You are on page 1of 10

Barchock, 1

Jack Barchock Classroom Model The purpose of classroom management is being able to control situations that arise in school, but being able to handle the situation in a calm assertive manner that does not disrespect the individual(s) that committed the act rather investigating the motives behind the act. The assertiveness that teachers need to model comes from research completed by Evertson and Emmer (2013) who state, constructive assertiveness: a communication tool wherein the teacher states concerns about the misbehavior, describes the effects that will result if it continues, and mandates a change in behavior, (2013). Students need a form of an authoritative figure that tells them what they are doing is either right or wrong. The society we live in structures our lives around authoritative figures that govern rules of right and wrong which everyone in society has to follow in order to maintain stability. The people who oppose the authoritative figures in society are the ones who do not agree with the rules that are set in place. These same people are having children that are being told to oppose the authoritative figure in all aspects of life including school. Teachers are the authoritative figure in school and needs to communicate that to the students, but they need to explain the choices the student(s) have before the consequences occur. This puts the decision making ability on the students whether or not they are going to continue with the negative action. I believe high levels of learning occur when students behave in a positive manner. Most students do not participate in classroom discuss because they are scared of what the person next to them will think if they give their true opinion on the topic at hand. Once the students become comfortable enough with each other they begin to put down their guards and answer questions truly because they are not afraid to be wrong and have people see them in a weak state. This will build positive learning because trust will be formed between the students and positive behavior should start to form, because the community inside the classroom

Barchock, 2

is built on becoming educated together on topics they are unaware off. Every aspect of classroom management positive or negative is built on a hierarchy that starts with the school at the top, then family next, followed by the teachers, and then students. I believe that the school needs to have a positive school climate. A positive school climate consists of a clean inside as well as a maintained outside. The school needs to maintain a positive outside image to the community with maintaining the grounds and fixing any fixtures that can become damaged due to weather or society. The majority of the students who go to the school will live in that community and having the support of the community is the first step in gaining a positive climate. If the community has a negative image of the school parents in the community will be reluctant to send their children to that school. If the children do attend the schools the parents could be hesitant to participate in fund raisers as well as PTA meetings, because they feel the school has a negative climate. Parents however, need to participate in the lives of their children because the school is not a place to drop off a child and pick it up eight hours later. Having strong parental support is ideal in any situation, because it shows the children they care about their schooling and they want them to succeed. Parental support is another name for the care giver of that child. The care givers need to take interest in the lives of the students because showing support determines how much effort the students will put in the classroom. If students feel that they do not have support from their care givers they will wonder why they are completing homework assignments at home when they know they do not have anyone there that cares what they are doing. Teachers need to be an authoritative figure that demands excellence out of every student no matter ethnicity, SES, or gender. Being the authoritative figure in the lives of many students can be frustrating, because every student has their own interpretation of what an authoritative figure means. Some students might back down to the authoritative figure,

Barchock, 3

but there are some who will challenge for power, and dealing with the problem with an open mind is critical because the teacher needs to lay out the opinions the student can take before the situation escalates too much. When teachers tell students what they are doing is wrong, they are acknowledging the fact they are completing in an act that is not acceptable, and will lay out the consequences if the act is not stopped. This puts students in a predicament because they have the power to choice to continue the action or stopping because they have acknowledge what they were doing is wrong. The students that enter my classroom will understand that whatever has happened yesterday is in the past and everyone including me has a clean slate for the new day. All the students will be a part of a community of learners with everyone in the class not judging or making fun of anyone that participates with an answer or in daily conversation. I understand that students come from a wide variety of background with situations that go unheard, and sometimes they are not in the mood to learn, but they need to realize that I am here to help them better their lives so they are not constantly dealing with the same situations in the future. My classroom is going to follow a form of constructive assertiveness in the sense that when a problem occurs I will confront the perpetrator and explain to them what they are doing is wrong, and what the consequences are if the action continues. The way I am going to modify this is by incorporating Curwin and Mendlers, three-dimensional discipline model when dealing with students who break the rules. The three-dimensions of the discipline model consist of prevention, action, and resolution. The majority of this model dedicates its time in the prevention stage because this is where students and teachers form relationships about each other and the rules that govern the classroom. The social contracts are made in unison with teachers and students because together they make the rules and consequences for the classroom. This eliminates confusion by the students when they break a rule because they know what the

Barchock, 4

consequences are for their actions. The action stage is the easiest because when a rule is broken teachers just needs to resort to the social contract and explain what rule is broken and the penalty for the broken rule. The students will be penalized without question, because since they wrote the contract they know what the penalty is for that action and they still proceeded to break the rule. This is where I do not agree with Curwin and Mendler, because some rule violations have special circumstances and it is the job of the teacher to make ethical decisions based upon the circumstances surrounding the incident, rather than punishing the student based purely upon principal. The third dimension only applies to students who are out of control because these students constantly break the rules and society has deemed them corrupt. Teachers need to find ways to connect to these students, by engaging them in the classroom activities and not subjecting them to special treatment. The setting that my classroom management will work best in is a school that has more free or reduced lunch than full price students. The students who are on free or reduced lunch usually have a low social economic status, and are associated with having behavioral problems. These students need an authoritative figure that will keep them on track, but will also respect them as their own individual and not make them feel inferior. Most of these students do not have a strong support system at home and the teacher needs to be a role model for the students. If the teachers can be seen as a role model the students will be more willing to strive for excellence because they have a teacher who expects that out of them. Most teachers set low expectations for students who they do not believe will succeed, and the students are well aware of that and their performance in the classroom is the indicator. Setting high expectations for all students puts the ball back in the court of the students because they know teachers will not expect anything less than their best. This practice will only work if teachers set up stringent rules and guidelines of how they want their classroom to be operated.

Barchock, 5

The way that I am going to determine how the classroom rules are set is through the participation of the students. The students will be third graders in an area where free or reduced lunch populates the majority of the school. Teachers as well as the students will make a list of rules and consequences on topics such as fighting, bullying, not raising hands or calling out answers, and whatever else comes to mind. The best part about the rules is the ability to modify the rules at any time because as a class both teachers and students will put their lists together and make a social contract that will govern the classroom. According to the sixth step of prevention in the three-dimensional discipline model founded by Curwin and Mendler states: The lists are discussed and evaluated by the total class, and when agreement is reached, the list of rules and consequences becomes the classroom social contract. Thus, your class will be involved in a process of setting rules and consequences and will feel that the contract is theirs, (1988) Having the students take owner ship of the decision making process puts trust in both the teachers and students because everyone will be held accountable for their actions. Since I will be working with third graders they will be very excited when learning new information and they could just shout the answer out when were working as a whole group. In the beginning of the year, as a class we will make a rule about shouting out, because everyone in the class will be participating daily and they will have to wait until everyone has participated before they can answer another question. If someone shouts out the answer when they were not called on the first thing that will be done is confront the rule breaker by stating, We do not call out answers in this class rather we raise our hands high or write the answer down on a piece of paper. The teacher will have to say this same line over and over again because using constructive assertiveness the behavior has to be stated and stopped as soon as it happens. This will make the students that have not answered have a chance to answer because they will have to keep their hands up, and the students that have already answered can still contribute by writing their answer on a piece of

Barchock, 6

paper. If I see that students who have not answered a question get frustrated when they do not know an answer, I will look on someones paper that wrote down the correct answer and tell the student who is having trouble that so and so could help them find the right answer. This makes everyone be engaged because they will not know if I will call on them or not to either answer a question or help a classmate answer the question. The way I plan on preventing misbehavior is by making sure everyone in my classroom is aware of the social contract that will be hanging in the front of the class. The social contract is what we will refer to if misbehavior occurs, but that is only if it happens. The students being able to visually see the social contract is important because they will already know the consequences for an action they have not even completed yet. I will also have my room filled with positive reminders of doing the right thing and quotes to keep them motivated. Since the students made the rules and consequences for misbehaving they know what they can and cannot do in the classroom. I will constantly fill my room with reminders to do the right thing and positive reinforcement addressing the whole class instead of individuals. I will praise more on a group bases because individuals do not know the extent of their potential until someone constantly says good job for minor acts, that appear to be second nature but become a struggle because the students wants the positive reinforcement. Acknowledging the group is better because everyone is getting the same amount of praise and no one should feel inadequate to anyone. I will implement a reward system in my class because I believe that students need to be persuaded into doing the right thing. The reward system will be used in the form of tickets that will be drawn once a week at the end of the day. The rewards will be school related such as pencils, errors, markers, color pencils, etc Having a drawing once a week allows for a ritual to be formed with everyone in the class because they know they have to be good all week to receive tickets for the

Barchock, 7

drawing. Students will not want to misbehave because they know they will not be allowed to participate in the drawing if they get three infractions on the week. Having a number of infractions allows the students the chance to misbehave very seldom and still be able to compete in the drawing. Teachers need to understand that students will act out of control when either they are frustrated with the work or situations in their daily lives and teachers cannot penalize them for only one outburst. The set number of infractions puts accountability on the students because they know what they can and cannot due to get in trouble. If students due practice in a misbehavior they are going to need to understand the punishments and consequences of their actions. I believe that punishment and consequences go hand and hand in the classroom because students need to understand that misbehavior will not be tolerated, especially when the students are familiar with the social contract for the room. The consequences will be as severe as the punishment, but teachers and students needs to make the rules clear in the beginning. My goal is never to suspend a student for acting out in class, because I feel that teachers can handle the situation in a calm assertive manner that will defuse the situation. Students want the chance to be sent home for a day so they do not have to complete work so teachers should not give them what they want. If an incident is escalating in the classroom teachers need to stop the misbehavior by either asking one of the students to go outside the room to cool off, and return when they have calmed down, or go outside with one student at a time and talk to them in a civil manner that does not disrespect them as an individual. While talking to the students, teachers needs to specify what the misbehavior is, and the course of action they need to take to not have the incident occur again. The majority of the time teachers will not explain to students what they did during the misbehavior and just punish them. The students that caused the misbehavior do not

Barchock, 8

have an outlet to go to and explain their side of the story to why the incident occurred. This will cause the student to become frustrated with the teacher because they are just punishing them without giving them a chance to explain themselves. That is where I am going to change the way normal teachers punish behavior because I am going to find out both sides of a story before a punishment and a consequence occur.

Barchock, 9

References Curwin, R.I., & Mendler, A.N. (1988). Disciple with dignity (1st ed.). Association for Supervision & Curriculm Development. Evertson, C. M. & Emmer, E. T. (2013). Classroom management for elementary teachers (9th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson.

Barchock, 10

Caregiver Letter Dear, Caregiver(s), I want to take this time and explain to you that I am very excited about having your student in my classroom. This year will be like no other for your student because they will be held on the highest level of academic achievement no matter ethnicity, SES, or gender. My classroom will be governed by rules established by all the students and myself. Together we have formed a set of guidelines that must be followed by everyone and if a guideline (rule) is broken the student will already understand the consequences of their actions because our social contract will be hanging up in front of the classroom for everyone to see. I decided to have the students and myself collaborate together to form our social contract because if the students understand what the rules are and the consequences for their actions then they will be less likely to complete a misbehavior. I want to inform everyone that is reading this letter that I expect full support in their students development in my classroom. The school and teacher can only provide a small support system for a student, but having the caregiver and community behind a student will allow for them to grow at an exponential rate. In the next couple of weeks I will be sending individualized letters to each of you explaining how your student is doing in my classroom, and the positives each student brings to my classroom, but also ways they can improve. This year is going to be very exciting for all of us involved, because every student has a clean slate every day and I will not hold grudges towards the students as I expect you not to hold a grudge towards me. Sincerely, Mr. Barchock

You might also like