10/11/2019 Sunday

My name is bahja and I’m on my final year. I’m going to tell you my story that
happened during my last teaching practice. I started this TP thinking that it will be as the
previous ones, I thought I will be in a class that has a perfect behavior. During my
experience with teaching practice I never had a class that is known for its bad behavior.
When Mr. Nigel the vice principal walked me in the class that I’m going to work with
during my last teaching practice I was still thinking that everything is ok and I don’t need
to worry about anything because I did not know what is this class like. So, I started my
first week with my class 1C, I was shocked on how bad they were, first there was these
3 boys basically they don’t want to study and they just keep running and playing around
the classroom even when the teacher is giving her lesson. The other ones were the one
who are sitting on the carpet they just kept talking and they don’t sit still. What
shocked me more is that there was zero class managements and the only system that
was is class dojo and it is not working at all with them. The first thing that I did is I went
to Mr. Nigel asking him to change my class immediately because I thought back then that
I will not be able to work with them and it is impossible. What Mr. Nigel told me is that
he will see if it possible to change my class. My first week ended and I did not hear from
him and then my second week started and still no word from Mr. Nigel. I went to his
office to see what happened and he welcome me and with no introduction or anything
he just simply said “No” “we can’t change your class” at that moment I felt angry, sad
and frustrating it was a horrible feeling. The reason why I felt that way is I know I will
get bad grades and my GPA will go down more that it already has. This teaching practice
was my last chance to get my GPA up and the minute I saw this class I knew that will
not happen. I was hating the idea that I will spend my last TP with this class. at the end
my MCT (mentor college teacher) encouraged me to take the challenge and try to
come up with strategies to improve the class behavior.
The first mistake that I made is I treated them like an adult, I was teaching grade 1. Trying to
make them act like adults and treating them like one was a huge mistake. I was shouting at them
and trying so hard to make them listen, but it is not working so I can say that was my first bad
strategy “shouting”. What I notice is that when I shout, their bad behavior increases and it’s like
they are feeding on my anger. So, the first
thing that I did is stop the shouting then I
stopped treating them as adults. I made the
stars board it was my own system in the
classroom, basically the groups need to
work quietly to get the stars. Also, I made
it clear that if one student in the group was
talking or playing and not doing their work
it will affect the whole group that’s why I
notice that they keep telling each other to
be quiet. What I did is I kept reminding
them what the group that have lots of stars
will get big presents.

The second strategy that I did is making a

group’s leaders, this really helped me because the
role of the group leader is to make sure that his
group friends is doing their work quietly and he/she
were like teacher helper.
Making these strategies really helped me with the
bad behavior problem and it really made a
different. I’m writing my story in the last week of
my teaching practice and I can’t believe how
amazing they are now and how different they are
comparing to first week when I first saw them. At the beginning I was not even willing to be in
the same room with them now I’m approaching my last day with 1C and what I feel right now is
pain in my heart and I’m very sad for leaving them. I’m proud of them and proud of myself and
what amazing they’ve become.