Days 17-21: September 17th-21st

This week I decided I needed more help with classroom management, so I visited Mrs. Irvine's class this week, another English teacher down the hall. I talked to my dad on the phone for about an hour and determined that I don't know if I am managing my classroom well because I haven't any other experience or classroom to compare it too and my dad agreed with me that it would be a good idea to visit some of the other teachers' classrooms to see how they do classroom management. Well, Mrs. Irvine did not disappoint! She is very strict with her students, but she is fair and most importantly, her students know that she cares about them. She is very consistent in keeping her classroom rules. If someone talked without raising their hand, she would say, "That's not how we talk in my classroom," and then she would ignore them until they did raise their hand. A few good things I want to try in my classroom:
1. She interviews every single one of her students about how they feel like they are doing in class. What they do or don't like about English. How they feel about reading. What can she do to make the class better. Etc. The interviews only lasted a minute or two, but I believe every student left the interview feeling that not only did they have a say in how the class was run, but that their teacher truly cared about them. I am doing to do this in my classroom before the end of the quarter. I have already gotten the 3x5 cards and boxes for each class.
2. She puts her kids in tribes. They stay in these same tribes for the whole year. They make a tribe flag, they help earn points for each other, and they compete against the other tribes in their class. Mrs. Irvine says that tribes are a great way to build good classroom communities. She says that I really need to get the book. She says that she uses it as her classroom bible and it has so many ideas for reaching learners of all intelligences.
3. She has a noise monitoring machine. It looks like a stoplight. It turns yellow if the noise level starts to get too loud and if it goes over the limit she set, then the light turns red and an alarm goes off. Before she put the students in their tribes to work, she set the machine and told them that if it goes off three times, that they would have homework. It went off once. It was really effective for helping the kids keep their voices down and to stay focused while Mrs. Irvine conducted interviews.
4. She has certain jobs in the classroom that kids can apply for. They have to submit a resume just like they would a job interview. She says that it gets pretty competitive. The kids who do score the jobs can earn citizenship points and money to put towards their grades. If a particular student who has a job doesn't need the money or points, then they can give it to someone in their class who does need it. I really like this idea, but I'm afraid that if I try to implement this too this year, that that will be too much. I really want to focus on the tribes and the interviews.

Mrs. Irvine is an excellent teacher. She is super positive in her classroom management, engages the students with her teaching, and she reaches out to all of her kids. I'm so glad I stopped by. Next week I am going to try to visit two more classrooms. That was such a helpful experience!

This week I also got put in charge of the school mascot, Brutus. We had tryouts for Brutus last week and four boys and two girls will be our mascot for this year. I am in charge of scheduling the kids for their turn to be Brutus and for getting a procedure down of where the heck we are supposed to put Brutus after the games are over. Those poor kids are champs! Not only is Brutus super hot, but he is super smelly inside too. I didn't smell him myself, but I took the kids' word for it, especially after the boys were spraying Fabreeze all over him. Brutus is a Spartan warrior by the way. I'm still not sure if I bit off more than I can chew with this, but it's too late to turn back now, so I'll make the most of it!