The first
observable evidence of school wide management was when students arrived late,
after 9:00am, they signed-in in the logbook at the front desk. There is not an
adult there to advise the students do so, instead they have learned this at the
beginning of the year. Every single morning there are announcements made in the
common area at the beginning of the school day. The principal, teachers, or
students share new information then students are dismissed. The school is
divided into two teams, the purple and red teams, and sometimes they are
dismissed according to their team color with different directions. Students
then relocate to a new designated area or go straight to class for the day.
Students
entered the classroom in a decent manner. They have cubbies for their books and
hooks for their coats so they gathered school materials as they put away their
personal ones. They have assigned seats, which sometimes get switched around,
so they looked for a desk with a post-it that has their name on it. Most are in
the habit of copying the agenda for the day into their personal calendars. Some
other students just take a mental note. Class begins with more announcements,
reminders, “shout-outs,” and “check-ins.” As they prepare for their first
assignment, the teacher takes attendance on her laptop and sends it to the
front desk attendant. Late students arrived without a late pass but checked-in
with the teacher for directions.
The
school introduced a new approach for assignment management at the beginning for
this school year. Every student and teacher was assigned a Gmail account.
Teachers post assignments and deadlines on Google classrooms, email students
with updates and communicate with parents online. Students also submit their
work electronically on the same platform. It can either be a saved document or
a picture of a handwritten copy. They have had issues with this new system
because there is not an option to submit work late so student track records are
incorrect. There is another issue and that is that there are not enough
computers in the classroom for every student so during work time, some students
are left to find busy work that does not involve the use of a computer.
When
students need to use the bathroom they are suppose to sign out on a sheet when
they leave but this hardly happens. With only 16 students in the class, the
teacher is able to keep track of who is not in the class and when it has been
too long. Students leave the class for many other reasons too, such as student
government meetings, nurse visits, and other program meetings. Announcements
for program meetings are not made each day but each student is given a schedule
and it is their responsibility to attend. Rarely do program advisors come
looking for students. There is not a bell system in the school so when students
need to transition to another class, the teacher will announce a five-minute
transition time.
Students
focus on academics differently depending on what class they are in. They seem
to be more disruptive in their homeroom advisory than in any other class and
that may be because they spend the most time in that room. The homeroom teacher
has been trying new tactics to get the class to quiet down as a group and to be
less disruptive. In math for example, there are at least 2 adults in the room
(and up to 4), seats are arranged differently, and the teacher has a different
teaching style. Students are the most behaved in this class.
The classroom
management skill of the homeroom advisor, their main teacher, is a growing
progress. She has now posted a work tracker in the class instead of depending
on Google classrooms, and gives personal praise as each student get a check for
an assignment. There are to-do lists, an (non-academic) accomplishment board, and
a “done” list hanging in the class. Previously misbehaved students are now class
mediators and help calm down their peers in a tense situation. The teacher
utilizes the help of her students when needed. At the end of the day, after 30
minutes of winding down, students are dismissed at 3pm. Since they get anxious,
they are already waiting at the door around 2:50pm.
