 Student teacher: managing kids learned on the job
By Julie Poppen News Staff Writer University of Colorado at Boulder instructor Sherie McClam is talking about teaching science. She questions her class of teachers-to-be about the validity of the scientific method. It's 8 a.m. The mostly female students work in groups. Tables are littered with bottles of water and soft drinks. Eyelids droop. When they do, McClam occasionally blows her train whistle. Senior Dani Broe's long, strawberry blond hair pours over her sweatshirt. She's wearing jeans and chewing gum. But she's alert and responding to questions. McClam moves about the room, spotting a student working a crossword puzzle. The puzzle disappears as McClam moves closer. "Proximity management," McClam says, taking the opportunity to explain how walking near the student had made the objectionable behavior stop. "It's a great tool, so move around," McClam adds. For CU teaching students, this is about as close as it gets to formal instruction on how to maintain classroom discipline. There's a single unit on classroom management in a required education psychology course. Otherwise, the students learn by observing. Broe and her peers must demonstrate competency in the area of classroom management before they can earn a teaching license from the state. Lorrie Shepard, dean of the School of Education at CU-Boulder, says it wouldn't make sense to carve out a two-or three-credit class on discipline when student schedules are cramped as it is. "There's not a body of knowledge there," she says. "It's so much a part of motivational theory, which we do teach. It's cognitive to a certain degree. After that, it's technique." In other words, you have to get down and dirty in the classroom yourself, either during student-teaching or in your first job, to figure out what works for you. Dani Broe, a stellar student, attended public schools in Colorado Springs. She has not yet experienced being in charge of a classroom. She doesn't know how good she'll be at discipline. "I think it has a lot to do with the teacher," says Broe, a psychology major. "Sometimes students know what is expected and that's that." She does know she wants to teach fifth grade. Broe visits two schools in the Adams 12 School District each week. She says she's learned a lot from watching veteran teacher Marnie Danielski and her fifth-graders at Westminster's Arapahoe Ridge Elementary, the school where Broe will do her student-teaching next spring. Broe will also take a course in classroom management conducted by the Adams 12 school district. Broe and two other CU students are in Danielski's class one afternoon. Sharon Rowan, a CU lecturer, is observing. Later, Rowan debriefs the CU students. They discuss Danielski's classroom management techniques, noting how Danielski seems to respect her students as human beings. "That really shines through in the way the students treat her and each other," Broe says. "She expects them to use manners with her, and in turn, they use the manners with classmates." Danielski compliments her students often. There's a point system. Teams of students earn points if they stay "on task" or are respectful. They lose points for being disruptive. "I think she really tries to avoid singling kids out when they do something she doesn't appreciate," Broe says. Broe also observes Vince Ardito's third-grade class at Mountain View Elementary School in Broomfield for a full day each week. Students sit in rows in a stuffy, portable classroom. During a test last month, Ardito, seated in the rear of the room, hears chatter. More students fidget. Ardito tells the class to stand up. He asks them to raise their hands and wiggle their fingers. He tells them to wiggle their wrists. Soon, students are wiggling everything along with Ardito. "I use my body and size and humor to come across with the kids a lot," Ardito says. "Shock value is really effective for me." Classroom management is not something you can learn in a college classroom, says Ardito, who has taught for 11 years. "You can get all this clinical stuff from professors, but until you're actually there working it out, you can't see what works with your personality," Ardito says. For Ardito, what works best is "bribery." Students get "Wow!" cards when they're being extra good. That could mean the child gets to go to the playground early or eat lunch with the principal. On the other end of Ardito's carrot-and-stick system is the stick, literally. Envelopes are taped to a wall — each with a student's name on it. The envelopes are empty at the start of the day. If a student does something bad, a Popsicle stick is dropped into the envelope. Two Popsicle sticks means the child has to take a time-out in the back of the room, facing the wall. Sanctions get progressively worse, ending with suspension. Broe feels uncomfortable with the stick approach at first. Then, she discovers it works. "One time I used it because there were two boys that were really acting up," Broe says. "I don't think they quite take me seriously since I'm 'just an intern.' One girl even said, 'Whoa, now she's acting like a real teacher.' " Ardito says keeping the peace can be more difficult for teachers who try to be too friendly with the children. Without referring to Broe, it's clear he has her in mind. "You're not their friend but you are," Ardito says. "You have to walk that line. You are the educator, the adult, the teacher. You are also someone they ought to be able to come to and feel comfortable with." Back at CU, in her education psychology course, Broe learns the terminology for things she's witnessed in elementary classes. CU graduate student Liz Mayhon addresses four approaches that teachers can use to create a peaceful and constructive classroom environment. They range from the teacher being an authoritarian at the head of the class to creating a "democratic community of learners." Mayhon orders the students into small groups. They are to come up with strategies and share them with the rest of the class. Broe's group floats ideas: A reading area with huge, stuffed animals; a teacher table that is low so children can access it; ending each negative comment with a positive one. But they don't want to emulate all the examples they've witnessed. CU student Meredith Keating cringes as she recounts watching one teacher. "She's 50-years-ago authoritative," Keating says. She wants to whip the ruler on a kid's desk. She scares me." Then, as she often does, Broe lets out a small, nervous laugh. No one said it is going to be easy. Contact Julie Poppen at (303) 892-5176 or poppenj@RockyMountainNews.com. |
Age: 22
