Classroom Managment

Overall I think that my field teacher has handled her classroom management, organization and behavioral plans very well. The whole school uses a behavioral plan in which anytime the teacher says “F-A-L” the students respond “C-O-N”  (their mascot, it took me a while to figure out honestly) and that is a signal to them to stop, look, and listen. These instructions are posted on the wall, but I have not seen the teacher reinforce this expectation in her class. I think it is a good idea to remind students of these types of classroom expectations regularly. It has been shown that often times when students are not responding well to a behavioral plan like this it is because they are not sure of how they should behave.

My field teacher uses this strategy frequently. Sometime the kids respond to it very well. Other times it takes another try or two. My host teacher is also pretty laid back about the one or two kids who are still whispering or tapping their foot. I have worked with other teachers who were stricter about these little disturbances. I think that this is a case where it is important to pick your battles. I have seen cases where little things like this resulted in tons of wasted class time and escalated to the teacher literally screaming at the students. Sometimes if a student is continuing to talk when she is giving instructions she will just walk over and place her hand on the student’s shoulder. This usually works much more effectively than screaming.

The school also uses a buddy room system. If a student is having a really hard time in their classroom they have a buddy room next door. The teacher can send the student over to spend some time in the buddy classroom for a little while to cool down or refocus. Each room also has a safe seat. If a student is having a hard time getting a child to focus on their work they can move them to the safe seat. On the first day that I went to field there was a little girl that was sitting in the safe seat. She seemed to be doing great by the time I got there. She was friendly to me and showed me her work. Later my host teacher mentioned to me what had caused her to go to the “safe seat.” While they were in her regular classroom became angry when her teacher told them tat it was time for art. She didn’t want to go to art. The teacher brought them all over to the art room and explained the situation to Mrs. Robb. Mrs. Robb chose to allow the girl to pace around the room rather than fighting her to get her to sit down on the carpet with the other students. It distracted the other students for a few minutes, but they stopped worrying about it pretty quickly. When the students began working, Mrs. Robb set the girl’s materials at the safe seat and told her that when she was ready she could begin her work over there. After a few minutes she did just that and worked very happily for the rest of the class period. Obviously this seems to have been a very effective and successful resolution to what could have been a bad situation.

In addition to having good behavioral management skills my host teacher has laid out an effective classroom management plan. The tables each seat six students and are color-coded. The seats are numbered. Each seat gets a particular job for the day. One student might be in charge of getting out supplies, another picking up the students’ work, another cleaning off the table etc. The students respond very well to these assigned duties.

Fortunately, Mrs. Robb seems to have set up a wonderful classroom system that has not really lead to any situations that I think should have been handled differently. It seems to run very smoothly. Part of me wishes that I had seen more difficult situations as examples. However, I think that this has taught me that prevention is the best classroom and behavioral management method.  
I think that setting up and repeatedly communicating clear expectations and developing a genuine atmosphere of sharing and respect are good ways to prevent classroom conflicts. In my classroom I would remind students of my expectations throughout the year when it seems necessary and casually on a regular basis for example I might say, "Don't forget that our critiques are meant to help our classmates understand how others are viewing their work and how they can improve their art. We all need to be respectful when others share their work with us." Furthermore, it always seems to work best to praise students when they are following classroom guidelines and behaving respectfully. Then they won't need to be corrected as often. I look forward to learning more about classroom management through my field observations and this week in class.