Learning Opportunity #1: Professional Competency #6



Learning Opportunity #1: Professional Competency #6 Amanda Guedes260688147Professor Sheryl Smith-GilmanMcGill UnversityMonday, October 16, 2017Classroom Management TechniquesArtifact #1: Classroom SetupThe classroom setup is an aspect that many people underestimate. However, it is one of the most crucial factors in students’ learning. The way a teacher organizes the students’ seating arrangement, as well as the furniture and other items in the classroom, are all conducive to shaping the classroom environment into a safe, positive and caring space (Parkay, Stanford, Vaillancourt, Stephens, & Harris, 2012). In my current classroom, there is a reading corner with a classroom library, a desk in the back with a computer for classroom use, a “Focus Wall”, the “Cool & Calm Corner”, a bulletin board illustrating the students’ work throughout the year, the teacher’s desk, and my desk next to hers. Out of everything that was set up, my Cooperating Teacher (CT) and I spent a great deal of time trying to find a seating arrangement that would be beneficial to all students, while still having space in the classroom for everything else. In the end, we decided to go with the “U” shaped arrangement. We did so because as Parkay et al., (2012) mention, we must make sure that the opportunity for every student to learn is not reduced by the way we set up their seating arrangements. Rows are too structured and old school, desks clustered into groups may result in too much distraction from the groups, the “L” shaped arrangement did not leave us with adequate extra space, and so, the best outcome was the “U” shaped arrangement. By having the desks set up this way, it contributes to the success of a well-managed classroom environment. I am able to have a view of all my students as I am teaching (and all my students to have a clear view of me); therefore, every student has the chance to be given equal attention because there is not just one ‘action zone’ (Parkay et al., 2012). Furthermore, this setup allows for the students to work in pairs/groups because the desks are placed next to each other and the students can move their chairs around the desks to work together when it is time to do so. Additionally, it provides me with the opportunity to have ‘classroom debates’ on topics and play activities/games, because two of the rows are opposite each other. Lastly, I am able to be close to every student to provide them with assistance when it is needed because I am inside the curve of the “U” when I teach or circulate the class. All of these features enable me to have an efficient system so that I can effectively run the classroom (QEP, 2001). The question of placing the teacher’s desk in the middle of the curve of the “U” was weighed several times. My CT let me decide what I think would be best and in the end I decided that it would in fact hinder the students’ learning because I believe that the students would feel too watched and constrained while doing their work; therefore causing them to feel pressured. The way the classroom is set up –mainly with the desks, has resulted (so far) in less distractions, more participation from the students, and the facilitation for me to make sure every one of my students has easy access to assistance during their learning.Article #2: “Hello, how are you?” Student Call-backStudents are expected to make noise within the classroom –it would be abnormal if every single student was quiet for the whole day. So, it is not shocking to me when my students begin to get noisy as soon as there is silence, or when I give myself a 30 second break from talking. The key feature of putting an end to this noisy chatter when it is not the time for it is: student call-backs. A student call back is my favorite thing to do with my class. It is fun, catchy, and an excellent way to make sure you have your students’ attention, as well as getting their attention back on track. There are a ton of student call-backs to use such as: macaroni and cheese, everybody freeze, hocus pocus, now let’s focus, hands on top, everybody stop, and many more. I decided to create one by using a greeting that we use in our daily lives: “Hello, how are you?” The reason why I decided to use this student call-back is because I noticed that when I see something in the classroom that should not be happening such as excessive chatting, the noise level getting to loud, etc, I would always –for some unknown reason –say “Um hellooo?” in a sing-song voice. This would usually get my students to look at me and I would then tell them what they should be doing, instead of undesirable behavior they are currently doing. I decided to play around with this and turn it into a call-back. I explained to my students that whenever I say “Hellooo?” they will respond back to me with “How are youuu?” Sometimes I answer the call-back with “I am good, thank you”, other times I just go on to say what I expect them to be doing, or they simply get back on track because they know what that call-back is associated with. I love this student call-back and it works extremely well in my classroom. In fact, it is currently one of the most effective management techniques in my classroom that I am using; it maximizes the students’ attention, while minimizing the disruptive behavior –the main goal of effective classroom management (Parkay et al., 2012). The students already know what they need to call back and whenever we do it, I see giant smiles on their faces as they call back because they actually enjoy doing it. I also use it when my students are doing group work. I do this to get their attention because I have to explain or tell them something, or simply because I want to make sure that even though they are doing work, I still have their attention when I speak. I use it the most when the class is getting very noisy or chatty and it automatically brings them back to the classroom volume and brings their focus back on me and their task at hand; promoting students’ learning.Article #3: Reward System/Student of the WeekIn order to ensure that my students are on their best behavior and improve their self-regulation not only in the classroom, but in their other classes and in the school altogether, I decided to implement “Student of the Week”. The main feature of this reward system is not discipline –which is the methods that are used after a student misbehaves (Parkay et al., 2012) –but instead, is classroom management. It is a system to prevent students from misbehaving by keeping them in check about how they are acting (QEP, 2001), and what requirements are needed to be the student of the week. Before going forward with this system, I made sure to establish all of the rules and regulations that go into it with my students. There was a classroom discussion on what they think unacceptable behaviors are, and how that relates to being student of the week. Additionally, we discussed the desirable behaviors. I did this in order to create a kind of ‘democratic classroom’ (Parkay et al., 2012). This way, the students were able to be involved in setting the standards for their behaviors (QEP, 2001). By students mentioning what undesirable and desirable behaviors look like, it allowed for them to make sense of what is expected from them by me, within the classroom, and the school. In order for students to receive student of the week, they must behave accordingly, limit their talking during instruction (I chose the words ‘limit their talking’ because I know that it is nearly impossible to ask every student to be 100% quiet during instruction at all times), do all their homework for the day it is due, act accordingly when out in the hallway, and so forth. If I see that a student has also greatly improved from one week to the other, they may also receive student of the week in order to reinforce their new improvements. Additionally, constant social reinforcers are given when I notice a desirable behavior. Once a student receives their student of the week certificate, they are able to pick from a variety of ‘reward coupons’ that they may use during the next class. I also included a ‘Surprise Stash” reward coupon which contains little prizes. This reward system has affected my classroom management and the students’ behaviors greatly. I make sure to remind them consistently that student of the week is only a few days away –reminding them of the rules –and in turn, the students keep themselves on track with their behaviors. This strategy has definitely impacted my thinking when it comes to classroom management because at first I was on the fence about using tangible reinforcers in the classroom. I struggled with whether students were behaving for intrinsic purposes or solely for the reward. By combining tangible reinforcers with constant social reinforcers, it allowed for me to find a balance. I can tell that this balance results in their behaviors being driven by intrinsic motivation and not for the tangible reward because only one student receives ‘Student of the Week’, while every student receives verbal acknowledgement for their good behavior. Article #4: Secret Student Library Spy:Every Tuesday, the classroom has library time. This means that we go to the library for half an hour, pick out books, and have silent reading. Effective classroom management requires that students are aware of the rules and procedures and, that measures are taken when these are not followed (Parkay et al., 2012). Many students do not follow this ‘silent reading’ procedure and it gets very noisy, therefore, a “Secret Student Library Spy” was created. Every Tuesday, a new student is picked –in secret, to be the library spy. The library spy essentially looks out for students in the class who are talking when they should be silent, and writes their names down on a post-it note. Now, many of you may be wondering how the library spy is secret if they are carrying around post-its and a pencil. Well, in fact, every student brings down their post-its and a pencil to the library, but only one is chosen to write down the names. This way, the students do not know who it is because everyone has the required materials to be the library spy. Some students have even taken it a step further and pretended to be writing stuff down in order to confuse the other students as to who the library spy really is. This post-it note is then given to me, and those students who have their names written down are not given their 15 minutes of homework time at the end of the day to begin their homework. Instead, they go in the reading corner and do the silent reading that they did not do at the library. Some people may not think this works because they think that students do not really care if they get time to complete their homework or not. To the contrary, my students do care because many of them look forward to beginning homework in class so that they do not have a lot of it to complete at home. Students must be made aware of the consequences for failing to follow rules and procedures (Parkay et al., 2012) and the consequences must be consistent in order for students to take it seriously. It is an effective strategy for managing the classroom in different settings, for making sure that the appropriate school and social behaviors are being produced, and that it is dealt with effectively when undesirable behaviors occur (QEP, 2001). This system has really worked in my classroom because my students have become aware that certain places require a certain type of behavior in respect for others and, that if this behavior is not followed through, then a consequence will ensue.Intervention StrategiesIntervention Strategy #1:The first intervention strategy that I had to carry out was the issue of homework not being done. For some odd reason, at least a quarter of my students were not completing their homework on time. They would say that they forgot, or that they did not know they had to do those pages even though it was clearly written on the board. Clear requirements of what is expected from my students were given the first day of school (QEP, 2001), and so, due to the requirements not being met, I had to develop a strategy to deal with the inappropriate behaviors (QEP, 2001). Eventually, after writing notes in the agendas the first couple of weeks, the homework situation got better except for one specific student. I knew that something had to be done about her homework never being completed. The student would either complete half her homework (for example: one out of the two pages would be completed), or she would simply say that she forgot to do it/forgot her book at school. In order to have her remember all the homework she had to do, I suggested that she put little checkmark boxes near each piece of homework that was written in her agenda. Additionally, I would check her agenda at the end of the day in order to make sure that all the homework was written, along with the checkmark boxes. I explained to her that once she completed each piece of homework, she would put a checkmark in the corresponding checkmark box. I told her that this would enable her to see which homework she completed, and which ones she still had to do. I conferred with the French teacher to do the same strategy in her class and thankfully, she agreed that it would be a good strategy to implement for the student in her class as well. This way, the student has a consistent homework strategy in both her classes; enforcing procedures in a consistent manner is a key feature in them being effective (Parkay et al., 2012). This seemed to be working a little bit for a couple of weeks, but the student would still come to class with either a page of her homework not done, or her books left at home or forgotten at school. Although it was an improvement from the student not having half her homework done, or none at all, she was still not meeting the requirements of the classroom rules. I tried mentioning to her that it is unfair to other students who are doing their homework that she gets to decide whether or not she does her homework, as well as reminding her of the classroom rules and the “Student of the Week” system. I did all of that to no avail; I decided that further intervention was needed. A huge part of being a teacher is deciding what to do when students do not follow the rules or procedures and how the consequence will be carried out (Parkay et al., 2012). After about the fourth week –once all of that was tried –I explained to the student that if she did not complete all of her homework from now on (with the checkmark box strategy still in place), then she would stay in with me at recess and complete the homework during her recess time. The reason why I decided this is because due to her homework not being done, she had to write down all of the answers while we corrected the homework as a class. Either the corrections were going too quickly, or she did not have time to write down the answers and therefore, she would not have any of the correct work needed to study. To avoid incomplete studying material from homework, I came up with that new intervention strategy. During the recess time, she would essentially be completing the homework she should have done at home. I would look over her work and make any necessary corrections in order to make sure she had the right answers to study from later on. If the student has to stay in on a day when I am outside for recess supervision, I have the student come in during her lunch recess to complete the homework. This way, she is still getting to go out for one out of two of her recesses because I believe that students do need to get fresh air during the day. Refocusing and tightening the intervention strategy has helped the student for the time being because after I strictly abided to it for the first week, she has changed her behavior so far. She has been completing all of her homework –and on time, and rarely has to stay in during recess to complete her homework anymore. I think that by removing something meaningful from her as a consequence of her failing behavior (after many warnings were given), she is able to understand that in order to get what she wants –her recess time, she must return the favor by giving me what I want: completed homework. So far, the student has been completing her homework for the past couple of weeks, however, the intervention strategy is still in place and she is made aware that it is ongoing.Intervention Strategy #2:The second intervention strategy that I had to carry out was a behavior problem with one of my students. For the first couple of weeks, I noticed that whenever there was a problem in the class such as instigating, talking back, picking on others, and so forth, there was always one student that was involved in every single incident. I was aware that the student has a behavioral problem, but was not aware of how time consuming it could be. What I mean by this is that every time an incident would occur, I would have to stop what I am doing because I had to address the situation at hand. Either the student would answer back, or would ignore the warnings, but she would always play the victim and the situation would then get out of hand. From the first day of school, the classroom rules, the behaviors that are desirable and that will not be tolerated, and positive and negative consequences that go with the behaviors were discussed; this is known as assertive discipline (Parkay et al., 2012). To redirect the student to these guidelines, I began with warnings the first couple of weeks because I thought that maybe the student would become aware of her actions through communication. I would warn her by using the constructive assertiveness approach (Parkay et al., 2012). I would either call out her name as I was speaking to refocus her attention, use direct eye contact, use facial expressions, or simply state to the class as a whole that I am currently seeing some behaviors that should be stopped immediately. When none of the warnings seemed to work, I decided that the situation needed to be addressed as soon as possible. Furthermore, an intervention strategy had to be implemented immediately because it was hindering the other students’ learning and taking up a lot of time throughout the day; things I clearly stated to the class that I would not tolerate. As a teacher, I need to make sure that my classroom climate is always conducive to learning (QEP, 2001); however, what was happening in the class was just the opposite. I decided to explain to the student that whenever she misbehaves in class, I would give her one warning only. After that warning, if she continued the undesirable behavior or decided to answer back and not follow directions, then I would have her stand with me outside during recess supervision and discuss her behavior through a “Social Story”. I also mentioned to her that by standing outside with me supervising the students, she would be seeing all of her friends play, while she had to stay by my side. This way, the student would still be getting fresh air –something I believe is a necessity for students, but she would not be having recess time. I decided that these social stories would involve the following components: a discussion on the undesirable behavior, what feature of the behavior was undesirable, why the behavior was done, how it made the other person involved feel, how it interrupted the class and hindered their learning, and what solution can the student do to better her behavior. On days when I do not have recess supervision, I explained to her that we would do the Social Story during the 15 minutes of homework time. Therefore, she would not be starting her homework, but instead, would be sitting at my desk with me discussing her behavior. By implementing this strategy after the third week of school, I was able to notice a change in her behavior. Although the student still has to do Social Stories with me about once or twice a week, it is a huge turnaround from the first couple of weeks at school. The student does not answer back as much as she used to, and has become better at self-regulating her actions. Additionally, the student now seems to be acknowledging the warnings when I give them, and I can tell she tries really hard to not repeat the behavior after the warning has been given. I also keep in mind that students who have a behavioral problem are not always responsible for their actions in the same way that students without a behavioral problem are. Therefore, if I see that the student is trying really hard to not repeat the behavior after the warning is given, but somehow fails, I do not always have her do the Social Story during her recess time. I wait until further throughout the day to keep track of her behavior. If I see that it is worsening, then I will have her do a Social Story during homework time. If I see that it has gotten better, then I remove the consequence of doing the Social Story. Furthermore, I make sure to give the student constant social reinforcements when I notice a desirable behavior. This way, the student is constantly aware of when she is behaving, and is able to notice that that specific behavior is a good one in comparison to a bad one. In contrast, when she is misbehaving, I give the warning, and this way she is able to notice that her behavior is not a good one. This intervention strategy has been helping the student tremendously so far, and although it needs to be ongoing throughout the school year and has to be constantly reinforced, I am sure that in time, it will change her behavior more than it already has.ReferencesQue?bec education program: preschool education, elementary education: approved version. (2001). Que?bec: Ministe?re de le?ducation. Retrieved September 9, 2017, from , F.W., Hardcastle Stanford, B., Vaillancourt, J.C., Stephens, H.C., & Harris, J.R. (2012), Becoming a teacher (4th ed.), Toronto, ON: Pearson. ................
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