Journal Entry Standard 5

Nicholas Wall Portfolio Entry

Every teacher needs to have classroom management skills to implement when students are disruptive or misbehave. This was no different in the classrooms I observed. Each class had different rules, and different students who tested the management strategies. The 7th grade classroom had multiple strategies to handle disruptions in the room. As there were many different students filing in and out of the room throughout the week, the rules needed to be simple and easy to follow, to minimize distractions in the classroom. The first example of a classroom strategy that the teacher employed was having assigned seats for every student. This was done purposely to separate students who might cause issues from each other. This worked very well, and was even implemented in the middle of a lesson. Two students who were seated in the same group of desks were separated because their arguing was disrupting class. One of the other main issues in this classroom was talking back and forth amongst the students while the teacher was trying to give the lesson. To combat this, he had a microphone to spoke into to be louder than the class, as well as picking his moments when he would grab their attention by shutting off the lights or by discreetly walking up to a student who was talking inappropriately and lowering his voice to him/her. This didnt happen during every student conversation, but it worked very well to keep the talking to a minimum.

Lastly, the best strategy that I saw my cooperating teacher use was simple respect. He respected the students and they respected him back. This was also used in the high school classroom I observed, where misbehavior was kept to a minimum out of respect for the teacher. This was very evident in the same classroom with a different teacher where they students did not respect the teacher, and the situation only worsened throughout the semester, to the point where a principal had to get involved. Wong and Wong talk about being an effective teacher, conveying rules in a proper manner, and being consistent in enforcing them. They also talk about routine and procedure, and the lack thereof. I think this all comes back to respect. When a teacher has routines and procedures in place that the students know, they will respect that teacher, and not try to purposely disrupt their class. Also, when a teacher respects the students and allows them to voice their opinion, perhaps even allowing them input on classroom rules, they will respect that teacher back. In my classroom, I will focus on the procedures and routine, as I am big on having routines for the students to follow. The more the students are able to follow an established routine or procedure, the more they will know what they are doing and how they will be disciplined if they do not follow the proper procedures.