Jennah Gnann #11 Classroom Management Model

The overall purpose of behavior management in schools is to help students learn and understand their behavior and show them what appropriate behavior is and ways they should act. When student are taught how to act they will hopefully respond in a positive manager and follow what rules that have been given to them. Students are inherently good they do not come into a classroom with the intent to cause a lot of problems or disrupt their peers or their teacher. I believe that each student brings a new perceptive to ideas no matter what the age and each student has something to offer in the classroom. Thats the beauty of having a diverse classroom and that is something that makes it so much fun and interesting. I believe that classroom management is essential as a teacher. If there is no classroom management and structure in the way the classroom is run there will just be ciaos and nothing would really get accomplished. Each aspect of a students life plays a key role. The school, their family, the teacher and also the student have to work in conjunction with each other. Some things may go astray sometimes but its almost like a well-oiled machine. The school plays a key role by keeping a safe environment for the students to learn in. They provide the guidelines in which the teachers have to follow. The school houses many things for the students to learn and participate in. They give the student a look into art and physical education. They provide special help for reading, speech, ELL students and students with physical disabilities. The family of the students is probably the biggest part of a students life. They are the bases of what the student knows and how they work with their student over the course of the year to help them improve

and become stronger in learning. The students family can earthier be a huge advantage for them or a disadvantage depending on home life and how that affects the student. As a teacher we just have to go off what we learn and do the best to the help the student as much as we can with the circumstances they have to live under. The teacher also has to work with the family of the student in order for the student to do the best they can. The family or parents of the students have to trust the teacher has the best interest for their student and also vice versa, the teacher has to have faith in the parents or family of the student. The teacher would be the next biggest component on how they run their classroom and how they make everything work with the school, student and the caregiver of the student. As a future teacher I can only hope to lead my students in a positive way and get them started on the right track for the rest of their lives. Managing my classroom with 25 students of all different backgrounds may be somewhat of a challenge but starting off the year strong with the First day of school will be like the opening act of a play. According to Lauren Biller and Brooke Coleman who presented on Harry Wong and the First Day of School, on the first day I would greet my students at the door and welcome them in one by one evening walking them to their seat if need be. I would make sure on the first day to really explain and rehearse my procedures, rules, behavior charts or whatever important information I wanted to relay to my students. Another essential part of classroom management is the how the classroom is set up, organized and do I have a hold on the script of the classroom and how everything is going to be run. (Wong 2013) My personal behavior management would fall along the lines of as Barbara Coloroso would say a Backbone teacher. In my classroom I would emphasize democracy, I would make time for the students to be creative but have them be constructive and responsible at the same

time. My rules for the classroom would be simple and clearly defined. They would be posted in many spots in the classroom and each household would be receiving this list from me on the first day of school. When and if I have to use consequences I would make sure they are natural and real world. Not something along the lines of taking free play away for every student due to one or two students not behaving correctly. Coloroso believed that adults should believe that children and adolescents are worth the effort and time required to teach them responsible behavior. ( Coloroso 2013) With behavior comes communication with the student. As Haim Ginott would say when talking with a student use congruent communication which means using positive communication that acknowledges the students thoughts and feelings. I would need to use I messages instead of you messages and I as the teacher would need to show self discipline to model to my students. (Ginott 2013) I will hopefully be teaching in a younger elementary setting kindergarten to be exact so my rules may be a little different than lets say a fourth grade classroom would have. One of my major rules would be the golden rule. Treat others as you would want to be treated. Respect and trust to me are very important. I would really love to have input from the students about what rules they feel are important but for a Kindergarten class Im not sure how well that would go. I would have 5 specific rules for my classroom. Be safe, Treat others as you would want to be treated, Be responsible for yourself, Dont be afraid to ask questions and Never stop learning. I dont think all rules need to be so concrete in the sense that if they dont follow them some kind of warning or punishment will be given. Kindergartens are still just learning and I think there is a little le way with them and what is acceptable and what may not be. My students will be safe by not running in the classroom or the hall ways. They will use pencils,

hands, and scissors accordingly. I am hoping for no major events to happen in my classroom such as running with scissors and something happening to the student. My next and biggest rule is the golden rule which is treat others as you would want to be treated. Barbara Coloroso also feels that teachers should follow the Golden rule as well and treat students the way that they want to be treated. With everything in life there has to be some kind of balance and I feel that is especially important t in the classroom. My next rule would relate to the theory of Marvin Marshall which stated students learn to be responsible for their own behavior through the understanding and reflection of hierarchy. Theses 3 principles are Positivity, Choice and Reflection. (Marshall 2013) My next rule is about asking questions, I always want to ask questions in many circumstances and I usually dont in fear I may look stupid or the question I ask is just ridiculous. I want my students to feel they can ask me about anything or any question and I will do my best with the answer! My last rule is about learning. I never want to stop learning or stop having fun learning. I want to make the classroom a fun and meaningful environment where the students always have something to learn about and are interested in. So how do I keep my students good? First off I think this takes time, practice and patience. To prevent misbehavior I think rules should be implemented and discussed on day one. The students should know what the rules are when they leave the classroom that day. They should also know the reward system for staying good along with making sure they feel open and comfortable in my classroom. For my Kindergarten class I would have a behavior chart. There will be the color green, yellow, red and purple. After the student has received 3 warnings from me they will have to change their color from green to yellow. Each new day the student starts off at green. Three warnings would consist of the student earthier not listening

to me, being disruptive after I have asked to stop doing something. If the student is distracting a fellow student or refusing to do something that is grounds for a warning which may lead to the student having to change their color. If you are at green at eh end of the day you will get a marble added to your box. Each month we count the rocks or little marble things and if you have so many you may get to be the line leader two days in a row instead of one day which is determined by our chore chart. There will also be other little treats but no real prizes like candy or a toy. I have also seen a penny system being used and the students seem to respond really well to this system. I would have pennies in my pocket not real ones but if I caught my students being good they would get a penny in their box which is placed by their name tag on the desk. The pennies would be awarded mostly through activities that they would be doing at their seat. If a student just isnt working or being disruptive I may ask them to give me a penny from their bank. When one student sees a penny being given to another student around them they seem to straighten up quickly and they strive to earn a penny too. I as a future teacher always want to make my students feel comfortable, safe and loved. This is almost there second home just as college is a second home to me. They spend the majority of their day with me and their fellow students so I want them to be happy when they walk in and excited to start the day. I think to make a caring peaceful climate start with the dcor of the classroom. I want the classroom to be bright and posters and art filling the walls around the classroom. I want the alphabet displayed along with their sight words and any other helpful mechanisms. I want to have all different centers that they enjoy but also entice their learning. Comfy pillows for reading time. Create for the student a home away from home where they can completely be themselves whether that be good or bad.

I believe that a solution is a better term for punishment. As I stated above students are inherently good and they happen to go astray sometimes. As stated in my previous paragraph I will have a system of behavior related issues. For consequences as a future teacher I need to work on not directly blaming the person that did it and so to the victim first while keeping an eye out for the person who did it and directly speaking to them instead of maybe calling them out in front of the entire class. They may not have been the one who started it and they are getting blamed for something they didnt even really do. I as a student would not like that so sometimes I feel you have to step back in student mode and put yourself in that situation and see how you are handling the situation and if the solution is correct and makes sense pertaining to whatever happened. Everything I learned about restorative discipline really made me think differently about the way you go about as a teacher handling a problem or situation. If possible I will use the idea of the mat where the students face each other and have to hash out their problems but again I dont know if that is too appropriate for a Kindergarten classroom. I cant give a clear defined answer for this section because each situation is different and depending on what it may be I will have to act accordingly for the safely of myself and my students.

Work Cited

1. Gnann, J. (March, 2013).Barbara Coloroso: Inner Discipline, poster presented in EDUC 370, Bridgewater College 2. Dove, H. Lane, A. Ostby, N. (March, 2013). Haim Ginott: Congruent Communication, poster presented in EDUC 370, Bridgewater College 3. Ellis, A. Mullen, L. (March, 2013). Marvin Marshall: Discipline without Stress, poster presented in EDUC 370, Bridgewater College 4. Biller, L. Coleman, B. (March 2013). Harry Wong: First Days of School, poster presented in EDUC 370, Bridgewater College