Classroom Management Main Page - EDEL 414 - EDSE 415
Rosa M. Lopez
June 3, 2002
Dr. John Shindler
EDEL 414Classroom Management in the Elementary School
My personal philosophy for managing a room is not so much as management but rather a way for both my students and I to enjoy time together learning and performing fun lessons. It would be ideal if I did not have to worry about managing students but rather know that they will be well behaved and ready to learn, but ideally this is not realistic. Yet I believe that at any time you have to have a management plan it should be one of mutual respect and understanding, with these two ideas working together the classroom will run itself. Of course rules will need to be set at the beginning of the year and the students, as well as, the teacher need to understand them fully and what consequences are going to take place. No deviation from the plan should have to occur once it is implemented.
I know I am a very optimistic, easy going person, so it will not be hard for me to make my classroom fun, however, I also believe in hard work because every individual has to be responsible for one’s destiny. So I strongly believe that we need to take all that it is offered for free and most especially our education, because without it we will not go far. Part of my philosophy will be to educate my students to the importance of their education for their well-being and for their futures. My students will know that there is a time to learn and a time for fun and together we can do both.
Students, especially elementary school students, are like sponges they are ready to absorb and retain many lessons if we give them the chance. There is so much their young little brains can hold and we should be ready to help them. As teachers we need to see and know how much each and every individual student is capable of learning and at what rate. Because even though students are ready to learn they all have their limitations. As teachers we need to learn to evaluate our students for their capacity of learning and the sooner the better. Because we must learn not to overwhelm the young minds or they could turn against our main goal, to teach them.
The three theorists that I could or hope to identify with are Frederic Jones, Jacob Kounin and Linda Albert. All three theorists have ideas that I can see myself exercise in my classroom management. Actually all ten theorists that we studied in class have great ideas but some are too harsh and some are too soft for the happy medium that I hope to establish.
Frederic Jones idea about how to maintain a well-managed room so that little time is wasted on discipline is especially attractive to me because there is so much to teach our students that we need to make the most the time we spend teaching and our students learning. Further, Jones’ ideas are easy to follow and to use in managing a classroom. For example, by practicing body language, positioning among the students, facial expressions and good eye contact. These are techniques that with practice a teacher can master to their full potential. Lastly, I believe that for every good deed there is a reward, therefore, students should be rewarded for their good behavior not necessarily by giving them something materialistic but rather for the whole class to enjoy. As Jones points out treating them to a movie, extra art work, or free time, will be good rewards for the class as a whole.
I identified with Jacob Kounin because as he points out it is important for the teacher to be well prepared with his/her lesson, interact with all his/her students, the teacher should be able to move around the classroom and to be able to teach different lessons without abrupt changes. It is important to keep our students active but also keep them happy. If the students get bored or feel that they did not quite understand the last lesson they will not want to keep on paying attention to the next lesson. Therefore, I believe Kounin’s best interest in his techniques is that our students learn and enjoy it at the same time along with a teacher they like and can identify with as a friend and as a leader.
One of the main reasons why I identified with Linda Albert is because she believes in parent-teacher-student interaction. I feel this point is so important especially in today’s time. Our children need so much more guidance that by not involving parents it can be disastrous. Parents can be a crucial part of our classroom environment by keeping them informed of our activities they will know and help guide their children to help keep a happy medium between the teacher and students.
All three theorists ideas will help bring together my classroom management plan. Of course, there is always room for adjustments, but overall I think the theorists’ ideas will give me a good start. Perhaps later I will change my views and use other ideas from the other theorists we studied in class.
I believe students are capable of the following:
- Respect
- Raise their hand for questions or to be acknowledged
- Stand up when a visitor enters our classroom
- Do work to their full capabilities
- Complete all homework or class work timely
- Keep classroom clean and tidy
- Keep their desks clean and tidy
- Capable of working with groups or independently
Also my students will have knowledge of certain cues that I will use in order to change
the lesson or their behavior. Cues such as if you hear me clap once, if you hear me clap twice.
Through the use of cues if will help manage the students and deter misbehavior or loss of time in
redirecting the students to a new lesson.
My classroom should give the following climate:
- Friendly
- Classroom will be decorated with a theme for the lessons taught throughout the year
- Plants
- Animals (hamster, fish, birds)
- Students work will be displayed, often my lesson will contain themes
- There will often be classical music in the background, as it has been found to stimulate
learning
The student and I will have a contract of rules and policies. I feel that this is an important tool for maintaining a well-managed classroom. For every rule broken there will be a consequence. For example all homework must be turned in at the beginning of class. Students will have a folder to put their homework due. If their homework is not in their folder then students will need to complete it during recess, lunchtime, or after school.
The contract will be displayed in a place where all students will be able to see with ease. Further the contract will be made available to each student to take home for his/her parents. This way the parents will be fully aware of the rules and policies of our classroom and the consequences of their children’s actions or lack thereof.
C. INSTRUCTIONAL AND ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES THAT PROMOTE YOUR MANAGEMENT GOALS
As an instructor I will need to be prepared with lesson plans that will motivate my
students to learn the lesson. Keep their minds active and open to new ideas, because young minds get bored easily and loose their will to pay attention. Also there should be room for fun as well because all work and no play can lead to misbehavior. But overall as a teacher I must remember to make sure that the appropriate lessons for the grade are taught and meet the school guidelines to fully educate my students.
It is important to get to know the student on a personal basis as soon as possible. Because if you know how a student acts you will be able to deflect misbehavior instantly. Also, knowing when the students are loosing interest in a lesson or becoming bored can help to quickly change the lesson and deflect misbehavior. Finally, if a student does begin to act out, quickly interfere to prevent major misbehavior, by either getting the student’s attention with eye contact or proximity. Overall, I believe if you keep your students busy with activities that they do enjoy or those that they do not but will eventually be rewarded for, they will not be able to have time to misbehave.
I believe it will be important to take notes of each lesson or activity of the day for each student and how they managed that lesson or activity. This will be done through observations and actual work completed. At the end of the day I will also reflect on that day’s activities and how the students reacted, how they affected my original lesson plan and how I changed my original plan throughout the day. This will be completed through what I call my teaching journal, because anyone can improve their own ways, in this situation my teaching methods.
These techniques will help me modify my lessons and class activities to improve my management goals.
How Do You Allow For Variable
Styles, Cultures and Circumstances in Meeting The Diverse Needs of Your
Students?
Just
by the fact that we live in the United States, which is so rich in cultures
there is going to be so much fun to incorporate in to lessons. All students can share their cultures by
doing special project about their lifestyles at home, family history, foods,
clothing, religion, etc. Kids love to share and tell. We can have a culture share day.
Also,
just by all students being different they have so much to share about themselves,
so we can have a day about me, where students can tell why they dress a certain
way, why they wear their hair a certain way, what sports they like to play and
so on. Students will find this
enjoyable sharing.
Lastly,
I can have the students complete a project of how they can teach a lesson. It must incorporate a subject such as Math,
English, Writing, Science, or History.
But they can teach it anyway they want and using methods that they make
up, such as teaching a math lesson while making a pie, or building a
birdhouse. All lessons will be shared
with students and parents on a family day.
D. MOTIVATION
From Your
Point of View, What Motivates Students?
I believe that the most important
tool to motivate students is to keep them active in lessons they enjoy or find
interesting. The fastest way to loose
the interest of a student and their motivation is boredom. Kids are capable of absorbing so much yet
they need to be kept active and using their energy. Also kids need to know that they are not only learning what must
be learned by also that there will be a reward at the end of the lesson whether
it is materialistic or not.
In the
Short-Term?
-
Rewards
o Materialistic
– stickers, pencils, erasers, prizes, etc.
o Non-materialistic
– teacher’s helper, computer time, free time, etc.
In the Long-Term?
-
Display of the best scores on a test
-
Stickers for spelling tests high scores
-
Free time for those that complete their work on time
-
Game time for completion of work
-
Extra art time
-
Extra physical education time
-
Computer time
How Do You
Plan To Motivate Your Students?
One of the best ways to motivate
students is by variety. Sometimes it is
hard to teach math in many different ways, but I believe that a good teacher
can make math fun if they really try.
As a teacher I will try to have different teaching techniques, be
prepared for each day with lesson plans, and yes at time be prepared to change
my plan to incorporate some fun, maybe by playing a game or watching a
movie.
How Would You
Characterize Your Approach?
My approach will be that there is a
lesson to be taught and for the students to learn. It is important for the students to learn and enjoy learning at
the same time. I believe I am going to
be very easy going. It will be hard for
me not to try and make my class fun. My
problem is going to remember to stay focus on lessons as I planned them and
deviate to something fun. However, I
just have to remember that I am a teacher and my job is to teach students for
their future endeavors, dreams and goals.
E. VISION
My vision
of a classroom is too unrealistic to even begin to dream of, but here goes
nothing. I will even start our on a Monday, since Mondays are my least
favorite days, because if something is going to go wrong is going to be on a
Monday.
My
classroom will be fully decorated with the theme of session. Such as one theme I will be following will
be that of the ecological system. So at
this time my boards are filled with pictures of plants, animals or
flowers. There will be live flowers, a
hamster, fishes or a bird in my classroom.
Students will be given the chance to baby sit the animals over the
weekend or water the plants as a part of a reward system.
Monday
morning the bell rings, my students are lined up in the designated are for the
3rd graders. They know to be
in a straight line and await my command to proceed to our classroom. Once the command is given they are to begin
walking to our classroom without talking and quickly go to their seats to begin
their daily journals. This journal is
kept of all their previous day’s activities.
However,
this morning one of the students cannot find his/her journal. He/she begins accusing the students around
him that they took it. He/she is
beginning to get quite upset, for journals are often very personal. As a teacher I cannot let him/her keep
getting upset or accusing his/her fellow students. Therefore, I request that if anyone has seen the journal please
return it at once. If the journal is
not returned or found within a few minutes then I request that if the person
that took it or knows the whereabouts of the journal can return it at recess
time and no questions will be asked.
The student without a journal is instructed to complete his entry for
the day on a loose sheet of paper.
Following
the journal entry, we immediately go into our math lesson of the day. On this particular day we are having a test
on multiplications. A test with 100
problems is to be given to each student and it is to be timed. The students are instructed to clear their
desks and have a pencil and an eraser on their desks. Promptly the students are ready to begin the test.
Once the
test is completed, the next lesson in math is introduced. A short question and answers session
follows. All students are given a
chance to answer and ask questions by raising their hands. The homework assignment is given to turned
in the next day and students are instructed to work on their homework until
recess time.
Following
recess the missing journal has been put back on the student’s desk and no
apparent damage to the journal is detected.
However, the rule about respect has been broken. Therefore, the class must be reminded about
the contract that exists within our classroom and what the consequence should
be. Since the whole class will suffer
the consequence it is agreed that each student is to write one page about
respect and respecting other’s property.
This pretty
much covers our English lesson for the day.
Next we have reading time.
Students are to read in silence for 15 minutes. Then we move on to a spelling lesson of the
day. Ten words are given to the student, which they must write 10 times each
and then write a sentence containing each word. They begin the assignment and if they do not finish then it becomes
homework. Lunch bell rings.
Following
lunch the class begins working on their projects. At this time we are doing group projects about recycling. Each group is to prepare a collage of ways
to recycle and why. They are working in
groups of 4 students. Their collage is to include written paragraphs and
pictures. They are to present their
finished project to the class within a week. Students work on their projects
very productively with some talking but no loud disruptions.
The next
lesson is history and I am showing a film about the Declaration of
Independence. That pretty much takes up
the rest of the time. After the film we
discuss it and begin getting ready to go home.
Students are to make sure that their areas are picked up, all the
materials that were used throughout the day are put back where they belong, and
that they are aware of homework due for the next day.
Overall the
day was a productive one and the problem that arose with the missing journal
was solve or taken care of. In this instance
the whole class was affected but hopefully they learned from it. Of course, this sounds like a typical day or
boring day at school but hopefully once I start teaching the days will be more
colorful.