Blog Post 2 Teacher/Student Control

 "Teaching with a lot of control is easy. Handing control over to the students, and planning for every possible outcome, adapting instruction where they take it, is extremely difficult, but worth it." I think that there can be success when students are in control, however I do not think that they should always be in control and their age has something to do with this. The older the child, the more control I can see them having. When the students are in control they are able to strengthen the teacher/student relationship. This creates a learning environment where the students and the teacher has say in it and everyone can feel comfortable. The students can ask questions as can the teachers. The students can work with one another and also strengthen those relationships. Teachers can give control to the student and still support learning by leading the class in what they are supposed to be doing like talking with peers or doing work silently. All of the class rules would still be in affect but the students are freer to choose the lectures or activities that their classmates do. The teacher and students can learn and grow from this process. This would not be an easy process to complete.

In my classroom the children were only in kindergarten so they really didn’t have much control over the classroom and what exercises or activities would be done. When they did their group work they did have choices on whether to read a book, play a game on the ipad, or play a word game. The teacher was in charge when they sat on the floor to learn their popcorn words or to read a book, but when It came time for group work they were in control unless they did something to lose that privilege.

When the students were able to choose something they wanted, which most of the time was the ipads, they were more motivated to do the activity. They were more motivated than they are to just read a book. The kids on the ipads paid attention and did their work on there, but the students that were supposed to be reading were more likely to be off task or not paying attention. When the teacher leads the class at the carpet, it was about 50/50 on who was paying attention. For the most part they pay attention, but I did see some kids not participating.