Module 3

During this weeks readings  in chapter 7 and 13, we were introduced to classroom management and one of its most challenging components: behavior management. Making connections I was able to reflect on the importance of classroom management. during my reflection I made connections with a teacher I had as a child.
There was a specific teacher that impacted me in a  positive way, her name was Mrs. Lopez and she was my fifth grade teacher. When I first enrolled in school as a kindergarten student, I was placed in a traditional bilingual classroom. The goal of the program was to prepare me to be transitioned into a monolingual  classroom. During my enrollment in the bilingual program I recall my teachers speaking and teaching mostly in Spanish, rarely using English. Our textbooks were in English which meant that all the academic language we acquired was in English. As a child, these diverse uses of English and Spanish in my classroom space were confusing. I was being taught in Spanish but my books weren’t in Spanish. Until this day, I believe my teachers could have taught me differently in order to truly help me develop my bi-literacy. It wasn’t until my fifth grade school year, when I had Mrs. Lopez that I began to develop my bi-literacy. This year was important for me since in sixth grade I had to transition into an all English classroom. Looking back at that time, I remember my conversational English was limited and I felt Mrs. Lopez was one of the most impacting teachers I have ever had. She had a passion for teaching and genuinely cared for her students. My fifth grade school year was an important year in my learning because I accomplished more than I ever had during my entire elementary schooling. Mrs. Lopez would always  motivated us to do better and individualized learning for each of us. Our teacher was determined to transition her students and fully prepare us in order to be academically successful in our academic life. I recall her using various learning techniques to promote learning. It was expected for students to have certain knowledge to be ready for sixth grade. I can recall that proficiency was one of our biggest goals followed by cursive writing and our times tables. A teaching technique that she used for our cursive writing was to play music while we wrote in cursive. The music was traditional Mexican music and in Spanish. For our times tables we had to study all week, she would give us class time daily to review and on Fridays we had a drill quiz. One of her main focuses was English as a second language, we had to be ready for sixth grade. I remember doing numerous different activities to promote our proficiency in the English language. Mrs Lopez was always intentional in her teaching.Mrs Lopez worried not only about our academics but our well being too. I will never forget that she always had extra school uniforms in her classroom closet , well ironed for any student that might need it along with a big container of hair gel, brushes and other hair items. If any of the students had messy hair she would fix it, same with the uniforms. Depending on our performance and wellness to achieve the goals she had set for us, she would reward us with lunch (pizza or tacos). She would always encourage us to enroll in extra curricular activities and would sign us up as a classroom for any assemblies or festivals in the school. Mrs. Lopez would teach us a different Mexican traditional dance for each performance it was never the same dance. She would always first inform us about the history of the dance. I believe her intentions were for us as students to appreciate our Mexican culture and to be knowledgeable of the Mexican roots and culture.
I truly believe that she had an amazing behavior management with community sense and as a result a proactive classroom management.