussion about hashkafa. This particular class of girls has a range in regard to both maturity and level of frumkeit (including where there families are holding). I found it vary interesting that even thought the teacher didn't seem to do a lot of directing or instructing behavior, she managed to create an atmosphere in which every student feels comfortable asking questions and sharing personal feelings and stories. I give credit to the students for respecting each other, and I give a lot of credit to the teacher who leads by example, oftentimes stopping to check in with the girls to make sure that she hasn't embarrassed anyone by accident or not given a particular issue the amount of attention the girls think it deserves.
ReplyDeleteI've seen some wonderful examples of the way that teacher's can show respect towards their students. I see it in the way that the teachers interact with their students. Even when the students make mistakes or have trouble with the material, the teachers are very willing to work with them and give them extra help, and offer it in a way that doesn't sound the least bit frustrated or "why don't you get it yet?" type of voice. The teachers just quietly offer their help so as to maintain the dignity of the students, and each student can still hold their heads up proudly before their peers, whether they've received extra help or not.
ReplyDeletethe students show that they respect their teacher by calling her by her teaching name.they listen immediatley to the teacher when she tells them to move to the next activity. she is very kind to everybody that walks into the room and she makes sure to know their names. she accepts other cultures besides her own and shows this by reading them books about other cultures and their customs.
ReplyDelete