Having worked in social work for many years, one thing I have learned is that children thrive on having connections and relationships with others, structure, routine and the knowing. Children feel most safe when they know what to expect and mentally stable and healthy when they have structure. The same is exactly true for children going to school.
I plan to teach Kindergarten and know that having a good foundation of classroom management will not only make my job as a teacher a little bit easier, but also help my students feel safe, respected and will also promote healthy learning habits. I hope to work with the special education population and having positive classroom management for them will be imperative for them to have a healthy environment free of any unwarranted stimulus that could hinder their ability to learn.
Guiding Principals:
1. As a teacher, I will build a positive rapport with my students and know them on an individual level.
If there is one thing I have learned about children is that they like to feel safe, respected, heard and important. I can't help but think back to the story Dr. Kruse told us in class about the girl who kept acting up in class and getting detention after detention. It wasn't until Dr. Kruse started speaking with her and getting to the bottom of her behaviors towards him and in his classroom that she really felt heard, respected and important. It was also a good lesson in getting to know students on a deeper level and truly hearing what they have to say.
In order for a teacher to have their students respect them, I believe it will be imperative that I as a teacher start with the basics of getting to know all of my students names on the first day and show them that I care to know who they are. I may just have to steal Dr. Kruse's strategy of recording us saying our names so that I have a face and voice with their name. The first couple of days of the school year I will have a "share and tell" activity where each student brings in a picture of their family and works in class on a poster, picture, etc of how they want to share who they are with the class. I would ask them to include information such as their family, pets, likes, dislikes, favorite school subject, what they did over the summer, etc. Each student would have the opportunity to introduce themselves to the classroom with other students having the opportunity to ask them questions. I, as the teacher, would go first, demonstrating the expectations of the activity. I envision doing a similar "share and tell" activity after each long break our school has so that the students are connected with one another and feel welcomed back.
Having students engage with me and one another shows them that I respect them and want to have a relationship with them. Allowing students to ask one another questions is having them engage socially which is utilizing the SLT. By having students "share and tell" they are actively mentally engaged learning about their teacher and classmates as well as thinking of questions they may want to ask. This is utilizing the CLT. By building a rapport with my students and having mutual respect, the hope is to eliminate any power struggles that may arise down the road or any out of control behaviors. I would like students to feel as though they can come to me for anything, classroom related or not. I realize that this will not be a one time activity solely done at the beginning of the year but know that it will be a process that will take time. It will undoubtedly take several weeks and ongoing throughout the year to earn and keep that respect and trust going. I will continuously checking in with students to make sure things are going well for them in and outside of the classroom. My hope is to have that open relationship so that they know that they can come to me with anything.
Along with building a good relationship with my students, it will be important for me to never discipline a student in front of others, or overly praise another. By doing this, you are showing your students that you have "favorite" or students who are constantly in trouble. Students who are struggling in class will be individually met with, whether that be in a regular check-in I have with each student or before or after school.
2. Students will know the routine and expectations of the classroom.
In order to achieve this principal, I will have a schedule of the daily activities/centers and the teachers expectations outlined on the wall for students to see. At the beginning of the school year I will explain to them the structure of what their classroom days will look like. Going over the schedule will not be enough alone, so it will be posted in class so that it can be referred back to as needed throughout the school year. As the school year moves forward and students are in the schedule, they will become more accustomed to this routine.
The schedule for example could be something like in the morning when the students arrive to school they will be required to put their coats, bags, etc away in their cubby/hook. They will then know to grab a book, a puzzle or activity at their desk to work on until the class is to begin After every has arrived, we would go over "house-cleaning" items such as what day of the week it is, any special activities that day, attendance, helpers, etc. The schedule would be broken down into their daily activities such as reading, math, specials, lunch, recess, etc. Having students know the structure of their day is key in helping them with keeping their behaviors in line so that they do not have any unknowns. This falls under the behavioral learning theory. I should note that I will not have things written out by time as I want to be sure not to rush my students in any area, or move on to another activity if students are grasping the information in a time sooner than I thought. If we are having really good class discussions or they need more time, I do not want any students, especially those with learning disabilities, Aspergers, Autism, etc to feel confined by those time frames. My students will grow to know that if we do not get to something in a day, it is okay and we will be sure to work on it the next day. On the same hand, I want my students to know that even though we get done with an activity/lesson sooner there is no "down" time that isn't accounted for by learning. Keeping students on a routine does not allow for much down time, thus not allowing them to be bored in the day. By not allowing students to be bored, they continuously stay actively engaged (CLT).
A second part to this guiding principal is that students will know my expectations as a teacher. For example, my students will know that when they walking in a line to go outside, to a different classroom, etc, they are to be facing forward and quiet. This will be explained to them the first few times they line up, but over time, as with the routine, my students will know that it is my expectation that they have this behavior when in line. Another example is clean-up time. At the end of each activity/lesson that has a lot of things out, I will play music and they will understand with my verbal communication of clean-up time that when this music is being played, it is time to put away what they are working on. Another expectation would be the noise level in the class. I will display a chart that shows different noise levels for different times in the class. For example: When they are working in small groups or with a partner, the noise level is expected to be little bit higher than say if they were all reading or working on an activity at their desks. In class when the noise level reaches one higher or lower then where they are at, instead of pointing out a specific student I could remind them what level the classroom should be at. Having students know the teacher's expectations uses the BLT. Students will be able to see the benefits of knowing and following the classroom expectations and be motivated to follow the classroom expectations.
3. Students will be taught to respect one another, be positive with one another and follow the classroom rules and routine.
After reading the Pondering Praise article by Joe Bower, I have been thinking more about how to praise children for their efforts and not expectations as well as not overly praise them. I believe that small children thrive on knowing when they are doing well and should be able to take accountability for their actions. I thought about doing a star chart or reward system of some kind and did some research on what is out there. I didn't like the fact that you are rewarding children with little trinkets for "x" amount of days of doing well. I stumbled upon
this blog and love this teacher's clip system. Mrs. Bainbridge has a wonderful clip system that allows students to move their own clip for doing well in class or for doing poorly. I like the idea of the students moving their clip and seeing where they stand in their behaviors. I like how Mrs. Bainbridge notifies the parents for outstanding behavior as well as having students fill out a behavior modification sheet if on the bottom end of the clip chart. In having a chart like this I realize it will be important for me as a teacher not to move students higher for simple expectations, but for actions that are above and beyond. By students seeing their behaviors, interactions and efforts in a chart and being able to move the clip themselves demonstrates the BLT in that they are able to see the their positive behaviors being rewarded. This chart could also use the DLT in that the students are able to see their movements on the chart, therefore having more understanding of where they stand behaviorally.
A huge piece to this will be for myself as a teacher to model these positive behaviors and respect for others. This will be done not only with my students but with any volunteers, parents, principal, special guests and other teachers who I interact with. By modeling my behaviors, students will see that importance of their actions and how it promotes healthy relationships. Modeling my behaviors is using the social learning theory.
4. Students will be actively mentally engaged throughout the day.
One of the biggest ways to let a classroom get out of control is by having students not actively engaged in what they are doing. If a student is bored, they will find other ways to keep themselves entertained and most often those ways will not be productive. As outlined in my schedule each lesson/activity will require students to be working either individually, with a peer, with a small group or as a large group. Not only will it be imperative for students to know the routine and structure of the classroom, but also for me as a teacher to have activities prepared for students who get done with their work before others. This could be done by having a reading corner, craft corner or puzzle corner with activities that students can go to if done early. Each of these corners will have specific activities related to the content that the students have previously learned in the year. Having students actively mentally engaged is utilizing the constructivist learning theory. During activities, it will be important for myself as a teacher to continuously asking questions. Not only will I be able to assess where my students are with information, but I will be able to scaffold their thinking to deeper levels of thinking and move them up on the ZPD (SLT). I believe it will also be important for myself as the teacher to continuously ask students questions about what they are working on. I will try to pull information they learned from previous lessons and scaffold them to apply it to this new information so that they are building off of their schema's. (CLT)
I honestly had a lot of fun working on this assignment. It gave me a chance to read a lot of different blogs from other teachers and see what ideas are out there for kindergarten classrooms. I am excited to see how my ideas will work in a classroom someday and have no doubt that while the guiding principals will generally stay the same, the way in which I instruct and go about those guiding principals will evolve over time.
