Week+2


 * __Punished by Rewards?__**

While I enjoyed thinking about this topic, I am not convinced of the practicality of Alfie Kohn's suggestions. I believe that there is a place for punishment in the classroom. Students (and some adults) need to learn that there are consequences to their actions. The more severe the action, the more severe the consequence. Theoretically speaking it would be wonderful if there was no need to punish students, but that will never be the case as students are living, breathing, feeling (and not necessarily logical) creatures.

However, I do believe that the punishment needs to fit the crime. I think logical consequences are perfect for handling many situations. Handing out detention is not really the best consequence to many actions. If a student hasn't done their homework, then the logical consequence of that is not getting marks on the homework or doing poorly on the test. Keeping them after class doesn't cause any corrective action to be taken. Detention should be used for something like tardiness. If you missed the first 10 minutes of class (for no good reason), then you have to stay 10 minutes later to make it up.

It may be tricky selling an abstract concept like the order of operations to a student. There will be some topics where you'll just have to say that there isn't any real world example but it's important. If you have a good rapport with the students then you may be able to just tell them that it is something they need to get to the fun stuff. Here are some of the strategies that I would try:
 * I could post an intriguing question and ask them to solve it, knowing that it requires order of operations to solve. Afterwards, I would write up all the wrong answers and the correct one and ask them if I should just pick random answer to be correct on the test and all the other ones will be wrong. I would follow that with the explanation that one of the things they should like about math is that there is a right answer and a wrong answer and it is never dependent on me or any other person's opinion, such as an essay.
 * I could also use real world examples to demonstrate the importance of doing things in order. Maybe I would go to school wearing my underwear on the outside of my pants, and wear one of two socks on the outside of my shoe. It may sound insane but it could work and it would definitely have their attention.


 * __Classroom Management__**

I find that many of the strategies on the sheet would work for me. I think that I am a fairly personable individual and so I think that the best thing that I could do is just talk with the students and get to know them the best that I can. I am really good at getting to know and understand what makes different people tick so I hope that I could motivate my students, intrinsically or extrinsically. I would think that if incorporate several of the good lesson planning strategies mentioned that many of the problems that may arise will be managed more efficiently.

Historically all of us have been told at one time or another not to smile until Christmas. I think that this strategy does not necessarily work for me. The reason I say this is that I feel that it implies that we should be strict disciplinarians. I am against that. I can and do control the emotions that I let students see, but I am much too humourous to be so strict. During my time in the middle school, I found that the students responded best to me when I would crack the occasional joke. Being sarcastic by nature is useful while dangerous. I did find that one easy way to incorporate sarcasm without ostracizing students is to poke fun at yourself. I would deliberately do silly or clumsy things on occasion to get the attention of students. I once walked in and "fell" flat on my face. They laughed for a second, asked if I was okay, and I replied with "Now that I have your attention...". The point I'm getting at here is that students are people and that they will intuitively know if you are trying to be something you're not. Rather than try to be someone else, find a way to make who you are work for you.