Think back to influential classes you have taken. How were expectations set to promote student success? Introduce your student teaching setting. How do you view the expectations and classroom community established in your current placement?
In the most influential classes I have taken, expectations were always posted where everyone could see them. Expectations for assignments, entering the room, cleaning up, and school conduct were posted in these classes. They were usually big, bold, and colorful so that they would catch your eye.
For more advanced classes, syllabi were given in hand and online, then discussed to make sure that there was no confusion. Even then, some expectations were posted as reminders!
My current placement has me working in two separate rooms at an elementary school and in a shared high school art classroom. Both rooms are nice and big, with plenty of space to post or project expectations. However, expectations are not posted in any way in either art room.
I think that this has caused some confusion and a little extra work for my instructor during some classes at the elementary school. There are times when students could refer to the expectations associated with the assignment on their own so that they wouldn't have to ask so many questions. It chews up so much time answering the same questions over and over again! There seems to be some management problems in the classroom at the elementary school, particularly with running in the classroom. I believe that clearly posting rules about running would help with this issue. It would be easy to go over the expectations a few times periodically, plus keeping them posted would serve as a permanent reminder that running around the classroom at full speed is unacceptable.
The high school class is really small, only 8 students, and there really hasn't been any issues with behavior. Expectations on what is expected to be done during the course of the class would be beneficial though. The students aren't very productive and they need set goals for each 90 minute block to keep them on task. I don't believe that things should be rushed, but they don't have any posted due dates and they take full advantage of the fact and constantly work on everything but art!
I am glad that you are able to reflect on both your present and past experiences in order to gain insight into how you will one day establish expectations in your own classroom. Knowing what works is one thing - but experiencing how it doesn't only solidifies how important clear expectations can be. Often experiences that are more rough teach more than those that go smoothly. You will come out of this experience a more prepared teacher in the end.
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