Assigned Blog: Reluctant Disciplinarian

So, we read this book for our class, and actually, it was very entertaining.   It is about a teacher from Teach For America, that was mostly likely placed, if I had to guess, somewhere in Southern California.  The author spoke on how he went from being a teacher that tried to be cool and relate to his students while not disciplining them in any way, to an effective teacher and an effective disciplinarian that ultimately succeeded in the classroom.   I keep getting reactions from my observations that I will not have a problem with classroom management, but that remains to be seen.  In my opinion, with all of the back and forth advice that we seem to be getting, classroom management will be a trial and error approach.  The many teachers that we have giving us advice seem to contradict one another when it comes to effective classroom management, and it is this that has made me to come to this conclusion.  Different methods work for different teachers.  This book is no different.  It has some of the same recommendations that we have already heard as new teachers, but then there are different pieces of advice.  Basically, I think it comes down to everyone's personality.  There are going to be times when your students test you, and there will be times when you will have to act.  It is those occurrences, that depend solely on our own personalities, how we will choose to discipline our students.  Failure, in this case, is inevitable in my opinion.  Classroom management isn't something that is perfectly mapped out, it is something that is learned over time by making mistakes.  Refer to the quote at the top of my page...