Teacher interview reflection Module #3

I found chapters 7 & 13 kept my attention because it talked about classical conditioning, positive and negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement, consequences, punishment. These were interesting because of the teacher interview questions asking how the teacher handled students misbehaving what did they do and what forms of punishment did they give. From my interview with Julie, she uses a lot of praise, high fives, thumbs up and class dojo points. This was discussed in chapter 13 p. 257 in Woolfolk on positive reinforcement when students are doing what they are supposed to do by following instructions and rules they can earn points or praise to keep up the good behavior. I also asked Julie about how her classroom management plan was? She said she explains the rules and expectations at the beginning of the year so everyone knows what’s to be expected. Chapter 7 also discusses punishment p.258 and as far as my interview went when I asked Julie what she did as far as punishment she responded that she might take away dojo points, verbal redirection, worst case detention or principal’s office. So basically, you need to have some sort of positive reinforcement or consequences to maintain a good climate in your classroom and that is established by good classroom management. 

Overall, I wished I could have asked many more questions because it is good knowledge to have. I think a lot of our learning will also be when we start teaching learning by doing just like you would do at any job. It is very important as future teachers to learn what do when a student is misbehaving; to be honest I’m nervous about that. I’m thinking because I don’t have any observations and no experience yet that could be why I’m feeling the way I am. Doing this teacher interview was very helpful especially to someone with no experience yet.