Teacher, Teacher!

Last week, I had the opportunity to be more "hands-on" in working with my Master Teacher's (MT) 3rd grade students. (Previously, I was mainly just observing her procedures and assisting on the sidelines.) First thing in the morning, I wrote on the whiteboard the DLR sentences for that day (DLR is Daily Language Review-a routine activity the class does first thing in the morning as a way to review literacy concepts, such as syntax, spelling, punctuation, capitalization and semantics). Once it was time for class, I opened the classroom door to the students, greeted them "Good morning" (they greeted me and my MT back), told them what to do once they got to their seats and welcomed them into the room (my MT usually shakes their hand and greets them, so I did that as well). Then, as the students were working on their DLR, I went to each student and checked if he/she did his/her homework; if the student did, I drew a happy face on their homework calendar (again, I'm just copying what my MT usually does for the students). Once the students where done with the DLR, we went through all 5 items as a class. After this activity, I turned it over back to my MT.

During the morning greeting and the DLR, I was thinking how great the students where behaving in being cooperative to do the work I've asked them. Also, I thought to myself that as long as you give students direction on what to do, they will follow through (usually). Its that whole aspect leadership within the classroom management module we learned about. If the students views the teacher as the "leader" of the class, they will follow his/her lead. So, within the small amount of time I spent with my MT's class, the students saw me as a leader as well. There can be several reasons for this outcome: (1) It is possible that they see me as a leader because my "position power" is linked to my MT bestowing that authority that she has to me for that given moment to lead the class; (2) However, it is also likely that I have gained some form of "prestige power" because they students have seen me work with them in a few different activities in class and they saw that I was skilled and knowledgeable just like my MT (again, its linked back to my MT). Overall it made me feel competent in what I was doing and I actually enjoyed being the "teacher" for that given moment. I'm actually considering of doing some form of morning routine for my future class because it will train the students to be self-sufficient and confident that they know what to do next and, hopefully, be good at it. Plus, I love the greeting each one of them in the morning to have a few seconds of positive, one-on-one interaction.