Almost Finished

Well folks, this past term has been busy to say the least. My final term of classes just ended and now I am in the thick of student teaching. After this term (in which I am in the classroom full-time) all I have left to do is write my thesis this summer. Let me give you an idea what this past term was like.

The four classes we had were: Integrating the Arts, Classroom Management, English Language Learners, and Health and Fitness. All of the courses were great but I have realized that the Classroom Management class was particularly good now that I have had a few weeks of classroom experience in which to put it to the test. In this course we studied a variety of different systems of classroom management. There was a wide range of approaches to the subject from very structured to very loose and flexible. The basic format of the class combined group work and collaborative projects with student presentations each day on one or more classroom management systems. the course culminated in each of us creating our own "classroom management plan" drawing on what we liked from all of the different systems. This course was a lot of work, especially the management plan at the end, but has already been SO helpful. There have been many times in the past few weeks that I have used exact strategies from our studies and had fantastic success in managing students. Although I should admit that, even with the preparation of this class there have been some surprises . . . like when I had to talk a student out of chasing another student down the hall to hit her with his belt. Never a dull moment, right?

Bottom line: this past term especially has been tons of work but I feel better prepared for student teaching than I expected and roughly six months from now I will be all finished! I wish I could continue this blog during my student teaching and thesis writing but, as this pas term has shown me, that just won't be realistic. So that's it for the Antioch Ed Blog, I hope you've all enjoyed it!

Take Care, Mike