To yell, or not to yell

During homework help today I yelled. One particular table was getting a little rowdy and wasn't even listening to me when I calmly asked them to settle down 'please.' I yelled and scared both the students and myself. But I did not yell out of frustration and I did not yell any louder than any of my co-workers. I simply got close to the table and yelled, 'Why am I yelling?!' And they got the point. It was pretty cool.

So after about two weeks I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable, but there are obvious challenges ahead. The challenges I have in mind deal more with personal teaching pedagogy over the course of my teaching career. I really feel like I'm just getting my feet wet in the surf of a great ocean I am bound to cross. Is this what they mean by sink or swim?

Adjusting to different learning levels is going to be a major challenge when I'm a teacher. Different learning levels affect the pace of my lesson, the diversity of my activities and the extent to which I activate prior knowledge. I'm also learning that it is not that far-fetched to tailor instruction to different learning styles or multiple intelligences. I am witnessing these during homework and playtime, e.g., a very well-spoken or linguistic third grader, a spatial fourth grader who is drawing and doodling while instructions are given but is able to follow along, and an amazingly coordinated, bodily-kinesthetic second grader who is designing elaborate obstacle courses for himself on the playground.

I'm not happy with the Organization of assignments and homework so far. I see students that are in the same class with the same teacher and they are publishing homework in different ways. My classroom vision is to maintain very specific guidelines for writing and completing assignments. I see the pride students feel when they complete a particularly difficult assignment- they should have a specific and special place to put that assignment like a 3-ring binder or a red "completed" folder. Besides, this practice will make it easier for me to grade, to catalog and to compare nine months of student work.