Classroom Management Main Page - EDEL 414 - EDSE 415 – EDCI
402
Christine Witt
Classroom
Management Plan
A. The philosophy that I am developing behind my classroom management plan is one that is based on clear communication with my students. I believe that it is important to value relationships with students because that is the starting point of creating a classroom climate that is positive and consistent. It is my goal to cultivate self-directed students so that the behavior management is not taking up lots of valuable class time. Although school seems competitive in its nature because we use grades as the form of evaluation, it is my thought that competition in the classroom should be limited because this will increase better behavior and achievement in all students. Promoting the success of all students rather than promoting a competitive classroom will help each student feel that they are part of a community that wants them to do well. Another important component of my classroom management plan also includes me looking at my own biases and being aware that my own values and beliefs will inevitably appear in my teaching. It is important to me that this is monitored closely so that I am creating an environment that is fair and comfortable for all students.
All young children and students want to learn about the world around them and come to school with a good amount of internal motivation. That internal motivation can either be fostered or killed by the classroom and school experience. Students want to do well and want to feel that others and especially teachers believe in them and want to help them to succeed. It is important that teachers find worth in every student and recognize that students posses different learning styles. A different learning style of student could easily be identified as a behavioral problem and that could lead to the student acting out and losing interest in school. All students want to be recognized for their efforts regardless of the way that they learn and it is crucial that teachers do not hold all students to one model of a good student. When students know that they have a teacher that looks at them as individuals and values their differences, they will feel that school is a place that supports their existing curiosity and excitement towards learning. In recognizing students for their efforts and giving encouragement, it is important that teachers use rewards and praise in a non-manipulative manner. Young students are smart and capable and should not be controlled with constant tokens and “good jobs” just to get them to behave.
The theorists that clarify my perspective are Deborah Stipek, Alfie Kohn and Richard Curwin and Allen Mendler. Both Stipek and Kohn focus on promoting successful learning by encouraging exploration in education and valuing the effort over the outcome. This idea appeals to me because life-long learners are students that are not afraid of school or making mistakes. This means that teachers must value discovery and create a classroom that is safe for students to try new ideas and not feel like a failure. If students feel engaged and the curriculum is interesting, most behavior management problems will be eliminated. Both Stipek and Kohn also encourage communicating with students and the explanation of why tasks are being done and why certain expectations and rules are in place. These theorists do not support teacher-centered classrooms where students are simply controlled with negative consequences.
Curwin and Mendler help to clarify my ideas of setting up a working management plan that is constructed and negotiated by the participants. The Responsibility Model of classroom management appeals to me because it emphasizes teaching students to make responsible choices on their own. This model incorporates respect, dignity and learning from poor choices. The Responsibility Model requires students to evaluate their behavior and in the long run this will help students to be better decision makers.
B. I plan on structuring the expectations in my classroom by letting the students know what I need and establishing clear and specific guidelines that both me and the students have to adhere to. The expectations will be set by me prior to the students entering my classroom on the first day of school but, it is important to establish the rules and consequences with students so that they feel ownership and responsibility to the classroom principals. By setting clear expectations with the rules and consequences created collaboratively by the students and myself I plan on consistently following through so that students are aware of what they can expect every time they choose a behavior.
The expectation of my classroom climate includes treating all students consistently and fairly. This means not identifying students who may present more challenges and “problem students”. Other components of my classroom climate include creating a respectful, genuine and warm environment that my students can rely on. The expectation of respectfulness included my behavior towards them, their behavior towards me and the student’s behavior towards one another. If there is a lack of respect, the students will likely act out in rebellion of being controlled and disrespected by me or their fellow students. Students will be encouraged to be interactive and ask questions as well as work in groups. I plan on using positive directives and reminding students of what they should be doing rather than nagging at them pointing out what they shouldn’t be doing. My expectations are more student centered because I will promote long-term goals fo class room management, build internal motivation and strive to cultivate self-directed students. The classroom climate is very important to me because a safe, clear, consistent, fun and engaging learning zone will lead to less of a need to manage behavior and it will be a better experience for my students.
C. To meet student’s needs academically, I plan on providing instruction to students that matches their ability levels. Educators should set up instructional situations where students do not have a likelihood of feeling like failures. The teacher should make sure that the material is at an academically appropriate level to reduce the incidence of students feeling like they should act out. It is important that as teachers, we adapt our teaching style to the various needs of students because each student learns differently and the same approach can not be applied across the board. The instruction should be clear and the curriculum should be challenging to avoid boredom. Also, teachers must let students know that they are capable of handling new challenges.
Fairness in instruction is also important to prevent students’ need to act out. Cooperative learning should be done using mixed groups and not by ability grouping. It is unfair and damaging to instruct students by high and low levels because this puts a judgment on students’ academic expectation. It is my experience that the students in the low group are often the ones that act out, feel unmotivated and incapable. Mixing students leads to the more equitable treatment of and better performance of all students.
Planning is crucial to instructional strategies that promote my classroom management plan. I plan on preventing misbehavior by giving good, clear directions and explaining. Also, it is important that there is lots of opportunity for participation and that student know that they will be called on randomly. I plan on making sure that there is flow between lessons and that momentum problems are avoided. Along with planning, when the time comes for assessment, it is important that students are tested on what they have learned. Students also need to be brought into the loop about why they are being assessed on certain material. When students are asked to take tests with seemingly no purpose, it causes anxiety, boredom and acting out. Teachers need to explain the meaningfulness behind why the students are being assessed. It is fair and treats them as people able to have a clear idea of why they are learning something.
D. Students are already motivated to learn when they come into the classroom. They have a natural curiosity and it is the responsibility of the teacher to deliver curriculum in an interesting and engaging manner so that students feel that they are being challenged. Teachers kill motivation by being routine, redundant and uncreative in their teaching methods. Unmotivated and bored students make for a hot bed of behavior issues. When teachers can make curriculum meaningful and connect what students are learning in the class to things outside of the class, students become more motivated. To motivate students to behave in the classroom short term, praise and tokens or rewards are great. Stickers, free time, no homework and good jobs will get students to react quickly to our requests but this does not work in the long run. Students will only exhibit the desired behavior when a reward is offered and then students are not behaving because they are self directing.
To manage classroom behavior in the long-term, teachers need to resist the temptation to manipulate students with these tokens. Although I believe this is more difficult, I believe that limiting constant bribes will help students to become more internally motivated and rely less on the teacher as the source of motivation. Both Kohn and Stipek have emphasized that teachers should limit their praise and rewards because they are judgments and those judgments stifle a student’s internal motivation. In the long run using evaluation-free statements will encourage good behavior more than expressions of how good a student is behaving. This kind of evaluation-free climate is going to be difficult for me to create because I feel conditioned to give praise but I agree with both Stipek and Kohn that in the long run, fostering long-term motivation will help the student to develop more as an independent and self motivated person.
My students will do what I ask them to do because I will have brought them into the decision making process and they will be aware of the reasons that they are on a particular task. If students are not given a simple rational behind why they are doing something they will not feel that they are a part of the process or activity. When students feel that they are part of the process they are more invested and will be less likely to act out. I plan to motivate students by encouraging learning that is not based on performance and achievement. Discovery, investigation, and inquisitiveness are the ideas that I would rather use to motivate my students. Worksheets and memorization is not how I want students to acquire information. I am motivated and enthusiastic about learning and I think that I can encourage motivation in my students because of my disposition towards education.
The theme of my future classroom is to focus on effort and not outcomes.
My motivational style is less about what is going on short-term and getting through a spelling test or behaving for a substitute. Instead I would rather motivate student’s long term so that they can find the value in the overall act of effort. It is my goal to help students see that there are rewards that come from persistence and self-direction and those rewards are learning and the acquisition of new knowledge. True motivation comes from the effort inside a person and that should be rewarded with encouragement and acknowledgement, not judgments.
A typical day in my ideal classroom would begin by me greeting all of my students and the door, shaking their hands, looking in their eyes and saying, “Good morning”. I want my students to know that when they step foot into my classroom, they are in a new area and that they can expect consistency, respect and kindness from me. They also can look forward to high expectations and a day filled with interesting lessons filled with inquisitiveness and meaningfulness. My students will come into class and immediately begin on their daily practice of writing in their journals the jist of the previous nights reading. While I am tending to the roll and lunch matters, the students are on task for the first ten minutes of class managing themselves because that is the expectation in Ms. Witt’s room. We move on to the flag and calendar and other similar matters and all of the students know what their daily and weekly responsibilities are. We next move on to our Language Arts lesson and all of the students are answering in complete sentences and are excited to be engaged in the discussion. We move into group work and each student has an opportunity to be the reporter for their group at some point during the week. My students love giving accounts of what their group has discovered in the reading. Those who did not complete their homework willingly place themselves in the “disenfranchised” area where they are not eligible to participate in the entire class activity. While in that area, students are creating an action plan that they turn into me detailing how they will try to not make the same mistake and how it affected them. The students that are disenfranchised are not mad at me because they know that they are empowered to make all of their own choices so it is not a personal decision that I have made to punish them. They are however disappointed that they can not contribute to the class because they know how rewarding it feels to learn from one another. After Language Arts we move on to recess and all of my students quietly line up after pushing their chairs in and moving outside in an orderly fashion. My students take pride in their class and do not want to behave in a manner that is not appropriate or shows disrespect for others. We move onto lunch and students are allowed to come in during their lunch break to read any of the many interesting books that are available for them. My students love to find $1,000.00 words (new words they do not know) and they enjoy sharing them, providing definitions and possibly seeing the words they find on the spelling test. There is not extra credit for this, the extra credit is adding a great new word to our vocabulary and participating in the assessment process.
When lunch is over we move on to our math lesson and this is really a fun part of the day for all students. I personally really don’t like math so I plan to put extra effort into creating a fun and positive feeling towards math. We will work in groups and relate math in class to a context outside of the classroom. I intend on making math meaningful by making it useful and practical to my students. We next move to social studies and after that art. At the end of everyday, we listen to music and add to our art and poetry journals. We will learn about the life and work of various artists, musicians and poets and become inspired by all of the interesting new information we are learning. Students will create drawings, painting, and poems that appeal to them. They will not be judged or labeled; they will just be appreciated for what they are. Students need an outlet and I plan on allowing them an opportunity for experiencing education that is fun and not filled with anxiety. Before my students leave they will line up and I will thank them for their presence and tell them all that I look forward to seeing them tomorrow.
I realize with