The fourth day of my second practicum marks the last day at TISKL, and with a heavy heart I performed my last duties as a student-teacher. I came into school performing my usual routine of signing the entrance sheet and walking into the classroom placing my belongings behind and greeting the students and parents one last time for the week. Assisting the students to place their bags and lunchboxes at their respective places. Later, I guided the students with their maths homework and further settled the class in a calm and ready to learn manner. Ms’ Keren came in class and begin the lesson with maths and she continued teaching the next lesson about English literature. For English literature, we all went down to the library for a reading session on the Fairy-tale story called Jack and the Beanstalk. The students were assigned to read the story in their respective groups and later on Ms’ Keren read the story aloud with a pause and blanks for every two sentences to be completed by the students. There was only two lessons on that very day because it was the first parent-teacher meeting of the year event as well. The parent-teacher event took place from 1.15pm-3.15pm but before the meeting another reason why the lesson of the day was just subjected to two lessons is because there was an activity assigned to the year three pupils. The activity took up to about 2 hours of class time and the activity was about making Chinese lantern by using ang pau papers with strings and decorative items. The materials was asked to bring by the students themselves the day before, I and Krissie wrote a reminder on their communication book the day before about the significance of bringing the items to school on Friday and the reminder of the parent-teacher day as well. Speaking about the communication book, it is a book whereby the teachers and the parents communicate regarding about the homework, the school events and any concerns regarding about the students. Once Ms’ Keren was done with her lessons, we all begin to help students carry out the activity. I honestly enjoyed doing the arts and crafts with the students. It was a very engaging activity for both students and teachers. All the students were very excited with the by-product of their lantern. I and Krissie help decorate the class with the student’s lanterns by hanging them on spaces provided around the walls of the classroom. The class ended with the activity and soon after the parent-teacher meeting begun. Before the meeting took place, Ms’ Keren assigned me and Krissie to do the final marking round of the books and provide sufficient remarks for parents to review their children's books. We were also asked to group each student’s books namely English 1, English 2, Maths, Science and IPC individually. The job was not as easy as it sounded. I and Krissie manage to work hand in hand by checking each other's work and going through the list of names for parents of students who were interested incoming for the parent-teacher day. The work load on me and Krissie was a lot that on we even forgot to take our lunch. Anyhow this always happens in a teacher's life, we tend to give our 100 percent into our jobs and we slowly start neglecting small breaks and lunches just to ensure that our work is completed as per requested. We ended our final day by saying our heartiest thank you to Ms. Keren Bala for guigind us throughout the entire one week of our practicum and left the premise of the school by signing the sign-in-sign-out sheet one last time.

 

            Entirely, the whole experience in TISKL, has taught me a lot about managing a classroom and handling day-today teacher duties. Classroom management is a delicate balancing act often learned through experience and trial-and-error experimentation. Whether you're a new or experienced teacher, having strategies for effective classroom management is essential for creating positive, successful learning spaces. To make my experience more meaningful I would like to share the basic rules that I have learnt throughout my one week of practicum at TISKL. Teaching is tough job, no doubt about it. And working with young children can be a little overwhelming at times, especially when class sizes are large. But many seasoned educators have a sixth sense when it comes to classroom management—what works and what doesn’t—and thankfully, many of their strategies I have picked up from Ms’ Keren Bala.

 

               It is important to establish rules on the first day of class, and always follow through on the specified rewards for achievement and consequences for misbehaviour. If you allow a student to get away with misbehaviour without consequence even once, you’ve opened the door to future misbehaviour and negotiation of rules. This is particularly important at the beginning of the year, when you’re building your students’ trust in you as their teacher. Moreover, it is also significant to keep the goal of learning in mind as educators and to ensure students know why the rules are what they are: “We walk instead of running in the hallway because we want to make sure that everyone is safe.” And fit the consequence to the crime: If a student makes a mess of the art supplies, the logical consequence is to clean it up. Arbitrary punishments like losing recess, or something else unrelated to the offense, teach students that you are mean and trying to force a power struggle. I learned that it is equally important to give students agency over their learning environment, which gets them feeling responsible for their own learning. Create rules together as a class, encourage those with leadership personalities to direct the in-class discussion, and walk around instead of standing up front for the entire lesson so that you aren’t the funnel for conversation. Ms’ Keren taught me to ask students to “check” themselves, as in “Check yourself to see if you are using your indoor voice,” which sends the message that you see the students as individuals who are capable of handling themselves. I learned that it is also good to give constant feedback about good behaviours: “I notice that Dani has her book out and is ready to go. Now her whole row is ready!” But keep the emphasis on the behaviour, not on the teacher’s approval. Ms’ Keren reminded me to avoid saying, “I like how…” because it doesn’t matter what the teacher likes. 

 

                Ms’ Keren substantially guided me about how not all students learn at the same pace. Stick with those who don’t understand the topic and check in with them regularly to help them keep up to speed and don’t get frustrated and act out in response. On the flipside, bored students cause problems. Make sure that as an educator, you are challenging the students who move more quickly through the material by over-planning and preparing extra, quiet activities. For example, if a student has finished their still life painting with 20 minutes to spare, challenge them to step up to the next level — introduce an unfamiliar object and a clean piece of paper. Due to the week being a parent-teacher day on the last day of the teaching week; I have learned that it is significant to make contact with parents early and often. Encourage attendance at parent-teacher conferences, if the school uses them, and demonstrate that you as an educator would want to work with the parents to instruct their children to the best of your ability. If you develop a good relationship with the parents, you’ll open a dialogue between parent, student, and teacher that allows for a freer flow of feedback — and it always helps to have the parents’ trust. On the first day of my practicum I learned that it is important to perform interactive model behaviour as a teacher. The first time as a teacher when you do something, you must show the students how to do it. Then ask them to share what they noticed about what you did. Then ask a student to do it, and discuss that action with the class. Then have the whole class practice. If you go slow the first time, you’ll be able to go faster later with the assurance that all the students know how to perform the action the right way. The use of defectiveness and proximity helps assists a teacher to handle students who lack in paying attention during the lesson. For instant, if a student is misbehaving in class, continue the lesson but walk over and stand next to them. Having a teacher so close usually shuts down a student’s misbehaviour according to my mentor. Ms’ Keren use a direct question to snap them back into the lesson: “Nate, why do you think Jack climbed up the beanstalk?” Ms’ Keren told me to be sure to start the call-out with their name so that they hear the full question.

 

               Lastly, I learned that it is important to be organised as a teacher. My mentor mentioned to me that structure, both within a lesson and throughout the academic term, will help your students stay on top of their work. Write the day’s activities on the board before class. Hand out a syllabus at the beginning of the semester and stick to it; if you get off track, provide a revised syllabus so that students always know where they are in the course. During class, be prepared for each ensuing activity; lag time waste both your and your students’ time and introduces apathy into the classroom. Hence that would summarise my assistantship period of one week at TISKL. It was indeed an experience that would contribute a life-long reflection to me being an educator.