Teacher Interview Reflection Two of

Teacher Interview Reflection Two of the decisions mentioned by the instructor as the five most difficult of her week involved disciplinary matters, and both of these problems highlighted the immediacy, unpredictability, and public nature of the classroom and the instructor's job. Determining and taking appropriate measures when students act out must take the public nature of the discipline into account, and according to this instructor this causes major complications in the decision-making process.

Determining which activity -- and therefore learning objective -- to sacrifice when time ran out over the week was also a difficult decision the instructor faced, showing the simultaneous and again the unpredictable nature of classrooms. Issues regarding the difficulty of lessons and when the class needed to move on even when a few individuals were still struggling also represented difficult decisions for the teacher, demonstrating both the immediacy and the multidimensionality that are inherent parts of the classroom.

The complexities faced by the instructor in making these decisions were numerous, and in large part had to do with the interrelationships between the five classroom characteristics and the overall objectives of the classroom -- i.e. The education and development of the students therein.

Public discipline, which is unavoidable at least in part in a classroom, creates feelings of embarrassment and the potential for further acting out by some students; balancing the need to address disciplinary issues with allowing disruptive students to effectively learn (and become less disruptive) can be difficult. Decisions regarding changes to lessons or the timing of tasks must serve all students in the classroom rather than only those struggling (or, for that matter, those excelling) at a task, leading to other difficult decisions.

Though there were some other viable options in almost every decision the teacher made, I cannot help but agree with their decisions almost completely, given this instructor's experience and obvious dedication to her students.

Disciplinary matters were handled as quickly and as quietly as possible, limiting the public exposure of the disruptive students and keeping the teacher from appearing like "an ogre." The elimination of certain learning activities form the week's schedule due to time constraints was unfortunate, but necessary, and was made with the students unaware allowing for a very smooth and non-disruptive process of continuing education throughout the week.

Decisions to move on to new tasks even when some individuals had not completed a previous task were certainly difficult, and there are a few alternatives I might have explored instead, but the result would have been largely the same -- decisions need to be made that are best for the classroom as a whole.

If I had been in the instructor's position, I fear that I would not have handled the disciplinary issues quite as well, as I had not thought of all of the considerations mentioned by the instructor during the interview, especially the issue of the disruptive students' right and need to be educated and grow.

An aide would have been of assistance in these scenarios, as they could remove the student from the public setting while going over rules and restoring discipline, but this is secondary to a proper consideration of the issues. I might have dropped different items from the week's curriculum, as well, but these changes would have been minor and largely unimportant. As far as moving ahead with tasks, I would have done just what the instructor did.

The rationales along which the above decision would have been-based is simply that these approaches appear to be the best choices and decisions that can be made in terms of keeping the classroom as a whole unified and on-track. The extra resource of an aide allows for disciplinary issues to be both less disruptive and less public, both of which assist the classroom as a whole and the disruptive students in their ability to remain on task, and to return to tasks quickly when disruptions occur.

The time constraints that must be dealt with are, quite obviously, an issue of practicality that cannot.