As a teacher in training, I have very limited in-classroom experience and depend heavily on the expertise of professors as well as a variety of books and articles published on education. I am convinced that a learner centered approach to instruction is of fundamental importance and that it will inform most teaching decisions I will need to make to become an effective educator. Knowing as much about the students before school even begins will help structure the content material and guide the instruction methods. Along with this, knowing what the school provides in terms of environment and materials will help formulate a plan to give students every possible opportunity for achievement and success. Wong (2005) defines classroom management as “all of the things that a teacher does to organize students, space, time and materials so that student learning can take place” (p. 84).
This classroom management plan was created to address the needs of a first grade, general education, inclusion class. The majority of the students have attended kindergarten at the same school, so they are familiar with the school grounds and know their fellow classmates. Classrooms today are the most diverse they have ever been; population changes have affected the dominance of social and cultural backgrounds; while inclusion has moved to mainstream students with more diverse needs and abilities. Emmer, Stough, Sugai and Horner (as cited in Capizzi, 2009) state, that these changes demand “well-managed classrooms to promote positive behavior and optimize learning and achievement” (p. 2).
Classroom Layout
First grade marks the transition of students into a more formal, structured learning environment. It is important to make this change as smooth as po...
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... school (Freiberg & Driscoll, 2005).
Organization and advancework are essential skills that teachers, especially new ones, must use to ready themselves for life in the classroom. Curriculums may change, policies may shift, technology will continue to advance and unpredictable problems or crises will happen. While a management plan will not prevent problems from impacting the classroom, creating a flexible and adaptable one can give teachers a stronger sense of confidence in their work and ability because they have thought ahead for solutions to address them. The goal is to set up an environment for supportive learning that is friendly, safe and effective; an environment where the students’ success and achievement is the focus; an environment where both the students and teacher will feel more like citizens than tourists of their own classroom (Freiberg, 2005).
Schools in today’s society are rapidly changing and growing striving to implement the best practices in their schools. Nonetheless, before a school can implement a program in their school, they need reliable evidence that the new program will work. A new program that schools are aiming to implement is inclusion in the classroom because of the benefits inclusion could bring. The implementation of inclusion is strongly connected by people’s attitudes whether they are positive or negative. However, while inclusion is being widely implemented, there is comparatively little data on its effectiveness. It may be that inclusion benefits some areas such as reading and social skills, more than it does others.
Retrieved Feb 6, 2010 from http://www.newsforparents.org/experts_. Inclusion_pros_cons.html Villa, Richard A., Thousand, Jacqueline S. (1995). Creating an inclusive school environment. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Card, Toby.
My personal philosophy of classroom management focuses on creating an environment where children feel safe and where they feel like they belong. I will create this environment for my fourth grade class through making my expectations of the students clear while developing an engaging lesson plan and personable interactions with my students. I developed my philosophy from studying different theorists and based my philosophy on the theories of Glasser and Kounin. Glasser believed that the teacher’s roll in the classroom is that of a leader rather than a boss. He believed that students should be given power in the classroom and that the teacher should share it with the students. I will use his ‘7 caring habits’ specifically supporting and respecting to help my classroom feel safe and welcoming to my students. Meeting the individual needs of my students will be the focus of my classroom management routine. I will meet individual needs by promoting self management and self efficacy in my students by creating an environment that that has predictable and consistent daily routines while focusing on my student’s successes (Shindler, 2010). Having a predictable routine will encourage a success oriented environment and will reduce anxiety and help towards creating positive self efficacy in each of my students (Shindler, 2010). In Glasser’s Choice Theory he talks about focusing on the present and not bringing up the past (Glasser, 2010). Therefore, I will focus my classroom on being goal driven and will help each student obtain their goals. Thus, helping my students have positive self efficacy. I will apply Kounin’s technique of Momentum (Pressman, 2011). This involves the teacher keeping exercises short and moving around the room a lot so...
In my twelve years of teaching experience, one thing that most of my colleagues have struggled with at some point in their career has been classroom management. Classroom management is one many keys to instructional success. Unfortunately, many have left the teaching field due to lack of knowledge of classroom management best practices.
Effective teachers evaluate their classroom environment in comparison to their students’ academic, functional, behavior and social needs. After taking this into consideration, the teacher should make appropriate accommodations and/or modifications to ensure all student success in the classroom. Despite a teacher’s highest expectation for students, students who require a more individualized approach will always be of concern. The INCLUDE strategy is provided for these students who require an individualized approach. INCLUDE allows teachers a strategy for making adaptations or accommodations based on individual student needs, along with the teacher’s expectations in the classroom. (Friend & Bursuck, 2006)
As a new teacher preparing to embark upon what I hope will be a long-lasting, rewarding career in education, I want to create an inclusive, stimulating and collegial climate in my classroom. I plan to make sure that all my students feel valued, and contribute actively to the knowledge, interactions, learning and interests shared by the class. However, I appreciate that as a new, inexperienced teacher I could encounter or unintentionally create barriers that undermine my vision of an inclusive classroom. Although systems will operate in any school setting that can help or hinder inclusive practices, I believe it is my responsibility to ensure that every student in my care has high aspirations, and experiences success at school regardless of the school context.
Jones, V., & Jones L. (2013). Comprehensive classroom management: Creating communities of support and solving problems (10th). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
All effective educators need to find ways to motivate their students. The kids that fill our classrooms have different strengths and weaknesses. It is critical that teachers recognize the strengths and weaknesses of their students so they can use the right classroom management strategies to motivate their kids. In this particular case, the student named Jodie is inattentive and uninterested and neither the teacher intern or classroom teacher have a clue how to handle this situation. Ms. Marcia Thomas, who is the young intern feels that Jodie is just a problem child that lacks motivation and there is nothing she can do for this particular student. Ms. Thomas and the lead teacher Ms. Egan both lack the needed classroom management strategies that are necessary to motivate and engage students in a positive learning environment.
Classroom management has the largest effect on student achievement, so students cannot learn in poorly managed classroom. Additionally, research has pointed out that the quality of teacher-student relationships is the main aspect of classroom management.(…2). Furthermore, when teachers set classroom management plan, the plan will give structure to everything from seating to lessons to grading to the relationship between students. Teachers should incorporate strategies for addressing student behavior into classroom
I believe Classroom Management is the main component in the educational setting. I believe if students are in a safe environment, then learning can take place. This doesn’t mean punishing behavior problems but rather a combination of setting the tone in a class, preventing behavior problems with interesting and engaging curriculums and effectively including all students in the classroom so that their needs are met. Having the right environment for all students to learn is my major goal of implementing good classroom management--without it the students would not be able to learn.
For teachers to be effective their classrooms should be open, encouraging and safe environments, where a strong student-teacher relationship can be achieved (Marsh, 2008). Students should be treated with respect in order to meet their need for belonging (Eggen&Kauchak, 2010). The layout of the room and resources need to be well considered allowing different areas for different activities (Bennett &Smilanich, P. 1994) keeping in mind space for easy movement and creative work. Seating arrangements, noise level and room temperature all need to be taken into account when planning the classroom to maximise productive lea...
I’m a firm believer in maximizing the educational experience through effective classroom design to maintain conflict prevention, increasing time on task and being an added tool for content material; but now I also believe effective classroom design can be used effectively to build a inclusive arena for students to learn in. By consciously focusing on improving the inclusiveness of culture into my design of the classroom, student’s can develop a stronger link to the classroom and school community. This can allow students who may have felt culturally excluded from their environment to develop a stronger connection to their learning and improve their performance not only as academic learners but as members of their school
This I Believe Philosophy statement will include my thoughts and beliefs about classroom management with comparison to other theorists’ models. The major theorists that will be mentioned are Barbara Coloroso, Linda Albert, and Lee & Marlene Canter. I highly agree with the Canter’s and Coloroso’s models of classroom management because it best fits my personality as an individual teacher. I believe that an affective classroom management plan is first practiced and then modeled for improvements. My ultimate goal for my Classroom Management Plan is to model self-discipline by teaching it through my daily actions so that students may be able to self-manage themselves accordingly.
Predominant goal is having a classroom management and creating a safe learning environment. Learning how to manage a classroom successfully is a difficult task for teachers. The everyday concern of beginner teachers is classroom management. Beginners teachers report the weak classroom management skills and disruptive students are the most significance barriers to being a good teacher (Fideler & Haskelhorn, 1999). Teachers have blamed their lesson plans, preparation in their first years of teaching (Ladd, 2000; Monroe, Blackwell, & Pepper 2010). As a teacher, it is my desire to have my students to have a safe learning environment.
Of all the variables in a comprehensive literature review classroom management had the largest effect on student achievement. Therefore, teachers need to provide clear purpose and strong guidance regarding both academics and student behavior. Teachers and students need to collaborate as a team sharing concerns about the needs and opinions of others. Teachers should be aware of high-needs students and have a plethora of specific techniques for meeting some of their needs. Positive support from the parents, administration, support personnel and the community to bring about positive changes in student behavior is also necessary. Teachers can make a modification; they can construct a community that nurtures and develops social and emotional skills as well as academic