CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT MODEL

Classroom Rules
1. No talking while director is talking, only principal players should be giving comments. If
you have a question, raise your hand to ask or wait until after the rehearsal.
2. All phones will be placed inside your instrument case at the beginning of rehearsal. If a
tuning device is needed, the teacher will provide one.
3. Bring a pencil to every rehearsal.
4. When setting your instrument down, put it on a stand or lightly on a ground making sure
people can see where you set it. DO NOT set it on your chair as it can be easily knocked
off by a passerby.
5. Your instrument should be cleaned, put away, and stored properly either in a band locker
or in a safe place at home after every rehearsal..

Philosophical Approach to Dealing with Misbehavior and Challenging Students

As with most teaching situations, I believe that it’s hard to have just one solution to a
problem as it’ll be different almost every time but having a solid skeleton of a routine for any
situation could be beneficial. With a situation involving misbehavior in a student, my general
approach would be tier-based where I would start with a polite, possibly even silent request for
the student to stop whatever they are doing. If the student continues doing what they are doing I
would increase my level of discipline until I need to speak with the student outside of the
classroom. If the student still refuses to stop and respect me then I will have to send them to the
principal, but I would normally prefer to let the last step be the end where I can get to know
what’s going on in my student’s mind and find a way to connect and avoid the issue for the next
class period.
In an ideal classroom I would like to know each one of my students on a level to which I
can relate to them and help them with any issues that may cause misbehavior. If a student can
relate to a teacher of likes them in general, it can be much easier to ask for them to stop doing
something disruptive because there’s a level of trust or respect that student has for you. For the
students who are not inclined to enjoy my class, I would try my best to break through with them
but use the general approach I outlined in the last paragraph when dealing with any kind of
misbehavior.
Classroom Student Anecdote

Background Information

1st grade boy, African-American, lives with his grandmother due to family issues with the father.

Performs well when focusing but cannot maintain focus for extended amounts and refuses to

participate normally, creating a major distraction for other students.

Description of the Incident

During a summer music church camp, the 1st grade classroom was coming from several activities

to rehearse a song they’ve been learning until their parents picked them up when the subject

comes into the classroom to realize the pillows used to sit on have been taken away. During a

previous class period the pillows became a major distraction when one boy decided to make a

tall pile of pillows to sit on, prompting a few other students to do the same, eventually leading up

to a pillow fight to know over each other’s piles. When the teacher took away those pillows

while the students where away, the subject was extremely upset by the slight change in

environment and refused to participate until pillows were brought back and resorted to either

screaming or knocking over chairs and other small items in the room. This created a major

distraction for the other students and no singing was able to be rehearsed until the subject could

be calmed.

Discipline Measure Used

After several minutes of trying to refocus the class, other students started to join in the ruckus

caused by the subject, so the teacher decided to take the students outside to a nearby playground

to exert all the apparent energy in the children. Seeming to peak the interested of the subject, the
teacher leads the children outside, having them hold hands as there was a small alley street to

cross to get there. Coming down a flight of stairs, one student pulled too hard and caused the

subject to fall down the stairs, making them start to cry loudly for other classrooms to hear. The

teacher had a secondary teacher finish leading the children to the playground as this teacher sat

with the subject on the stairs and made sure no injuries occurred, talking to him about what

happened and hearing what he perceived the student in front of him appeared to do. The teacher

made sure the subject understood the other student had no intention to hurt him and helped him

up and out to the playground where the subject played with his classmates the rest of the time

without any issues.

Assessment

I believe the teacher had a very smart response to everything that happened. When the student

started causing other students to become disruptive, they gave the students a refreshing change of

environment that the students could enjoy even at the cost of a short rehearsal. When the student

hurt himself and started causing a distraction for nearby classrooms, the teacher took a very calm

approach and made sure to keep calm and remain positive, listening to the students issues and

helping him understand what happened. We later found out that because of the student’s home

life, he reacts very well to physical touch like a hug or a hand on the back, which the teacher did

while on the stairs. Though this can be very hard to apply to any general situation outside of a

church music camp, I believe the teacher still had a very smart approach to dealing with this

issue and think it can be applied one way or another to an elementary classroom like this one.