Teacher's Expectations

This week in field placement, my teacher was absent and therefore I was nervous not knowing who I would be working with for a lesson my mentor teacher and I put together.  I expected the class to be out of control and giving the substitute and myself a difficult time.  Quite the opposite occurred.  The students were more hyper, but the substitute I worked with today was great with her expectations she had for the classroom.  A perfect example of her "auditory" expectations was when the students were lining up to go to the next class.  A handful of students rushed up and lined up by the door, talking loudly and pushing others in order to get to the front of the line.  She boldly said, “back to your seats.”  At first the students were clueless on what was going on, but when she waited they returned to their desk.  Then she asked “if you have a sister line up.” The second time around less students were talking or loud.  But there was still noise, so she said “back to your seats.”  The students returned with a frown to their seats.  With persistence, the teacher asked “I you have a brother line up.”  Very silently the entire class lined up to get ready for the next rotation.  I was impressed with how directive she was with the students and equally as impressed at how they performed the task as she desired without her saying what they needed to do to line up without being asked to return to their desks.  The expectation was demonstrated and not verbalized, yet the students were able to perform what she was wanting.  Some other behaviors I have seen both my mentor and substitute teacher perform are verbal commands, nonverbal commands, written instructions and peer communications from the teacher’s actions.