Day #2: learning discipline strategies

I'm beginning to realize how much of a handful these students really are. The most important thing that I am currently working on is discipline with the students. Yesterday my cooperating teacher gave me a piece of advice that I hope to remember forever:
           "Don't let the students become your friends."


 She said she has a difficult time doing this because they are such great people, but if you become their friend they will not have the same level of respect for you as a teacher. There is a fine line between students being able to trust their teacher and being friends with their teacher.

• We had a guest speaker in our classroom today. In my beginner teacher opinion, the students were pretty well behaved. Sure, they were a little chatty, but what class isn't? To my surprise, my teacher had a completely different view on their behavior. After the guest speaker left, she told them how disappointed in them she was. She had them each take out a piece of paper and write down what went wrong with their behavior during the lesson. She further instructed them to confess if they did something wrong, and if not, to make suggestions of what we could have done better. Although it was technically time to move onto the next subject, she required that students turned in their papers before they were allowed to go to reading.

WOW! As a beginning teacher, I would not have thought it feasible to take 2 minutes out of the busy schedule for such an event! We have to get to the next thing!!!! I learned that taking those 2 minutes out of the day can teach a very valuable lesson. Bad behavior will NOT be tolerated in this classroom. BAM!