Looking at the other end of the spectrum, today I had looked at the rewards children would get for doing good. Today a maths medal was handed out to the student who had been exceptional in the class. The medal was given to a student of whom was in the top set and she was partnered with a lower ability student. She was recognized for her ability to help her partner by breaking down the maths question. This had me thinking that rewarding behavior like this allows the child to see that their actions are recognized just as much as their literal academic achievements.

Today I had seen a conflict between two students in the classroom. I was interested to see how the teacher would handle the situation despite knowing what had begun the conflict. She had asked the boys to speak to each other and resolve the issue individually without shouting at each other. I found this interesting as the boys had done that without any problems and the teacher had not taken any sides of the argument. I would maybe like to choose the topic of discipline and conflict for my presentation.

Another theme that I had been introduced to today was the idea around discipline. To capture the children’s attention if they were being too loud was to clap your hands in a rhythmic tone. This immediately reminded me of a lecture I had on musicality and how children are prone to react quickly to music. Secondly, another disciplinary tactic that I had seen was to remove the child from the classroom and into the other year two classroom. I would like to do more research on this to see if there are actual effects of using this method.