Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education
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Middle Grades classroom Management
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Author:  BrandiBrink [ Tue Dec 08, 2009 12:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Middle Grades classroom Management
On November 11 I went to Coach Turner's talk about Middle Grades Classroom Management. From the beginning I was very anxious about attending this because I felt that everything I was going to be learning about in this seminar I would one day need, and to me that was very exciting. He was so very very very passionate about teaching Middle Grades, which is exactly how I feel. I have such high expectations for it, and after sitting in his seminar I was way more excited.

Every teacher has great stories, and so did he. But he also had some really great learning methods to implement in the classroom. I could tell he was the kind of teacher who could demand respect and attention with little effort while at the same time making his students feel that he was there fore more than to just drill things into their head. All of the various group methods were very interesting, and the competition they created was very engaging.

I really hope to one day be as great of a teacher as he seemed to be, and to be able to implement some of the ideas he showed us in my classroom. This seminar was a great one and I have rarely been disappointed throughout my 3 years at ASU I have never been to a teaching fellows seminar and not walked out with at least one valuable piece of information.
Author:  Jena Scarboro [ Sat Dec 12, 2009 12:50 am ]
Post subject:  Middle Grades Education Seminar!
I also got the chance to go to this seminar and to be honest, I was a little nervous about what we would learn. While I have never been tremendously disappointed in a Teaching Fellows seminar, there have been some that I have left wondering why I just went, as I had gotten the same information at another seminar. A lot of times its just disappointment in the monotony. This particular seminar however, was incredible!

Coach Turner teaches a math class in Hickory at a middle school. I had prepared myself for the usual seminar in which the speaker comes in and throws out various different ways (that every grade level uses) to deal with classroom management. What I got however, was completely different. Coach Turner came packed full of ideas and activities to use within the classroom. Not only did he come with ideas for Middle School, but each of the activities he showed us, and had us participate in, are activities that can be modified to fit any grade level. He has just had a lot of success in doing these activities with his middle schoolers.

Each of his activities created a sense of competition between teams of students. This, of course, creates an engaging learning environment. Though I don't remember the names of the activities, I do remember the general gist, my favorite activity being one in which a question would be asked, in our case, it was a completely off the wall question, in a classroom, it could be one pertaining to the unit that a student is learning, and each student takes turns going around their team circle answering the question with as many facts as they can in a set amount of time. In another, he turned the "letter game" into a classroom activity, the game in which you come up with, for example, as many animals as you can that begin with the letter "A."

Many of the ideas he presented were fun little ice breakers that can easily be transformed into a learning game for the classroom and as ridiculous as it may sound, I had never thought of the way to use many of these in the classroom as a learning tool instead of a getting to know you tool. While he does all of this, sometimes he says that he keeps them as ridiculous, fun activities, because sometimes students just need a break in the class.

I agree with Brandi when she says that she hopes she can implement a lot of his strategies into my own classroom! I feel that Middle Grades students will LOVE activities such as these and I cannot wait to give them a try. This was such an incredible seminar!
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