Blog #6 Alfie Kohn

 Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog!

    As many of you know, I have been in my classroom placement for about a month now and the experience has exposed me to many new cultures and ways of teaching. My third grade classroom has been a wake up call because I never thought I would enjoy teaching the younger generations. I go there every Friday morning where they talk to me about their week, eat their breakfast, and do their IREADY math which can be tricky to help them stay on track. Previously I discussed the "Problem child" of the classroom and observed the students behavior. Their behavior I observed consisted of how they learn, who gets distracted easily, etc. But now our shift is to the classroom environment.

       Previously, we were hyper-focused on the children, now we are focusing on the environment (classroom) and how they learned. IN the Reading Alfie Kohn writes, he provides a chart of what a classroom should consist of for successful learning.  He highlights the good ways and warning signs o either how the classroom is set up or how the teacher interacts with the students. I continued to look at this chart, our assignment wanted us to compare and contrast Kohns way of a classroom to our placement classroom we attend weekly. 

   As I was comparing my classroom to Kohns ideals, I found a lot of differences and not in the good way. My teacher and the way she sets up/teaches her classroom was found on the "reasons to worry side." Some reasons to worry were "students usually doing the same thing" and "typically In-front (teaching)." While a lot of the signs to worry I agree with, it is all hard to take into consideration because this is a 3rd grade classroom. A classroom where they lack structure. The teacher has been doing this for 30 years and her passions has still not dwindle and she would never risk her students education. I trust her and her teaching. Alot it does not match Kohns "standards" in my experience, I have never once worried about her students learning being affected. 


Kohns Graph:



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