Introduction to Classroom Management

CREATING A POSITIVE CLASSROOM CLIMATE

Bob Sornson has identified four skills for creating a caring culture in your classroom in his book, Creating Classrooms Where Teachers Love to Teach. (Sornson, 2005) First, neutralize student arguments. Students will attempt to distract you by arguing. A favorite is the "It's not fair" complaint. If you allow yourself to engage in this argument, the student has won, regardless of the outcome. Additionally, other students will view you by how you treat all students, and if you argue with one, they assume you will also argue with them. Even worse, if you lose your temper, react with sarcasm, or yell; students will assume that you have lost control and that you cannot be trusted. Practice responding with empathy, "I bet it feels that way." Or "I will be glad to listen when your voice is calm." Note that you must not respond with, "It is too fair" or "Stop yelling." Nor should you threaten, argue, or otherwise disconnect. Acknowledge the behavior, and continue with the lesson. Second, use delayed consequences. It is not necessary to respond immediately to every issue. Sometimes, it is best to delay your response to determine the best way to handle an issue. You can quietly say, "This is sad. I saw you do ____, but we won't deal with it now. I will have to think about it, and we will talk later." Children often imagine much worse consequences than those actually administered. In fact, when you address the issue, it is better to ask students to describe the inappropriate behavior and tell what they think will happen to them as a result. Then, ask how they think the problem could best be solved. You may be surprised at the outcome. A third way to build a caring classroom culture, according to Sornson, is to use empathy. Because you delay consequences and neutralize arguments, less anger results from situations that arise in the classroom. This opens the door to empathy. According to Wikipedia, the definition of empathy is the ability to recognize, and to some extent, share feelings. Notice that empathy is not "feeling sorry for"; in fact, that is a definition for sympathy. Empathy involves feeling the same emotions others feel, whether that emotion is happy, sad, scared, or joyful. When a student makes a poor decision and gets caught, it stands to reason when the student feels scared. Perhaps the scared feeling manifests as defiance. Further, it is important to understand that the defiance comes from a sad, scared place. As a teacher in a caring classroom, you understand that the student must face consequences and that it is okay for you to empathize with the student. You can either react with defiance in return, or you can respond with empathy and signal that you are sad that a poor choice was made. Finally, a positive classroom environment is created when students feel safe. Occasionally, a student will have a bad day or arrive in your class after an angry altercation. A secondary student may have had difficulty in a previous teacher's classroom or at lunch. Hence, it is important for students to feel as though your classroom is a safe place. It is equally important to guard the other students' learning and prevent disruptions by this student's issues. Many teachers create an area Sornson calls a Recovery area. Ideally, this is an area in the classroom where a student can go to gain control of his/her emotions and prepare for learning. There are no lectures, no condemnations, no 'thinking about what you have done.' The Recovery area is a place for students to recover emotionally. It allows the student an opportunity to recover in private and with dignity, and it is with dignity that positive teacher-student relationships are developed.

RESULTS OF REACTIVE MANAGEMENT

Once in a while, unforeseen circumstances will occur, and the teacher will react. It is inevitable, and if reactive management becomes the norm, several influences will permeate your well-managed classroom. First, you will begin to assume the worst about your students: that they just don't care. Second, you will begin to associate the students with the inappropriate behavior, and they will become "bad kids," rather than good kids who have made bad choices. Students will then mimic what they see in you; they will begin to assume the worst about you, that you just don't care, and that you are just a bad teacher, rather than a good teacher who made a bad choice.

The Authoritative Manager

(see docs for more) The authoritative manager is one we might refer to as "old-school" today. This teacher believes he or she is the ultimate authority in the classroom. Authoritative teachers make all the decisions in the classroom, closely supervise and control students, and do not share decision-making. The authoritative manager values high levels of control and high levels of nurturance. Over the years, such teacher authority has not been considered as popular in staff development and research as some of the more 'student-centered' approaches. However, many parents effectively use high levels of control and high levels of nurturing to raise their own children. The strategies and skills associated with the Authoritative style of Management are: the establishing and enforcing of rules issuing commands, directives, and orders using mild reprimands utilizing proximity control utilizing isolation and exclusion Even though the Authoritative management style seems out of vogue, many teachers employ these strategies with great success. For example, we all establish and enforce rules, and there are times when a command or directive is necessary, such as during a crisis. You may have heard the term "proximity control." Proximity control is moving about the classroom in such a manner that your physical presence or proximity helps monitor the behavior of the student. Consider a police car parked on the side of the road; when you pass that car, you most likely check your speed. Thus, the proximity of the police car controls your behavior. In the classroom, students who misbehave are more likely to check their behavior when the teacher is in close proximity to them. "A Person-Centered Approach to Classroom Management" (Walker, 2009) calls into question the old idea that a teacher who is authoritative cannot also be nurturing. With research dating back to the 1960s, studies have shown that children raised in highly nurturing and strictly controlled homes grew up to have high self-control, were achievement-oriented, friendly with peers, and cooperative with adults. On the other hand, children who were raised in a more authoritarian home, with the same level of behavior control but little nurturing grew up to have more issues. Boys were found to have high levels of aggression, and girls exhibited low levels of independence. The difference appears to depend on the level of nurturing that occurs and the frame of reference from the authority figure. The article uses an example of curfews, which is relevant to the discussion of classroom control. The home in which the curfew is established and later revised to reflect the student's growing personal responsibility can be transferred to the classroom. Teachers who set limits that are gradually reduced to reflect student self-control are reacting to the student's need for independence, even though the teacher still maintains authority. Teachers who do not reduce the level of control, regardless of the student's increasing personal responsibilities are setting the stage for confrontation.

DEVELOPING POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS

All students will work harder for a teacher they respect and like, and truthfully, all teachers will go the extra mile if they like and respect the student. Building a relationship with your students is the first step in creating a respectful environment. Find out what your students like, and attempt to build relationships based on common interests. Make positive phone calls home, which by the way, go a long way toward building a positive teacher-parent relationship as well. Identify strengths and interests that are not school-related, and remark on them to the student. Jane Bluestein makes the case that a classroom in which students win is not necessarily one in which the teacher loses. In fact, classrooms with a win-win philosophy place the adult in control without having to disempower students. Win-win classrooms are likewise committed to a win-win attitude regarding academic concepts. Students should not be compared against each other, where some win and some lose. Rather, teachers should focus on developing each student's unique talent and interest. A crucial aspect of building a win-win classroom atmosphere is to reduce the tendency to focus on the negative. Consider the amount of time that is spent assigning blame for misbehavior. Consider the gains students might make if teachers focused on developing desirable behaviors and skills, rather than shifting blame and assigning punishment. Furthermore, Bluestein stated that "A win-win approach emphasizes giving students opportunities to develop self-management and self-control, freeing up time otherwise consumed by reminders, punishing, or reporting kids. It leverages cooperation and commitment by offering some control and autonomy within a structure that protects the teacher's ability to teach and the students' ability to learn." Children are so rarely appointed decision-making authority in the classroom that they do not learn to be self-determinative. When students are given a choice in a classroom, whether to do an assignment or a project, they immediately feel a vested interest in the success of the assignment. They also learn to make good decisions about their learning. Bluestein recommends focusing on positive consequences rather than punishments or negative consequences. She maintains that all behavior is motivated, either positively or negatively, and that positive consequences build respect and a win-win atmosphere.

Behavior Modification

B.F. Skinner is known as the father of behavior modification, although he built most of his research on the work of earlier psychologists. Skinner differed in his approach to behavior in that he did not believe behavior to be the result of previous stimuli, but that behavior was repeated or not repeated as a response to what happened after the behavior. He called this approach "operant behavior," and by using certain rewards and punishments, he changed behavior through the use of "operant conditioning." Operant conditioning is defined as a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior. Operant conditioning is defined as a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior. (About.com Psychology) Reinforcement - a stimulus following an event. Positive reinforcement - stimuli following an event that causes the event to occur again or speed up. Negative reinforcement - the removal of an unpleasant stimulus by doing something perceived to be good. Punishment - consequence following a behavior that decreases the likelihood of the behavior occurring again. Skinner focused on immediate feedback and believed that teachers should not allow students to practice learning until they understood concepts well. His belief that students would practice the concepts incorrectly influenced educators such as Madeline Hunter to build 'Guided Practice' into lesson plans so that students might benefit from teacher monitoring during practice before attempting concepts on their own. In fact, you will see references to Skinner's work in much of Madeline Hunter's Lesson Design. Hunter believed the use of reinforcers caused children to change their behavior and to later monitor their behavior in response to the memory of the reinforcer. Importantly, Hunter believed in positive reinforcement and was quite adamant that teachers should "never put a kid down, you always build a kid up." (Goldberg, 1990) Skinner and Hunter's work greatly impacted education, both in classrooms and in the larger school. School districts compile Codes of Conduct with behavior expectations and consequences for not meeting those expectations. Within individual classrooms, effective teachers create rules and enforce those rules through rewards and consequences.

ESTABLISHING HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR LEARNING

By negating discipline issues to the greatest extent possible, the teacher creates an environment that is conducive to learning. If the environment is also one of respect and shared responsibility, students will believe you expect learning to occur. It takes more than a positive classroom climate to increase student achievement; it also takes a shared expectation that all students will perform to the best of their ability. The article, "Expectations for Students," is a compilation of research findings as to how good teachers establish high expectations in the classroom and communicate those expectations to their students. The article comes from the ERIC Digest, which is the Educational Resources Information Center. As we see from this research, it is important for teachers to communicate high expectations for all students. The statement, "Students tend to internalize the beliefs teachers have about their ability. Generally, they rise or fall to the level of expectation of their teachers," is a pivotal statement regarding the role teacher expectations play in student achievement. Often, the expectation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The teacher doesn't expect the student to achieve as well as some other students, and thus, when the student fails, the teacher is not surprised and often feels validated. Rather than sending the message that failure is not an option and that the student is capable of more, instead, the teacher reinforces the idea that the student is only capable of what has been achieved thus far. Remember, whether addressing behavior or academics, students will mimic what they see in the teacher. If the teacher treats students as though he/she believes they CAN meet the challenge, students will also believe they can.

REACTIVE VS. PROACTIVE MANAGEMENT

Fred Jones stated that "Focusing on potential problems can be disquieting. It is easy to give in to denial and procrastination. When we do, we back ourselves into 'reactive management'. Proactive management is more than a set of procedures; it is a mindset. It is the way a person thinks when success is non-negotiable, and it just happens to be easier in the long run." (Jones, 2007) But how can we attain this mindset? What practices can we employ each day to become proactive teachers rather than reactive teachers? It has been said that in order to become healthy, you should think and act like a healthy person. The same concept holds true for effective classroom managers. To be an effective classroom manager, you should think and act like an effective classroom manager. How do they think? In what behaviors do they engage? How do proactive teachers think and plan for classroom management? What behaviors can we mimic to become proactive? Dr. Fred Jones has spent over 30 years researching what effective teachers do in the classroom to help students become self-managers. He stated, "Responsible students who have learned to manage themselves require much less management from the teacher." His work focuses on a non-adversarial role in managing student behavior. First, Dr. Jones believes that proactive teachers organize in advance, while reactive teachers have no plan for addressing a lack of organization. Proactive teachers plan in advance for teaching student behaviors, and they understand that new activities, such as lab work, may require teaching new behaviors for those activities. Second, proactive teachers know how to organize for getting things done, while reactive teachers either don't know how to organize, or they choose not to. Activities fall apart in the reactive teacher's classroom and go smoothly in the proactive classroom. Proactive teachers also make plans for students before those students enter the classroom. These teachers greet students at the door, and students have work to do immediately upon entering the classroom. Once the bell rings, the teacher attends to clerical tasks while students complete bell work. Then the teacher reviews the bell work with the students. This step is crucial; if students do not believe the bell work has any value, they will cease doing it. The teacher must validate the work by checking student responses, engaging in discussions, or just examining the work. Don't make a lot of grading for yourself over bell activities; the goal here is for students to begin to think and learn while you are taking care of clerical tasks. Accordingly, it is what administrators love to see: bell-to-bell teaching.

Assume the Best

Students want to learn, and they also want to be held accountable. When we assume the best in our students, we believe they want to learn and learn in a safe, predictable environment. The following article, "Assuming the Best," by Rick Smith and Mary Lambert, addresses this and other strategies, which promote learning in a safe, predictable environment. When a "Phil" is in your classroom, other students may appear to be entertained by his behavior, and may even join in, but in reality, they want you to address the misbehavior and value their right to learn. Often, we become so caught up in one student's antics that we ignore the other 25 students who want to learn. If you assume the best about your students, that they are just as eager to learn as you are to teach, then addressing misbehavior validates your students. "Assuming the Best" introduces the idea of the invisible contract between the students and the teacher. Like other contracts, this contract contains important "clauses." In this case, safe and structured are important clauses. Thus, when students break minor rules, they are in essence testing the contract to see how the teacher will react: with harsh punishments or by ignoring the infraction. If the teacher reacts with harshness, the student internalizes that the classroom isn't safe. If the teacher ignores the infraction, the student internalizes that the teacher doesn't honor the contract and no structure exists. When teachers respond to misbehavior, Smith and Lambert recommend using volume, tone, and posture. Lower your voice, soften your tone and square up your posture. These positive moves allow the teacher to address minor misbehavior without stopping the lesson or humiliating the offender. The article also provides research into a highly effective strategy called the "two by ten." That is to say, the teacher spends two minutes with a difficult student, ten days in a row, talking about anything the student wants as long as it is G-rated. The researcher found an 85% improvement in that student's behavior as well as a marked improvement in the behavior of the rest of the class. "Assuming the Best" recognizes the underlying assumption effective teachers make; students want a positive connection, and they want to behave appropriately. By changing the teacher's orientation from a negative assumption to a positive assumption, teachers can change the emotional climate of the entire classroom.

THE ESTABLISHMENT AND ENFORCEMENT OF RULES

The establishment and enforcement of rules is an important component of any classroom management plan. Research supporting rule establishment is long and well established. Harry Wong reminds us that "school must be a safe and protected environment, where a student can come to learn without fear" (Wong, 1998). Rules set limits and provide students with a sense of security. At the same time, rules that are not enforced may as well not be written. They must be enforced and have consequences in order to guide behavior. Whenever possible, rules should be stated positively. As human beings, our brains translate images into words, and images have words associated with them. Our brains do not have an image for the words "Do Not," but certainly, over the years, a symbol of a line drawn through a behavior has come to signify "Do Not." Without the behavior, what would the symbol mean? By communicating rules in positive terms, "do this, do that," you communicate the behaviors you expect. A mental picture is then evoked of them performing that behavior. So rules such as "Don't hit" become "Keep your hands to yourself," and "Don't run" becomes "Walk quietly." Consequences must be assigned for rules to be effective, and they should consist of both positive and negative. The goal is to teach students that every decision results in a consequence, and the consequence can be either pleasant or unpleasant. Positive consequences include rewards for those who abide by rules. Negative consequences include penalties that result when students break the rules.

INTRO TO CLASS MGMT

We know from research and practice that highly effective teachers maintain well-managed classrooms. (Browers & Tomic, 2000) New teachers often struggle when faced with significant classroom disruptions and cite classroom management as a major factor contributing to leaving the profession. Further, new teachers are often assigned to schools with large populations of economically disadvantaged students with a disproportionate number of behavioral issues. Unfortunately, it has been shown that new teachers' inability to manage classroom behaviors contributes to the low achievement of at-risk students and to excessive referrals to special education (Donovan and Cross, 2002). That being said, Federal laws, such as The Elementary and Secondary Schools Act, and the state accountability system use the academic progress of economically disadvantaged children as one of several indicators of teacher and school performance. In a December 2007 study, the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality provided research and recommendations for improving teacher quality and effectiveness, specifically in the area of classroom management. This research focused on preventing behavior problems rather than reacting to problems. Our goal in this and other classroom management modules is to provide you with the necessary tools for proactive classroom management, strategies to address issues as they arise, and support for your development as a professional educator. We will examine the goals of discipline and provide an overview of four styles of behavior management. Finally, we will ask you to examine your beliefs regarding student discipline and direct you to a more in-depth analysis of your preferred management style.

WELL-MANAGED CLASSROOM

Well-managed classrooms can be thought of in terms of a three-legged stool. When a classroom does not perform at a high level, or management issues are evident within the classroom, the cause is almost always related to a failure of one of the three legs of the stool. Highly functioning classrooms in which students are engaged and learning have the following three characteristics: Instruction is well designed and follows best practices; Teachers and students have a visibly positive relationship built on trust and respect; and Clearly identified procedures are in place to support learning. most teachers pick and choose various parts of each management philosophy and create a style that is uniquely their own.

Kelly Graham and Elsbeth Prigmore

instruction will not be effective unless teachers foster positive relationships with their students, set appropriate limits, and hold and communicate high expectations. "One of the major flaws in some classroom management systems is that the teacher gives numerous chances, requests or warnings--all of which waste academic instructional time. The multiple exchanges with the same students reinforce the same behavior in other students. In essence, there are multiple opportunities to misbehave when students are not taught to self-correct at the first directive. If all students are systematically taught how to follow classroom rules and routines through a direct instruction model, multiple warnings, and repeated requests can be eliminated, thus saving valuable instructional minutes." By providing multiple chances, the student is not taught to self-correct and therefore, not taught to monitor his/her behavior. In addition, other students subconsciously learn how far the teacher can be pushed. And finally, valuable instruction time is being wasted. Considering this situation, does anyone win?

DISCIPLINE MANAGEMENT

you are teaching content, but you are also teaching behavior. whether you want to or not, as a teacher, children and teenagers will look to you for guidance as they begin to navigate the world. You are a role model, and even children who come from stable backgrounds will look to you for guidance regarding appropriate behaviors.