Who is Miamo Lydie ?

 Reflection on classroom management presented by Mme Paulina Andruszkiewicz-Glińska

              The Zoom meeting started with preliminaries with Dr. Kamila Wichrowska 30 minutes before the webinar proper. It was unusual for me to see how we were being prepared for what we should expect before a Zoom meeting. It showed how serious the organizers were and the importance of the session. Ms. Paulina -sweet coincidence that my teacher is also called Paulina- began her presentation by introducing herself, and from her voice and mood, I could tell, even before she could go further, that she was a very engaged, passionate, and jovial person who loves what she is doing. The information she gave about herself just confirmed my first impressions of her. She is one of these teachers who have gone digital and is very active in the teaching field, with many articles on her blog, in teachers’ magazines, and lectures in a teachers’ conference.  I saw a self-fulfilled person, I admired her achievements and wondered what her age could be.

The webinar was a very interactive session, with many activities that kept us busy throughout the meeting. The visuals and comic cartoons kept me engaged, and I am pretty sure that my classmates shared my feelings. Some questions that Mrs. Paulina asked reminded me of some things I was doing when I was a teacher about classroom management, that made me feel guilty, I could say. I kept some pupils back to finish their tasks or lessons before break or before going home. I was convinced it was for their benefit and didn’t see anything wrong with that, because I wanted them to know where were their priorities and interests. I was however happy I wasn’t completely off-topic concerning classroom management, and somehow relieved to balance this feeling of guilt with some good things I also did, like making my lesson lively with some songs and rhymes that I composed from lesson materials. To some extent, my lessons were playful, with some games and competitions which the children enjoyed. I particularly loved this aspect of praising the students’ effort, because I realized that each time, I asked the class to clap for a student who answered a question, whether or not it was correct, most of them wanted to also say something. Additionally, my comments in all the report cards were always “great job! But you can do better”.

The tips for classroom management that Ms. Paulina introduced to us were really amazing! The tips with fingers when answering questions were very interesting, and I found the cards used to illustrate the activity stages very original. Just that there was a particular card with the statement “An outstanding student! English only!”  that I didn’t really agree with, or that I would formulate differently, because, in my opinion, it gives the impression that those who don’t speak English are not or cannot be outstanding, and it in some way undermines other languages. To encourage the student to use English, I would put something like “More English! Fast learning!” or “Speak English, Learn English!”. There were also videos of teachers creating rapport with the students through greetings, and it is amazing to see how far a teacher’s creativity could reach. I really loved it! This was the second time I watched one of the videos. I will certainly follow the links she recommended and get more inspiration from her blog.

In a nutshell. The webinar was very inspiring, full of discoveries and tips on how to handle a classroom. I became aware of some things I usually took for granted, or did ignorantly without measuring the impact, that I should now remove from my classroom management policies, and there were others that should become conscious actions in my teaching practices. The show as a whole brought some variety to our Student Practice Clinic course, and I am so grateful to my teacher Ms. Paulina (Marchlik) for mobilizing other resource persons for our sake, and I am happy they could quiz time out of their tight schedule to honor this invitation.