Dear 2009-2010 Lucinda Carter Teaching Fellows,
Well, we are finally up and running for discussion of The First Days of School - both the book and your first days. We are now on our 35th day of school and I am sure you have much to contribute to each other from your anecdotes to your day to day responsibilities. Where do you want to begin? I thought about Section C: classroom management, but I will leave it to the ten of you to make that decision.
Please know that this is a safe place to ask questions and express your feelings; we know you are searching for ideas and thoughts and other's experiences. We ask that you participate on a regular basis so others might glean information from your experiences - once every two weeks is a minimum expectation.
Let the blogging begin.
Kim
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So many interdependent factors are involved in effective classroom management that it is hard to focus on just one aspect of what makes a great classroom manager. Classroom management is fluid; the students’ moods change, the feel of the class changes, and on top of it all, we have to remain flexible to the management style and personality of our mentors. Many days, I think about how many balls have to be kept in the air in order to keep this juggling act smooth and consistent for us and our students.
ReplyDeleteHowever, with this being said, in our pre-k team meeting last week we discussed classroom management and particularly how it pertains to Love & Logic. Jen summed everything up very succinctly when she said, “It is all about relationships.” In other words, effective classroom management cannot exist without close personal relationships with the students.
This comment got me thinking about an article I had read during graduate school about relationships and classroom management. It gave 10 “simple steps” for developing and preserving positive relationships with students, and, consequently, maintaining smooth management within the classroom. The 10 steps are listed below. (Note: Unfortunately, I cannot give credit to the author, since my original handout did not have the author’s name. Hopefully, they would forgive me “republishing” their words in the name of educator growth.)
1) Give messages of unconditional respect by interacting with students as we would well-respected adults.
2) Be mindful of the role of nonverbal language.
3) Model self-acceptance.
4) Concentrate on the able and put components of success development of trust.
5) Place emphasis on individual uniqueness rather than on some hierarchy within the class.
6) Give credibility to students’ feelings.
7) Keep in mind that our self-worth is wrapped in our field of awareness.
8) Remember that almost all misbehavior has a positive purpose.
9) Attempt to understand a student’s mind set and world view.
10) Make learning tasks manageable and put components of success within the students’ grasp.
These steps are obviously only a starting point. Love & Logic and The 1st Days of School go into more detail in regards to these points, but personally, I liked how simply Jen summed it up.