TEFL Dickey North Dakota

Effective behavior management is the most important aspect to establishing a safe and positive learning environment. Ideally, behavior management techniques should be presented clearly and consistently from the beginning of the school year. Students need to be explicitly taught appropriate behavior and teacher expectations, as well as be actively engaged in establishing the rules and consequences. In order to teach the classroom rules and procedures, it will be critical for me to explicitly teach, model, and practice the exact behavior I want my students to perform. In the beginning of the year, I will make sure that I respond to the majority of rule violations so that I ensure that later on in the year every student has a very clear understanding of what I expect of them at all times. After we have created the rules as a class and discussed their importance to our effective learning environment, I will have the students practice the rule or procedure until it is preformed correctly. If the students perform a procedure incorrectly or break a rule, I will ask them to state the correct procedure or rule, and then to show me how to do it correctly. I will have a picture or hand signal that goes along with each of the rules. In the beginning of the year, I will teach the students these symbols so that I can communicate my expectations to a student who is misbehaving quickly and visually without disrupting the learning of the rest of the students. While teaching, I will do a few things constantly to ensure that students are engaged in the task, and to prevent inappropriate or disruptive behavior. I will arrange the desks in the room so that I can see and move to be near all students at some point during the lesson. I will scan the whole class frequently in order to know what is going on at all times, and be able to respond correctly to problems that may arise. Before the start of any activity, I will state my expectations clearly and ensure that all students understand the directions. When a student makes an error academically, we assume that he or she is trying to find the correct answer, but is prevented from doing so for some reason. So when a student misbehaves, we should assume that he or she wants to follow the rules, but for some reason they are prevented from doing this on his or her own. In order to respond to minor disruptions, I will assess the situation and either ignore the behavior or use proximity control to let the student know that I have noticed he or she is off-task. If these techniques do not stop the behavior, I will touch the student's shoulder and use either a picture or hand symbol that we learned as a class to let him or her know the expectation. If I can address the student directly without interrupting the lesson, I will be sure to remain calm, speak politely, and use “I” statements in order to help the student understand how his or her behavior affects other people. Classroom and behavior management is vital in creating a safe and effective learning environment for my students. It not only involves developing consequences for student misbehavior; but it involves more important things such as developing self-control in the students, building trust in a learning community, and having mutual respect. I will strive to model what I expect from my students by treating them with dignity, and creating an equitable learning environment in which every student has the opportunity to be successful. References Evertson, Carolyn M. (1994). Classroom Management for Elementary teachers (3rd ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Jones, V., Jones, L. (2010). Comprehensive Classroom Management (9th ed.). columbus, Ohio: Merrill. Kizlik, Robert. (2011). Classroom Management and Managing Student Conduct. http://www.adprima.com/managing/htm