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Department of Education

Classroom Management
Hannah Brown 04/28/2014

An effective classroom management plan is so crucial in todays classroom. Here are a few ideas and methods I have observed throughout my practicums and student teaching experience. Group Rewards: Group rewards are a great way to help students encourage one another to behave. Using a Warm and Fuzzy jar in my classroom is a great way to reward the

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entire class for good behavior. I introduce my jar early in the school year and I explain to students that when I see great behavior, I feel warm and fuzzy inside and it makes me so happy and proud of them. Whole group instruction is a great time to remind students that they can earn Warm and Fuzzies if they are being good listeners and they are following our class rules. When the class works together to fill my warm and fuzzy jar to the very top, they will be rewarded together. When I first introduce the jar, my students learn that voting is a fair way to make a decision, and they vote as a class on what they would like for their prize. Prizes can include an ice cream party, pajama day, an extra long recess, or a reading marathon with stuffed animal friends. I find that a great way to give out a warm and fuzzy is to pick a mystery walker when students are in the hall. I tell them that the mystery walker could be anyone, and if they keep their hands to themselves, look ahead of them, and stay quiet in the hall, the mystery walker can earn a warm and fuzzy for the whole class. Students really want to earn these, so its a great way to get them to stay quiet in the hall or to get them to transition quickly and quietly into another subject. Individual Rewards: Each individual student has the chance to get rewarded for good behavior through the caught being good program I use. I create paper slips that I give to a student if he/she is caught being good. At Poly Drive, we call these Links. Students cannot ask for a slip, or point out that other students are on their best behavior; I must catch the student being good on my own. When a student gets a slip, he/she can put it into my box and I will draw a slip at the end of the day for a small prize like a pencil or a neat eraser. Students are thrilled to put their names in the box. Behavioral Intervention Strategies: Through my experiences of working with children in the classroom as well as my experience in working with children at summer camp, Ive acquired strategies that help curb negative behavior quickly and discretely. Examples of these strategies are as follows: 1.) Make eye contact directly with a child to let them know his/her behavior is

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unacceptable. 2.) Stay in close proximity and walk towards or stand next to a student who is

misbehaving. A touch on the shoulder can also help a student understand that you are aware of his/her behavior and that it needs to be changed. An effective classroom manager is always moving about the classroom to curb negative behavior and reinforce positive behavior. 3.) Use nonverbal signals to remind students to be on their best behavior. This could

be a simple shaking of the head or thumbs up sign that all students will do back to you so you can see whos on task. 4.) Use verbal signals to remind students to behave appropriately. Saying something

like Wow, Kaylas group looks ready to line up, will cause other students to check on their own behavior. 5.) Change a students location if he/she cannot behave appropriately next to certain peers or needs to be closer to you to stay engaged. Class Rules Its important to establish clear and consistent rules from the very beginning of the school year. On the first day, I collaborate with students to decide on the appropriate classroom rules. Allowing students to have a say in these rules will hold them accountable for their actions. Students will create a poster with the classroom rules and will sign the poster like a contract. Its important that the poster is always visual to serve as a reminder. I will guide students to include the following Be Respectful Be Responsible Listen Carefully and Follow Directions Treat others as you would like to be treated.

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As teachers, there is no better way to learn how to best teach students than to simply teach students. Throughout the three practicums and student teaching within the MSU Northern education program, I have had the privilege to do just that. With a full range of teaching strategies, methods, observations, lessons, and evaluations, my experience within the classroom has boosted my skills and perspective of education immensely. While course work provided the knowledge of how to assess and instruct students, application within a range of classroom levels gave me practice, causing much growth. Reflecting upon each experience, I have continuously felt confident with the response of the students. In my first, second, and third practicum, I was never nervous to teach a lesson, because I feel the students responded well to my personality, teaching style, and classroom management. By the third practicum, I noticed a pattern of relationship development. Because I showed interest in each student, they became comfortable with me, motivating them to listen and engage in the lesson. The next area of reflection within the three practicums includes what I have been continually learning, which has all involved classroom management. During the first practicum, I wrote about how I need to learn better time management. By the second practicum, I had become better at time management; however I still needed work at classroom engagement: I need to focus on classroom management during lessons: including how I will group students, and who will be the leaders of those groups. Finally, during the third experience, I state how Im still learning how to manage classroom time. I love the fun parts about teaching, but I know there are certain criteria, curriculum, standards, and deadlines I must meet. I want to make the most of my time within the classroom instruction. Along with always learning, teachers always tend to have concerns. My concerns also remained somewhat the same throughout the practicum experiences. At first, I mentioned how I was nervous about the students who will be in my future classroom. I simply did not want them to be difficult. By the end of my experiences, however, I have the same concern, but in a different way. Im more concerned about the interventions I will be able to conduct to help students who have learning difficulties or behavioral disorders. I know my views of difficult students have changed throughout my time. Our job, as teachers, is not to simply deal with the students, but to assess them and develop ways to help them progress. As I was able to observe three experienced, cooperating teachers, I was able to develop new instructional practices. In my first reflection, I mentioned how I wanted to try holding morning meetings in my future classroom. As part of a responsive classroom method, morning meetings were a great start to the day, building

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relationships and winding the students down to learn. The second practicum provoked me to want to try using journals in my future classroom. The third graders I worked with seemed to grasp concepts well with notebooks dedicated to each subject. Finally, in my last practicum, I observed an awesome way to conduct smaller group work. I would like to try organizing math and reading groups with my teaching partner for more intensive instruction.

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