Classroom Management
by Lorrie Wright
September 30, 2008
As each year of teaching brings a new group of students, I will be challenged to find new solutions. I will be making changes and reflecting on those changes. I will center my classroom management plan under the guidelines of understanding my own motivations for becoming a teacher and my expectations for my students and myself. This is the way for me to reach a harmonious equilibrium, where children are allowed mistakes and bad days, and not labeled because of them. We all make choices in our lives in how we act in response to the stimulus around us, as the behaviorist model teachers. I will construct a plan so that my emotions do not overrun a child’s self-concept and hurt their feelings, thereby interfering with our relationship and the child’s education.
Classroom management is based on flexibility and careful observation. Each year as I work with a new group of students, I will find individual needs that will require different parts of me. My job is to help the students learn to make decisions for themselves, to help build their autonomy, perhaps better worded, to find their autonomy. It is a combination of learning and self-confidence that allows autonomy to thrive. It also requires taking chances, and learning from the choices that result in ways that we did not expect, but still lead us on our path.
I will guide my class of students to make decisions, respect their choices, and facilitate learning by engaged lessons. Not every lesson that is presented will engage every child. To counter this, I will give the students interesting work that allows them freedom to make choices as much as possible. This however, requires knowing the students. If they are bored by the lessons, the students will entertain themselves, not always behaving in ways that allow others to learn. If the lessons are too difficult, they will become frustrated and again entertain themselves as they mentally drop out of the class. My goal is having students work in their zone of proximal development. I would develop lessons and activities that draw out their unique strengths and weaknesses. As I am constantly assessing the students, I invariably learn about them.
Modeling for the students will help them learn to deal with their own inconsistencies. I need to be what I want from my students – a human in all the meaning that this word invokes, with its flaws included. To be able to do this successfully, it is vital I know myself. If I am not what I expect my students to be, they will see it. They will see through my impersonation, and understand the double standard that is being asked of them, just as we do in our classes today as adults. Therefore, in order to model for my students, I will understand myself and my motivations. I need to know myself, and reflect on my own actions, at the same time that I try to take the focus off of myself in the classroom.
In addition, I will be ready to listen to the reasons behind the children’s statements, not just what they are saying. I will be open to other ways of viewing the world. I will learn from my students just as they will learn from me. Their experiences are some that I have not had. The students’ experiences will help me understand their behavior choices better, as well. If a family’s way of solving a problem is to yell at each other, the child will come to class with that coping structure as a solution. While I cannot continue to allow students to yell at each other, if I know why it is happening, I may be more successful in helping the child find new ways to solve his/her problems while respecting others. I will encourage my students to find their voices and speak for themselves. If I alone make the decision, the problem is not solved, just put aside until later. The child must solve the problem for him/herself.
In light of wanting to establish caring relationships in my classroom, I spent a great deal of time analyzing myself in terms of approaches found in Building Classroom Discipline. The one that came closest to the imaginary classroom I have constructed in my head, the one that I will strive to achieve, was “win-win discipline.” (Kagen, Kyle, and Scott, pgs. 183-192) The overall purpose is to help students learn to meet their needs through responsible, nondisruptive behavior and through that process to develop valuable life skills. The general operating principles are teachers, students, and parents working together on the same side, teachers and students co-create immediate and long-term solutions to behavior problems, and teachers help students learn to make responsible choices. It puts the focus on the students. They will become better decision makers only by being given the chances to make them.
For the times when I need to bring students back into the task at hand, I appreciated the nonverbal and verbal interventions outlined by Dr. Wong. They are logical and respect the student. These will be important aspects in my plan. When I am feeling out of control of myself, and unable to help students refocus their attention, I will turn to these hierarchies for guidance.
There are no right answers in classroom management, no one theory that can envelope all situations and people; combinations of these will change each year. Children, even young ones, have already developed into complex beings able to hide and protect themselves. I will use positive reinforcement regularly in my classroom to open up relationships with my students. Allowing them to come out of hiding safely is vital. It is vital in all human relationships. My classroom management will inspire a safe environment, respect to all, responsibility, and good decision choices.
