Reflection on Classroom Management Webinar

    During our last class we had the opportunity to participate in a webinar on classroom management. It was my first time diving into this topic and this event opened my eyes to so many different possibilities and aspects of the classroom that I have never thought about. In this blog I want to talk about the things I loved, learned, and was able to reflect on thanks to this experience.

    The thing I enjoyed the most about the webinar was how rich in ideas and hands-on examples it was. Even though it lasted only an hour and a half, there were so many aspects and areas that were discussed. For every topic the presenter would show tons of useful tips that actually exemplified how to put ideas into use. For example, when talking about 'saving your voice' the presenter would show us how to do it and what applications or websites could help with this matter. Similarly, when talking about motivation and catching students' attention, she would give us examples of songs that we could use in class. There were so many ideas and ready solutions that any one of us could implement in our teaching. I also appreciated all the different craft ideas that could be used as classroom props. You could tell that the speaker had a lot of experience, but also incredibly creative and innovative ideas that are still easy to prepare. Lastly, I also appreciated how conversational and warm the discussion felt. It was easy to relate and listen. This aspect also connects to school environments as well - as an educator you need to represent yourself in a professional, yet approachable way to achieve the best results.

    I wanted to also reflect on the how filled with information the webinar was from a different perspective. Towards the end of the presentation I found myself losing focus and feeling overwhelmed. Why? I believe my brain became overloaded with information. Is it a bad thing? Is it a good thing? This matter started to really interest me. On one hand, this webinar provided an incredible amount of ideas that we could go back to, read about again, and treasure for our whole future career. On the other hand, I started thinking about this issue in relation to school classrooms. How should we manage the balance of how much we teach our students? Do we want to try and give them as much information as possible or should be teach smaller sectors and focus on memorization? I could see arguments being made for both sides. In the end, I felt that it was a good thing this webinar was filled with so much information. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the speaker to visit us and share her experiences. Even though towards the end I became overwhelmed, we received all the information in an email and I could go back and read it. However, I think this wouldn't be a good strategy to implement during classes for younger kids. We should strive for memorization and not overloading our students. We have more time with them and there will be another lesson to give them even more input, but there needs to be a line drawn, where we are putting way too much weight on their shoulders. I am glad this presentation allowed me to reflect on this issue and evaluate both sides of the problem. 

    To summarize, I was incredibly grateful for the time we were given with the speaker and the knowledge she was able to pass on to us. It was a very practical and inspiring presentation that not only gave me many ideas that are ready to be implemented in the classroom, but it also made me reflect on how a group of young learners should be managed. I hope we will have more experiences like this in the future and that they will give us even more various perspectives and ways to reflect on the role of a teacher.