Today when I arrived at the middle school, the student teacher, Mr. Hertz, informed me that Mrs. Anderson was gone for the day and that he would be not only the primary, but the only classroom instructor. He began class with some warm up laps and stretching and then the group moved to the weight room.
I was anxious to see how the students behaved without the watchful eye of their regular classroom teacher, especially considering they were in the weight room where their activities are individual and self paced. Things began well, however, after only a few minutes, students started claiming that they were done with their exercises for the day. It became clear to the instructor that the students were not completing the work that was assigned to them or were not performing their best. So, at the end of class, Mr. Hertz had the students do conditioning that consisted of push-ups, sit-ups, burpees, etc. Some of the students were "cheating" during the exercises so Mr. Hertz had me stand strategically in an area of the room that had multiple students struggling to stay on task. This proved to be an effective method.
It was interesting seeing how students behave when their classroom teacher is absent and it was educational to see how Mr. Hertz managed the class under those circumstances. Some of the methods he used can definitely be taken into classrooms when I student teach and substitute teach.
No comments:
Post a Comment