Classroom Management

Classroom management is something that I have been considering more and more through the year. I am generally quiet yet love to lead, which raises many questions in my mind as to how I would manage a classroom. I've decided to try to be specific in a few areas instead of general and talk about all areas.

One example would be that I wouldn't give my students any idle time. As a future elementary teacher I know that any time that the students are given to just sit or do nothing is not beneficial. I can say this keeping the behaviorist learning theory in mind. I know that the input of free time gets the output of distracted students and that leads to more behavior problems. If I can plan my time wisely than I will not only waste less of my student's time to learn but I will also spend less time dealing with behavioral issues.

Another example of how I would manage my classroom would be not using homework as a teaching tool or as something to do in my student's spare time. Homework will be something that students find useful in order to practice key things that have already been taught in the classroom. I will also not use worksheets to teach students. Things such as word searches don't teach students beyond a list of vocabulary words and do not keep them active mentally engaged. It also is text and not the most concrete to give a student. Though hopefully by the time students are doing a worksheet they have already had concrete representations of the material. This would be informed by the constructivist learning theory, social learning theory, developmental learning theory, and behaviorist learning theory. It connects to the constructivist learning theory because I would be doing my best to keep my students actively engaged and finding ways to connect new ideas to old ideas within their schemas. It also connects to social learning theory because I would keep in my the language that I am using to teach new information and review old information. Keeping the language familiar and not focusing on text alone can greatly aid students. For this to be informed by the developmental learning theory I would realize that worksheets are not a concrete representation and that text should (if possible) be the last thing that I use on a scale of representing any material. Finally, this would be informed by the behaviorist learning theory because giving students time to sit and do a worksheet that is not engaging for a certain amount of time can clearly lead to behavior issues.

A final example of how I would manage a classroom would be through establishing a sense of routine. Students need consistency and need to understand what is expected of them. In this routine the rules will be clearly laid out. This is connected to the the constructivist learning theory because I have to keep in mind that students use two different schemas for home and school. I would need to build positively on the school schema and learn to connect that to the home schema when possible.