Journal Entry

Today I was given the opportunity to take some of the students, to complete a
spelling test in the library. Throughout this lesson, I was faced with attitude
problems from several students. This included back chatting, ignoring
instructions and consistent talking and distractions.
At the beginning of this task I found myself somewhat threatening students with
warnings and explaining they will be sent back to class. An issue with this
approach was that I was not following through on my actions, in which led the
students to push the boundaries further.
The lesson continued after a recess break, where my mentor teacher had pulled
the students aside and explained the expectations for the students. While this
showed to have some improvement in the students behaviour at the beginning,
the behaviour continued throughout the lesson. I resorted to sending individual
students back to the class, which resulted in further consequences.
After removing the distracting students, the other students were able to focus on
their work, and be able to successfully complete the test.
While at the time I was quite upset and felt as though I had failed. I quickly
remembered my teaching philosophy and what attributes I had come across. As
a pre service teacher, it is important that, I, myself, understand that all
experiences are positive. They teach me and extend my knowledge of how to
better myself, students, and my own teaching strategies.
I also need to work on my role of discipline as I tend to take the approach of
being more of the friend role, instead of the teacher. I tend to avoid having to
tell a student off, which was shown in my lack of following through. This is
something I hope to learn and develop throughout my placement.
Through this experience I initiated and gained both confidence and control over
students. As well as having my mentor teacher compliment me on standing my
ground and following through with directions. Students had notes sent home to
parents as well as being spoken to individually with the principal.