No Tolerance (Bullying)
I am a huge advocate of keeping students safe in a
school; especially in my classroom. I have zero tolerance for bullying. For
years I have seen teachers and administration dismiss situations where bullying
is a huge issue. I want to make sure that my students know that will not be
tolerated.
I have learned a lot about the Love and Logic concept. The school where I
student taught applies the Love and Logic throughout the entire school. Some of
the ideas through Love and Logic are:
1. I allow students to remain in my classroom as long as they do not cause a problem for anyone else.
2. If they cause a problem, I will ask them to fix it.
3. If they can’t or will not fix it, I will do something
4. What I do will depend on the unique situation.
Love and Logic
From what I have learned from student teaching is that the Love and Logic premise really works. I prefer to speak in positive phrases. When someone is shouting out in class, I can simply say “I only call on people who raise their hand” instead of “Stop talking out of turn!” or “shh”-ing a child. When it comes to transitioning from classroom to a special, lunch, recess, or the end of the day, I feel it is important for the classroom noise level to be at a respectable level. I like to use such phrases as “only the quiet students will be able to go to recess” instead of “be quiet in the hallway”. That way, they make their decision on whether or not they would like to go to recess because I will send them back into the room if they are not quiet; they knew their choices and consequences.
Distractions
I am a firm believer that children are easily distracted; they are kids! It is in their nature to become distracted. Therefore, when it comes to positive reinforcement charts and tools, I do not believe they are a useful device in the classroom. A major con that I find with the use of flip charts and sticker sheets is that the public embarrassment for the student can be excruciating. Students are forced to walk up to a chart and flip their card or do not receive a sticker for a ‘bad day’. The level of each student’s behavior is publicly viewed for all students to see. Some students may lose focus on the task in class because they just switched their card or they do not have the same amount of stickers as their friend. For students who just want to be accepted as a normal kid, these behavior charts separate the good from the bad—students of all ages understand who are the disruptive kids in class, why do we need to rub it in? Without these visible behavior charts, students may understand that others in the class have a hard time now and then. With the charts, students may come home after a week and tell their parents or friends “Billy turned his card to red 4 times this week!” How bad was Billy? Apparently 4x as bad as other students who never have to flip their card. It is my belief that this is never beneficial.
Positive Reinforcement - Modeling
I believe in setting a standard in a classroom. With all students, I enjoy using a positive modeling approach. If I want students to start calming down and focusing, I walk around the room and say “Wow, I like how Bobby is sitting nicely, ready to learn” “Thank you, Sara for paying attention this entire time” or, if a student has been listening and doing the right things for an entire morning or afternoon, I like to say “Great job, Emily. You always seem to do the right thing—sitting nicely, paying attention, and raising your hand.” This gets kids to focus in a matter of seconds. They want to be called on for positive reinforcement. I thoroughly enjoy catching someone being great. Especially if the student has a hard time focusing, I make sure that I can catch them at ‘super moments’ so I may be able to acknowledge their efforts to the entire class. It gives them a boost of self confidence and may be able to understand that it is possible to focus in school.
Set-Up
I would assume that my classroom set up depends on each grade I teach. In grades K-3, I believe that desks should be clustered together in groups and assigned seats should be moved at least four times throughout the year. This gives students the ability to move around during centers and complete group work with ease. The frequent moving gives students and teacher the benefit of avoiding any complications or distractions, plus it gives the students a chance to interact with others throughout the year and build lasting friendships. Depending on the class, 3rd-8th grade desks should be set up in rows or groups. This may changed in time, but I feel that I will make that decision when there is an issue. Also, keeping students that may need extra help by the front of my classroom will be essential. This will give me the opportunity to discretely give extra attention to certain students.
Music, Games, Exercising
Classical music is a must in most classes. It is great to schedule one time during the day where only classical music can be heard. This could be during quiet reading, independent language arts lesson or a catch-up moment. It has also been proven that classical music stimulates activity in the brain and is incredibly calming. I am not opposed to introducing different kinds of music, plus integrating the music into all subjects. We could create a language arts and social studies lesson about the musician and the time period in which certain songs were created, understanding how to read music, relating to mathematics, and creating their very own instruments as a science experiment. Music has been an enormous part of my life; I want to share it with my students.
Games and exercising are very important to all students’
brain activity. Some children may not be able to sit still during a verbal and
visual lesson, but when games are introduced, some students- almost all- will
thrive. I also like the idea of “game days” where students will take an afternoon
to rotate through centers filled with educational games. Parents may come in to
help and refreshments are served. This could be a great idea to reward the
class when they show good behavior over a large amount of time. Along with
games, exercise is also a must. My favorite thing to do is Simon Says. If
students have been sitting on the carpet or sitting in their desks, I like to
give them a random dose of moving. This will improve brain function and relieve
the students of their “Co2 bubble”. The students love the idea and get silly,
which shows that school is not always work,
work, work. We can have fun, too!
