First Semester Reflection

The semester's not over, but it's close enough. This has been, without a doubt, the most difficult thing I've ever had to and I'm still not entirely sure I'm cut out for it. But my problems have been mostly what I expected. Chief among those would be the difficulty I have had with classroom management and with my seventh-graders especially, who have become comfortable and less easily controlled. These problems have dogged my efforts thus far and, as expected, correspond to my still-inadequate work ethic and organization. The small successes I have had have almost always coincided with days when I have a more detailed lesson plan and my papers are closer to order. I have experienced a few of those wonderful improvised mini-lessons or explanations, but their effectiveness is directly related to my confidence, which is itself dependent on my being organized and prepared.

One of the rudest and most immediate shocks of my teaching experience has been the difficulty of maintaining order in a classroom at my school. Because it lacks real walls, my school sounds and feels like the students are more in charge than the teachers. Our administration does little, if anything, to dispel that feeling. The harshest reality of classroom management in my school is that my classroom is not entirely my own, because I can be interrupted or drowned out by a noisy class next door or in the hall. Another shock has been the level of disrespect that students expect that they can get away with; too often they are right. Showing respect to my students—at least what I consider respect—has not proven especially effective at establishing a different climate in my classroom. Authoritarian language and posturing (not disrespect, per se, so much as a harshness that feels foreign to me) instead, have seemed to earn me more respect and ended problems more quickly.