Guest Speaker

Today in counselling group we had a guest speaker come in and speak to us about Classroom Management. Colleen was EXTREMELY informative and was full of so many good examples of all the techniques that she discussed. I was very impressed that she practiced what she taught (as a teacher and as a principal) and her techniques worked. I have a child in my class with ADHD, so it was great to have her remind me that children with this disorder do not remember/consider the consequences of their actions. This explains why my student engages in the same innappropriate behaviour over and over again.

I love that she told us about "positive" statements and how they should be used instead of negative ones...so for example saying "We walk in the hallway" rather than "We do not run". It makes sense that the students will focus on the word "run" and do the action anyway so this is a great solution.

I think it was also important that she spoke of consistency. Like Colleen, I believe that consistency is very important in the classroom, because it will allow the students to know what to expect (they learn to predict the outcome of their actions).

I thought it was a great idea to have a guest speaker in, because I think that in the Faculty of Education, unfortunately we are not taught enough about HOW to teach or different techniques we can use that WORK- having Colleen come in and speak of her personal experiences was extremely valuable to my own learning, and hopefully to the learning of everyone else in our counselling group as well.