In the past, I have video taped myself teaching and watched it to see what I can improve. I wanted to see if there was anything I was doing that would distract the students when I was lecturing. I also read several books on classroom management so I could work on student engagement. For me, I started off being a controller but have worked to become more guide-like. I have also been lucky to watch other teachers, and one in particular, who was a buddy teacher, so I tried to take the characteristics that I observed and liked, and input them into my style. I think it is important to be flexible and try new methods if something is not working.
For example, I had one student who was constantly disrupting my class and I had to kick him out almost everyday. It got to the point where he was spending more time in detention than in my classroom. So, I decided to treat him more like a student in elementary school, with steps and each step was a different consequence. Instead of immediately kicking him out (if he did something minor) was that he got a time-out in the classroom. The second step was he was asked to step outside the classroom for five minutes before coming in. The third step was detention. I found this worked better as he had very clear expectations on what was going to happen and he spent more time in my classroom instead of not being there.
For the future, I would like to actively work on becoming more like a guide. I am considering having choices for the students to do so that they feel as though they have a say in what we are covering. I also need to make an effort to learn about students' backgrounds and home lives so I can better meet their needs in the classroom.
