My Presence in the Classroom

Jennifer Lynch

1/26/2016

Component #2- Presence in the Classroom

STRENGTHS:

1. I have a loud voice, my students can hear me.
2. My students know that I genuinely care about them and am honest with them, this often generates a sense of respect towards me.
3. My students know that they can trust me and that I am in their corner.
4. I tend to think of ahead, which helps prevent some behavioral issues. If I feel that I am in a position where I can be in charge of the classroom, I am also pretty good at thinking on my feet to keep things moving.
5. After a year and a half at the daycare, I have gotten pretty good with the "how does that make you feel" conversation when students are unhappy with each other. I also ask students how they think I feel when they misbehave.
6. I pay attention to routines and adopt some of the ones that I like.
7. I do really well with connecting to students on a nonverbal level. I can generally feel the mood of a room, including if my students feel disconnected from me while I am teaching and I use these feelings to refocus if needed. I also read body language very well and have attended multiple trainings on this.
8. I think about how students feel. This can prevent the student from exploding. I try to come to a consequence or option that ties in what we both want. Sometimes this gets in the way of my level of strictness.

WEAKNESSES:

1. My teacher voice needs work. This concept really should be focused on during each block. Something that makes this even worse for me sometimes is my speech impediment.
2. I do not always know what the best practice should be.
3. Sometimes I'm too nice instead of being strict enough.
4. Sometimes I get overwhelmed, which may cause me to miss out on some smaller behaviors, I am working on getting better on this.
5. Sometimes I do not feel like I have the power to be in charge when I have to impress other adults, because I know that other adults probably want me to do things their way. 
6. Sometimes I lose track of time. I am countering this by writing the time that the lesson ends on the part of the whiteboard that is hidden by the SMART board.