Also, she uses candy as a reward for correct answers and good behavior all the time! I've never seen anything like that before. One time I see this a lot is in her RTI group. she has the students go through sight words or phrases on notecards. When a student gets one right, he/she gets to keep it. Then, at the end of the stack of notecards, they each count their cards and get that many m&ms. Also, students who get all of their daily math or language work correct, she gives them a bigger piece of candy from her "treat jar." She uses the "treat jar" occasionally for good behavior too. Similarly, she has a time out desk that she uses for students who have had to "clip down" a certain number of times in a day.
Don't get me wrong--my field mentor is great! She's an incredibly effective teacher and has flawless command over her classroom. It's interesting to see though, because I feel like everything I am seeing academically/instructionally is so different than the modern approaches that we have learned at Peabody. I'm interested to see how the students react to my different style once I start teaching more lessons.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
Yes, my first field mentor has similar teaching style. She had a "treat" jar called the dragon. When students clipped up to the highest color possible, they were able to pick a treat from the jar at the end of the day. Also, I saw that she had a "time out/ thinking" chair in the corner of the room. However, I never saw her use it.
ReplyDeleteOne day, she actually told me how happy she is to have student teachers in her classroom because she is exposed to new teaching practices! I truly believe that these teachers are interested and eager to learn new practices from younger and newer teachers such as us!
OK, so my mentor teacher at Hickman (same school as Mary Lloyd) is also in the third grade (again, same as Mary Lloyd), and could not be more different. I think he is about five years older than me, and has a very 'fresh' outlook on teaching and instructional practices. Almost every one of his behavioral management strategies and instructional strategies is 'new' and/or trendy. He is big on discovery learning, using technology, and getting the kids up and moving.
ReplyDelete...Now, any of y'all reading this would probably be thinking, 'OMG, sooooo Peabody, loveeee it.' And I'm here to tell you that it's not that simple. Not every new strategy that comes along is great for every student, or classroom. Especially if the reasoning behind it is not in the right place, or the strategy is not implemented properly. It's kind of like finding school activities on Pinterest - it's great if it's cute and amazing and creative looking, but it's got to have some deeper meaning behind it or it's useless. My mentor teacher has a very young and trendy approach to teaching, but often I find that students are not actually making meaning from the approaches that are being implemented.
So, here's my thought. 'Old school' teaching is not always great. As teachers, we can't get complacent with just doing things the way they've always been done. We have to push ourselves to reflect on our choices and how they are working for the students and why. But the same goes for 'newer', more trendy styles as well. We have to push to think about what is working, for whom, and why. It seems to me that if your teacher, Mary Lloyd, is using 'old school' strategies, but that it's working for her students, then sometimes that's ok! It definitely would take some getting used to, because I think Peabody really asks us to constantly search for new strategies improve our teaching. I think your students will adjust to your style well, as long as you're making those stylistic decisions based on their needs! And knowing you, you will be great at that.
Candy! This reminds me of a grandmother letting the grandchildren eat sweets. And really, materials from the 80s had a knack with communicating clearly and interestingly. That said, it's hard to imagine a good math or science lesson without the new inquiry based approach. And it's hard to imagine literature without the new works by Eileen Spinelli and other more recent authors (not that your teacher has no new materials). And I feel like back then the class was meant to be "children are always quiet" instead of encouraging classroom discussion. But I may be leaning on stereotypes. It's cool that you got to see an effective teacher using different sorts of methods that what we learned. Out of curiosity, how did the students react to your lessons?
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