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Running head: CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT BEYOND RULES AND PROCEDURES 1

Classroom Management beyond Rules and Procedures Fang Ge Michigan State University

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT BEYOND RULES AND PROCEDURES Classroom Management beyond Rules and Procedures

The significance of classroom management in American schools can not be more emphasized. Before coming to the States, I familiarized myself with the principles of setting up classroom rules and procedures. During the summer camp I attended at the Michigan State University, one experienced teacher gave us some advice on how to deal with misbehavior. Right after the start of the new school year, our field instructor gave us a lecture on classroom rules and procedures. In my spare time, I also read The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher by Harry Wong and learnt some useful tips. All these efforts, however, seemed to be futile when I tried to solve the problems of a misbehaving boy in my classroom. The failure gave me a rude awakening that classroom management requires more effort than the often mentioned setting up and implementing rules and procedures. During the first weeks of our class, a boy was brought to my attention. He refused to follow my directions such as sitting criss-crossed on the carpet, eyes on me when I was talking, or keeping his hands and feet to himself. Under such circumstances, I had to stop the whole-group instruction and reminded him of the classroom rules. However, my warnings did not have any impact on his misbehavior. One morning, when he kept talking about irrelevant topics after several warnings, I raised my voice above the indoor level, stared at him with disappointment and called his name in a stern tone. The whole class was shocked and immediately restored to complete quietness by my sudden outburst of anger. Later, when students lined up to wash their hands before snack time, I saw him holding his hands in tight fists and saying, I hate the teacher. But that was only the beginning of his increasingly deteriorating misbehavior and overt defiance of my authority. More and more problematic behavior showed up over the following months. These behavior included, but were not limited to, sitting in the cubby without asking for permission,

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT BEYOND RULES AND PROCEDURES

throwing play food on the floor to arouse attention, saying abusive words to his classmates. Almost all kinds of measures had been tried out to solve his problems. These measures consisted of setting up an incentive system both at school and at home, frequent communication with his parents, explaining the concept of appropriate personal space with a hula hoop activity, asking him to be my helper, giving him the opportunity to visit his preschool teacher as a reward for good behavior. But none of these measures worked effectively for two consecutive days. Upon reflection, a number of hypothesis may apply to this chronic problem I encountered. First, I didnt realize that he had a speech disfluency and the possible consequences of the problem. During the second trimester, through a conversation with his preschool teacher, I realized that the boy had a stuttering problem. This problem can, and often does, lead to subtle to significant behavioral problems. In addition, a stutterer can develop feelings of anxiety, frustration and depression. When exposed to difficult speaking experiences on a regular basis, these feelings may crystallize into a negative self-concept and self-image. A stutterer may also project his or her attitudes onto others, believing that they think he or she is nervous or stupid. All these factors may contribute to his misbehavior. Prior to the conversation with my co-worker, I was totally ignorant of them. Secondly, I didnt take into account the boys learning style and adapt my instructional activities to his needs and interests. Obviously, the development of his verballinguistic intelligence was delayed compared to his peers. It was highly likely that he did not enjoy listening to stories, playing word games or even singing songs as much as other children did. Instead, he was more interested in playing cubes, solving puzzles, doing role play, etc. However, input and output practices in Chinese made up a large proportion of my

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT BEYOND RULES AND PROCEDURES

instructional time, and such design may be excessively challenging, therefore inappropriate for his stage of development. Lastly, but most importantly, the way I handled the boys misbehavior at the beginning of the first trimester hurt his feelings and self-esteem. I raised my voice above the indoor level when trying to stop his misbehavior. I tried to grab toys from his hands when he refused to give them to me. I didnt use any incentive to encourage his good behavior. And my criticism of him in front of the class ruined his reputation among his classmates. In their mind, he was labeled as a bad kid and few children would make friend with him. Whenever we had a pair work, no child was willing to pair up with him. As a result, he felt unaccepted, disrespected, and ostracized in my classroom. These feelings pushed him to grab additional attention from his classmates and me with more severe misbehavior. A close examination of the causes of this boys misbehavior leads me to the conclusion that apart from creating and executing rules and procedures, classroom management requires additional endeavor from the teacher. One reason is that a trusting and mutually-respectful relationship between teacher and students is the basis of a well-managed classroom. To establish mutual respect, teachers earn respect by showing respect to their students first. The students formulate their impressions of the teacher during the initial "honeymoon" phase. Like any other human relations, these first impressions are crucially important. Once any negative impressions are formed, it is hard to change or remove them. Take the boy in my classroom for example, the root cause of his problems is that he is not willing to show good behavior to a teacher who he considers to be mean. Another reason is that the kindergartners ability to use appropriate social skills in their daily interaction plays a vital role in maintaining a cooperative and friendly learning

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT BEYOND RULES AND PROCEDURES

community. These social skills include expressing emotions in acceptable ways, asking for help to solve disagreements, getting along with classmates, using various strategies to resolve conflicts, etc. When facing problems, some kindergartners become instantly tearful or angry, others blame their peers for being mean to them or simply deny every wrongdoing they commit. Inappropriate settlement of these problems not only steal away precious learning time, but also disturb the order of the classroom. Finally, a third reason for extra efforts lies in the fact that each student is a unique individual. Students differ in their social-economic backgrounds, motivation level, developmental stages, degree of maturity, interests, learning styles, etc. This diversity demands a differentiation of curriculum and instruction in response. When the students are completely immersed in their learning, the likelihood of behavior issues will be significantly decreased. For example, I once showed an animated movie in Chinese to my afternoon students and in the mist of it, I asked, Who wants to go to the office to check mail for me? To my surprise, no child even removed their eyes from the screen. This was a sharp contrast to other days when almost every child raised their hands with excitement. In conclusion, although rules and procedures are indispensable elements for a wellmanaged classroom, other factors also contribute to the students behavioral performance. Needly to say, the teachers power as a role model for good behavior is immeasurable. Furthermore, it is necessary for students to learn some social skills so that they can get along with each other better. In this way, a certain number of behavioral issues can be avoided. Finally, differentiated instruction is also an effective way to engage students and therefore a prevention against behavioral issues. As Robert Fulghum put it, All I really needed to know about kindergarten I learned from my students. For the past few months, my students have

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT BEYOND RULES AND PROCEDURES

taught me a lot about how to manage a class, and I believe they will continue to be my teacher.

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