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Classroom Management by: Elizabeth Collins A healthy classroom is the perfect classroom climate.

A healthy classroom is viewed as a continuous process in which students are given the opportunity to take some control of their own lives within the classroom by deliberately choosing behaviors that lead to a richer, more balanced, and satisfying state of being (Nakamura 2000). I have observed many teachers in the classroom, however my first observations in the classroom where extremely enriching to me. These are where I really focused a lot on actually watching another teacher teach and engage students. I kept extensive journals about these experiences and have thought back to them consistently throughout this course. I chose to do this project based on those classroom observations because I believe I will learn a lot through reflecting on those experiences with the lens of concepts learned in this course. My focus will be on describing the classroom management approach of a class Ive observed and thinking critically about which theories seem implicit in the way the classroom was organized, which practices were "best practices" and which were not. My first observations in the classroom were with Mrs. Debbie Childers at Holt High School. Mrs. Childers taught Sophomore English 10 class twice a day, a Senior English Literature class twice daily and a Senior elective film class once daily. Upon arriving in the classroom the first thing that I noticed was her room configuration. She had the desks in rows, but curved around the room in a horse shoe shape. This is the same room configuration I decided to use in this course during module three. I spoke with her about the room configuration and she said that she likes using the traditional row, but by spreading the students out into a horseshoe shape that she was better able to see the students on the far side of the room. I believe

this was key in allowing her to better maintain the students by making sure they are on task. Reflecting on her classroom, I feel her classroom design was a best practice. Mrs. Childers felt at the secondary level teachers need to assist students in preparation for adulthood by helping them assume increased levels of responsibility. Responsibility is involved in establishing new friendships, helping other to achieve, cooperation in classroom work, being on time, fulfilling school assignments and schedules, and a variety of other tasks. The ability to assume responsibility requires recognizing limits and identifying what needs to be done (Nakamura 2000). Mrs. Childers had a strict policy on tardiness. My first visit to her classroom was on a Friday. Several of the students were late to class after lunch. About a minute after the bell Mrs. Childers stood in front of the class with her attendance sheet and asked the students who had been tardy. After class I asked her why she trusted the students to inform her who was tardy. She indicated that she knew who had been tardy, but by making they tell her they were tardy she felt she helped remind them that she was marking them tardy, and that it was inappropriate for them to be late. I believe that is a great way of giving the kids added responsibility because they are forced to take ownership for their own actions as recommended by Jones and Jones (Jones 259). It also allows for authority under the TARGET structure. Mrs. Childers also made students assume responsibility by not allowing late papers. She gave each student a late paper pass in which they were allowed to hand in one assignment late with the pass per quarter. She explained to me that many other teachers accepted late assignments, but she felt that kids should be preparing for college where they will not be given the chance to hand them in late. She wanted them to become more responsible for their own work. By not accepting late assignments she hoped she was forcing students to be more organized with the actual assignments and their time. I did not feel that this was a best practice.

Although I understood her reasoning, I think a better practice is to accept the assignments and deduct points. One of the most difficult challenges Mrs. Childers felt towards teaching is helping students feel competent (Jones and Jones). She referred to this as self-actualization which she defined as having students feel self-fulfillment, namely, the tendency for a student to become actualized in what he or she is capable of doing (Nakamura 2000). In her classroom I noticed a lot of the same people were leading discussions and answering her questions. She began to call on other students for the answer, even if they did not have their hands raised. She said that she knew the other students knew the answers because of their written work, but their lack of interest in participation is because some of them lacked the social skills necessary for interaction in the classroom. She wanted all of the students to be involved, therefore she called on other to make them get involved. This was important in helping them develop competency because when they were able to do it, they felt competency (Jones and Jones). Participation in the classroom also allows students to feel connected because it requires the ability to function and communicate with different kinds of people as part of the whole class (Jones and Jones). A healthy classroom teacher is one who fosters a good student-teacher relationship. In becoming a healthy classroom teacher it is important that teachers know their style of teaching or leadership. Each and every day you communicate messages that tell each student how you feel, not only about the students, but also about yourself. By its very nature, teaching is a series of learn-by doing experiences. This means that you may need to change your teaching and/or leadership style. Mrs. Childers has been teaching since 1983. She felt that her teaching style is progressive because she allowed her students a lot of freedom in determining tasks and

assignments. Each quarter the students were required to fulfill a personal reading assignment. She allowed the students to pick their own books and then complete a task from three choices she has outlined for them. This is a best practice as it is an example of differential instruction and is the same recommendation that my group and I made in regards to many of the student behavior analyses for this course. It also a recommendation made under the task portion of the TARGET structure (Jones 246). Mrs. Childers indicated that her teaching style was not always progressive. During her first years of teaching she had to follow strict guidelines set by the administration of that school in regards to how and what she taught in the classroom. She came to conclusion from her own teaching that differentiated instruction and progressive teaching help students assume added authority (Jones 238). She also felt that it allowed them to achieve competency or as she described it, self-actualization. Mrs. Childers felt you had to empower your students and give them the ability to become effective and powerful learners. Healthy teachers empower their students by giving them opportunities to express their individuality and, at the same time, validate or affirm them (Nakamura 2000). This is a best practice as it is a major component of the task and authority sections of the TARGET structure. In the classroom she allowed the student to make choices for themselves. She had a discussion with one of the student in class who explained to her that he really enjoyed the personal reading assignment. He chose a book that he wanted to read and by completing the assignment of his choice, he was actually able to develop a better understanding of the book. This is a positive situation and a best practice in which I first hand saw a student develop competency and feelings of being capable (Jones and Jones). Mrs. Childers felt that a great way to develop a good student-teacher relationship was by expanding her leadership roles beyond the classroom. She was co-captain of the Quiz Bowl Team and was lead play director.

These added responsibilities helped her build a relationship with her students and also allowed her to witness more of each students personalities. This is a best practice and is part of the recognition process under the TARGET structure. She felt that a healthy student-teacher relationship is a process that is based on respect and trust. She also felt this was important in her relationship with parents and saw her goal with parents to help them find a way to support their childrens education. To build a strong home-school relationship she devoted specific time each day to answer emails and telephone calls from parents. She instructed parents that if they contact her with a question about their child, she was more than willing to communicate with them. She felt all parents should take an active role in their childrens education. This is definitely a best practice. However, she did have one rule about parent interactions that I do not feel was a best practice. She would not contact a parent about a student under any circumstances. Her reasoning for doing this was that she felt it was the responsibility of the student to maintain their grades and behavior at the secondary level. She explained this to all parents and said that they could take the responsibility from the student and contact her, but that she wanted students to have ownership and therefore she would not contact them. Even though this could be viewed as increasing ownership and authority, I do not agree with this. I believe that parents can be our allies and I actually thinking building a strong relationship with parents involves reaching out. Also, we spent a lot of time in this class thinking about data collection and research of our students. In order to do this I feel I have to take the initiative to contact parents. I feel this will help me with classroom management, student motivation and positive behavior support, as well as discipline when necessary. Classroom management is about human relationships, behavior, understanding and meaning (Nakamura 2000). Healthy classroom management has its foundations rooted in self-

esteem research, resiliency research, medical research on psychological hardiness, and humanistic psychology (Nakamura 2000). The conclusion drawn from each of these areas all focus on the principle of understanding and meeting basic human needs in order to effect motivation. Students behavior in Mrs. Childers' classroom differed greatly. Some of the students lack of participation probably stemmed from not having some of their basic needs being met, such as feeling competent, connected, contributing and capable. For example, one student (we will call Jane) was not participating with the other three members of the group. At first it seemed it was a personal issue between Jane and the other girl in the group, because they were supposed to trade papers to peer edit but didnt. After class I spoke with Mrs. Childers about the situation and she said that Janes self-esteem was being negatively impacted by being the only Junior in the English 10 class and that she had developed a negative attitude towards the class. Mrs. Childers and the counselors had spoken with Jane about it, but determined her resiliency to adapt was very low. Resiliency is defined as the capacity to spring back, rebound, and successfully adapt in the face of adversity, and develop special, academic, and vocational competence despite exposure to severe stress or simply to the stress that is inherent in todays world (Nakamura 2000). Although it was Janes own behaviors that led her to fail the class, she was not able to take the responsibility for her own actions. She appeared to lack all motivation in the classroom. Mrs. Childers felt that as the semester progressed her attitude would simply improve because she would realize she had to do the work. I feel that this was not a best practice. In hindsight, Janes needs were not being met and she was left feeling incompetent, incapable and definitely not connected. Jones and Jones describe motivation as motivation = expectation x value x climate. Jane felt no motivation because she did not see the value and did

not feel like she was part of a healthy classroom climate. The only expectation that was being told to her was that she had to do the work, but having already failed the course; she needed more support than that. Mrs. Childers should have tried to increase her motivation by trying to build a more caring and supportive relationship with Jane. The extrinsic motivation of passing did nothing to improve her intrinsic motivation. Acceptance-the sense of belonging, of being connected to those you care for-is one of the most compelling motivations that any student regardless of gender, race, or ethnic background can feel. Nothing contributes more to student success of failure as does the feeling of connectedness and belonging. It was interesting to see what students in the class got involved, and what inspired them to do so. During a class discussion there were several students in the classroom who did not get involved for various reasons. There were several students who had not done their reading and therefore could not participate. There were several students who had read farther than the discussion point and therefore were instructed not to participate because they knew what would happen next. This left about half of the students who could actually participate. One of the most compelling motivations any student has is the need to be accepted and is this validated by interactions between the students and others in the school (Schoenfelder and Urdan 333). I observed in her classroom that the students who received her praise were the only students, especially one student, who was active in the discussions. Mrs. Childers said that the one student led the classroom discussions almost daily. She did not want to discourage her from participating when so many others wont, but if she doesnt give other students the chance to be involved then there really is no purpose for the discussions. She therefore called on students in an effort to force them to participate. I do not think it is a best practice to put students on the

spot, but her intentions were to increase recognition under the TARGET structure by allowing other students the opportunity to experience getting it right and being connected to others in the classroom (Jones 239). It is a best practice to do this, but I do think she should have found a different way of doing this such as a KWL chart (Jones 238). Mrs. Childers offered praise to all of her students in an attempt to increase motivation, but not all of her students responded to this praise. Mrs. Childers said that some kids feel it is not cool to be smart. She says this is because students want to be accepted more by their peers than they do by her and this impacts their behavior choices. Therefore she tried to structure group work. This is a best practice and is part of Grouping under the TARGET structure. She tried to demonstrate that she cared for and accepted each student in hopes that they will become motivated to participate and feel connected to the class. The teachers words can consistently affirm and validate the students by instilling a belief in their capabilities and potential. Feeling capable is a foundational element in student motivation. Often times students in her classroom would not volunteer to participate when she would ask questions. To combat this she would call a student out by name and say, Cmon Student Name you know this one! Then the student would smile and answer. She would know they knew it based on recent class assignments, but her affirmation allowed them to feel capable. Her coaxing answers out of them helps the students want to get involved, because it lowers their fears of being wrong. Being the lead play director she felt this spilled over into other areas as well. For example, we were at a pep rally when some students near us snickered and laughed at the cheer team for making a couple minor errors in an otherwise flawless cheer. Instead of concentrating on the cheer as a whole, they chose to make fun of one error and she said this is parallel to participation in the classroom. Unless they know they are right, they dont

want to risk being mocked. Students do not try out for sports, plays or musicals for the same fear of criticism and feelings of not being capable. She tried to build feelings of capability every opportunity she could because she hoped it would spill out into their lives beyond her room. This is definitely a best practice. Self-esteem, resiliency and psychological hardiness contribute to students feelings of motivation and capability. Some students feel capable of doing the work, but do not feel any motivation to do it because they do not want to accept the responsibility for school work. A student in class complained that Mrs. Childers did not like her, but when looking at her grades he has all As on the assignment she did, but was missing almost half of the class assignments and therefore had a D in the class. She knows she is capable of doing the work because of her high grades on assignments, but is unwilling to realize that she is not motivating herself to complete assignments. Mrs. Childers tries to structure students for success rather than failure, but she feels students have to have a certain amount of motivation and responsibility to complete their tasks. As an educator you have to strive to help students feel capable and this may include having a conversation with your students about the difference between being motivated, responsible, and capable in order to help them reach their potential. A great time to do this would be when setting the classroom expectations. Mrs. Childers did not have a best practice in regards to doing this. The class rules were shared at the beginning, but were never revisited. Also, she could have spoken with the student about her missing assignments, but rather chose to allow her to take responsibility for it. I do not feel that is best practice and feel she should have had a one-on-one conversation with the student. Classroom climate is extremely important in regards to student motivation. During module one my entire group agreed that children must feel safe and healthy to be able to learn.

Also, student health matters as well, especially in regards to making sure their basic needs are being met. Mrs. Childers was very observant of students in her class and made it a priority to identify students who may not feel safe at school or even at home. She noticed on the desk of one student a book about cutting. She asked the girl if this was her choice book for reading and she said no. This sparked Mrs. Childers into action and she contacted the counselor with her concern that the girl may be cutting. She had noted a decline in her motivation and participation in class. At this point they were all just planning to observe the student, when the next day the student asked Mrs. Childers if they could talk and she confided that she had been cutting. Mrs. Childers was prepared with what to do from her conversation with the counselor and they got the student the help she needed. This was a proactive approach and definitely a best practice. However, a healthy environment in the classroom is also dependent on student behavior. Violence bullying has infiltrated schools and makes students feel unsafe. Mrs. Childers and the school had extreme measures in place to discourage violent activities and bullying and had a zero tolerance policy. This was enforced by teachers and also school wide with dress codes. There was a big effort for teachers and administration to be aware of problems with students. For example, one student in her class transferred from another district where she had been a victim of stalking. The entire school was aware and security watched her outside of the building, as well as the school having strict security measures in place such as locking access doors. She fell asleep in class one day and I touched her shoulder to wake her, it startled her and she screamed and began to cry in class. Because Mrs. Childers took a proactive approach she was able to calm the student down. In order to improve academic achievement, schools must devote attention to the health and safety of students. This creates a good class and school climate that will foster

learning. Mrs. Childers definitely used best practices in doing this and it was implicit based on the schools rules as well. Setting expectations and effective communication are two of the most important skills in teaching. Success in the classroom is dependent not only on how well you communicate, but also on how well you listen. There are many forms of communication that are important in schools. Teacher-teacher communication is especially important at the secondary level because you share your students with so many other teachers. These discussions can be important in helping you understand your students better. For example, in the teachers lounger Mrs. Childers shared that a student had fallen behind and she was concerned, the other teacher explained that the student had two deaths in the family, and a brother was hospitalized all within a three week period. Discussing students with other teachers is a best practice. Another form of communication that is essential is between the teacher and administration. The district Mrs. Childers taught in held this in such high regard that every Wednesday morning was an in-service day for administration and staff to get together to discuss the school, community, and the students. Teacher-student communication is especially essential. Some of the barriers of this communication include the tendency to judge, evaluate, approve or disapprove of the statements a student is making (Nakamura 2000). The first thing any teacher should do with students is set expectations. These should be done with the student in order to allow them to take ownership and responsibility for their actions. The expectations should include what is expected of them and what the consequences are. Expectations should also include what they should expect from you. With expectations in mind it is much easier to communicate free on judgments because things either do or do not meet the expectations. Expectations should be clearly posted in the room and should be revisited. This was something that Mrs. Childers lacked and her setting of

expectations was not a best practice because she relied on them to be implicit. However, implicit expectations do not work. They need to be clear and concise. Unfortunately there were instances where I saw Mrs. Childers bend the rules for some students. For example, she did not allow late assignments but one student forgot an assignment and told Mrs. Childers it was because she was rushing to remember stuff for the play. Mrs. Childers allowed her to turn it in late without point deduction. This broke one of her rules and sent a message of favoritism which is not a best practice. However, that same day another student said their paper had not saved to a disk and she said she needed it by the end of the day or they would have to use their late paper pass. Setting expectations and sticking to them is important. Communication and expectations encourage closeness and mutual respect in a classroom because everyone knows their role in the classroom. Everyone feels connected and of all the things that make any student feel accepted and connected, none is more vital than being heard. The bigger problem with her lack of expectations was that although Mrs. Childers followed the rules set by the school in regards to classroom management, she did not establish a clear boundary of limits in the class. She had a very low management style (CHAMPS), however was frustrated with her students consistently packing up before the bell. She definitely did not have a best practice in regards to this and did not try any behavior modification techniques as suggested in CHAMPS. She would tell then each day not to do it, but there were never any consequences for their actions. Lack of discipline was a huge problem and her permissive attitude towards it led to built-up frustration in her. Anger and frustration can get in the way of appropriate discipline. If she has set clearer expectations that she would in fact enabled her students to become more self-controlled. She said that one of her goals was to teach her students to be capable young adults and prepare them for life after high school; however not

having expectations meant students had not rules or responsibility to those rules. This was not a best practice and in many ways undermined her beliefs on having students take ownership. Good discipline is time-consuming because you have to teach the expectations and teach the consequences. However, CHAMPS classroom management and discipline plan would have helped her immensely (CHAMPS 362). Her class never got too out of control, but students definitely wanted to socialize during seatwork time and also wanted to sneak food into the classroom. If she had set better expectations students could have developed a better inner guidance system that would allowed them to make their own responsible choices. Not having expectations was not a best practice and of course led to problems with discipline. Teachers should never set an expectation without giving and adequate explanation of the expectation. It is important that teachers send firm messages about set firm boundaries through expectations that set appropriate behavior. Often times though Mrs. Childers did not send firm messages and contradicted herself. If expectations and rules are not put into consistent practice, then they are pretty much useless. In conclusion Mrs. Childers had many best practices, but still had many areas she could have improved in. She had a very positive approach to classroom management, but some of her attempts to be proactive fell short because she did not set clear expectations. In many ways it seemed she felt that most of the rules were implicit, but she also was well aware that different teachers have different expectations and therefore she has to set expectations for students in her class. She had many wonderful teaching and management techniques that I really liked. For example, she really felt that to motivate students who had to learn more about who they were as an individual. She tried to build positive teacher-student relationships (Jones and Jones). She also knew you had to build a healthy and safe classroom climate. She tried to foster student

feelings of competency, capability and connectedness. She did a great job at doing this. She worked with parents, but did not make an effort to contact parents. She felt parents should contact her and this is not a best practice. When assessing her classroom management style she did not follow best practices in regards to expectations, standards for classroom behavior, and discipline. The rules she did set, she did not always follow. This sends mixed messages to students and creates problems with students abilities to be aware. She had wonderful ideas about students being responsible for themselves and taking some authority over their learning. She understood that differentiated teaching was essential to student learning and afforded students many opportunities to take part in determining their tasks and also opportunities to work in groups. She allowed students to feel recognition, even when they were hesitant to speak up. She coaxed students into participating and created a safe learning environment despite some students resiliency to it. Areas she did not have best practice in where evaluation and time. She allowed some students to turn in late works and did not allow others. She did not allow students to be off task ever in the classroom, but her efforts to get them back on task were often met with back-talk due to lack of expectations. When students did refuse to be quiet, she would often throw her hands-up and let them socialize quietly. Although their behaviors never got too out of hand, she needed to stick to her rules. She evaluated all student work the same with the use of rubrics, which was a best practice in many ways. However, for students who may be struggling I feel she should have tried to find an alternate way of evaluating them. What I learned most from looking back at my observations in her classroom was how much your mind changes when you begin to look more in-depth at these topics. I kept a journal of my time in her classroom and reading through it after completing the readings in this course; I saw many things in a different light. One thing that I wrote a lot about was fairness. Fairness

does not always mean all students get the same exact thing, but that all students get exactly what he or she needs. Mrs. Childers felt that fair was all having the exact same thing, but one thing I have learned from this class is that all students have similar needs, but differ greatly in if those needs are being met. A lot of the motivation I thought I saw in her classroom was really about the student. I wrote often times in the tone that students either were motivated or werent. I recognized the teachers role in it, but not to the level I do now where I actually feel more responsibility for student motivation lies with the teacher. All of the readings from this class have helped me develop a strong classroom management approach that builds on my past experiences. As I reflect on this, I realize I want to be a proactive teacher who creates a healthy and safe climate for my students. The number one tool I can use to do this is to set clear expectations and have follow through. I need to hold myself accountable as well as my students. I need to keep each student in mind and differentiate instruction in order to motivate students. I need to be clear and concise and listen to my students. If I do these things, I believe my students will be motivated and engaged. Works Cited Nakamura, Raymond M. Healthy Classroom Management: Motivation, Communication, and Discipline. The University of Virginia: Wadsworth, 2000. Sprick, Randy. CHAMPS: A Proactive Approach to Classroom Management. Eugene, OR: Pacific Northwest, 2009. Jones, Vern and Louise. Comprehensive Classroom Management: Creating Communities of Support and Solving Problems. Boston: Pearson, 2007.

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