Shifting the Paradigm: blog post #4

 

Shifting the Paradigm 

By: Renkly & Bertolini 

Reflection: After deciding I want to be a teacher last year, classroom management has been

circling in my mind.

Behavior issues in school can determine whether a teacher stays or quits his or her profession.

This piece made me

shift my mindset to worry less about shutting down risks for behaviors and more about focusing

on what a student

does well. I loved the message, however I have one concern. A question I would like to pose:

what strategies allow

teachers to stay alert about behavior while also focusing on student strengths? Moving forward, there were some key points in this piece that inspired me.

In my word, for teachers to find what “asset” or skill they have and use it to the best of their

ability for the school

and community. This point was strong for me and my mind took it to the next level.

If students identify what assets

they possess like support, adult-teacher relationships, positive values, positive identity;

I believe that they can be

a role model and positively shape their peers' attitudes.  For example, let's say a student is

proficient in the asset of support, we

will call him Pete. If Pete is working with Sarah, a student who is about to start sobbing

on a problem; he can say take a deep

breath Sarah, read the problem over again and I can help you through it. For me, this is strong because instead of developing clones we are developing leaders as students.

Also, student-student relationships would be strengthened and overall I think students will gain

more leadership skills. It would take a lot to reform the schools to have these assets integrated into

public schools,

but I feel like it would be worth trying. As a future teacher, I will be interesting in exploring different

techniques to

finding the balance between behavioral management and seeing the good in my students 

Chatgpt entry: “How could I make my question from Shifting the Paradigm better?: 

‘What strategies allow teachers

to stay alert about behavior while also focusing on student strengths?’” 

Comments for class: Another important point in this piece that stuck out to me

was the impact a teacher can have for a middle schooler.

In Erikson's eight stages of psychosocial development there is a stage during adolescence named Identity V.S. Role confusion.

In other words, as stated in the article, adults' perceptions of a teenager can play a huge role

in what path they take. For an educational perspective, the teacher can shape how the

adolescent sees themselves for the rest of their academic journey. Meaning, if a

teacher treats a student poorly, they have a higher chance of seeing themselves that way

and rebelling by putting less effort in. Hence, I feel it is my job as a future middle school

teacher to never give up on a student and give praise to them when they perform well. The

quote at the end about loving students really resonated through me for always being empathetic

and caring about all of my future learners.