Classroom Management

I was excited to go into my classroom the second time because I wanted to see how the students had progressed. The teacher explained that they were going to be able to start a behavior system. She explained that the behavior system would include them getting a sticker if they were good for the whole day and if they got five stickers for the week they would get a piece of candy. If they filled up the whole chart they would get a piece of candy and a pencil.

Since I have learned to try to stay away from giving rewards like that I did not agree with this behavior approach. I also do not think that it will be effective with kindergarteners. I feel that they need something that is more short term. I also feel that they need something that needs to be done at the time the misbehavior occurs. It does not seem right to wait till the end of the day to tell them they have been good. I feel that Kindergarteners need to be explained what they are doing wrong (or right) and why it is not (or is) right to behave that way. They also need to be shown the proper way to act in certain situations.

Even though this is what I will be learning in this class I have an idea about how my management would be different. I feel that kindergarteners need to be taught why certain behaviors are not appropriate. In my classroom I would have something that the students would have to do right when the behavior occurred and then I would try to take a minute to explain to them why they were wrong. I do not feel it is right to take away their recess, which I know a lot of schools do but I do not feel I have learned enough to figure out a classroom behavior management plan.

Teacher Interview

I interviewed my teacher very briefly because it is a very busy classroom. She explained that it is important but often hard to do in a Kindergarten classroom. This is her first year teacher all day Kindergarten so it may be easier to integrate than half day. She explained that science is integrated throughout her curriculum. Students are learning about the season of fall. In the classroom she is reading fall literature to the students, completing counting activities using leaves while discussing the different colors they are, and they are learning to spell their names using "apple" seeds. She suggested for my lesson to use the leaves that we find outside and graph them according to size and color. I hope to discuss it with her more in the future.

Unit Details

I mentioned that I am going to do my unit on animals. I am going to focus on animals found in Indiana. We will discuss shelter and why it is important for animals to survive. While studying this they will be able to recognize that animals live in many different places. I will show this through children’s literature as well as science resources. They will also learn that the animals eat plants and other animals for food. We will also discuss why they need water, food and air. One of the first grade science standards is to have students identify when stories give attribute to plants and animals, such as the ability to speak, that they really to do not have. This also ties in with a lang. art standard which is distinguishing fantasy from reality. I will do this by reading children’s literature. Writing will be integrated in the unit when students write a brief expository describing a certain animal.

Maletta-Chapter Three Reading Response

I have read and learned about the multiple intelligences before but chapter 3 extended my knowledge greatly. Before reading I only knew that it was good to teach using different multiple intelligences because not all students learn the same way. After reading this chapter I understand more about why multiple intelligences are important and why we teach with them in mind.

Everyone is born with all intelligences but a person tends to develop the ones that are valued by the culture in which they live. It was interesting to learn the multiple intelligences are different ways students solve problems and produce products and each operate form a different part of the brain. Each intelligence is independent for another. The paragraph that compares MI and modalities helped me understand the difference between the two. I now understand that the different between them is modalities is how students take in information (visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic) and MI is how they process information inside the brain in order to making meaning and then use it.

I have always based lessons on MI but I now understand why it is important. After reading this chapter I will not just include the MI in my classroom but I will also help the students to explore and develop each intelligence.

Unit Idea

I am student teaching in a first grade classroom. I have spoken with my cooperating teacher and she suggested plants or animals. After looking at the standards and the teacher handbook I think I have decided on animals. I want to include science, lang. arts and math into this unit as well as music and movement.

Reflection #1

Today was my first experience in a Kindergarten classroom. It was a very different experience for me. The students in the class are high risk students. It was interesting to me that there would be a kindergarten class with just high risk students in it. There are 21 students in the classroom. This is the first year of all day kindergarten. Today I spent most of the day observing and helping students.

I had a very busy and interesting day. I am not quite sure what to think of it. My teacher is nice and was very eager to include me into the classroom and the activities that they will be doing. It was very interesting to observe a Kindergarten classroom. I feel that it is very different from other grades. Kindergartners are just starting off and they have to be taught how to behave in a classroom setting. One thing that really surprised me was that there did not seem to be an assistant. I thought that every kindergarten room had at least one assistant. It is hard work dealing with 21 kindergarteners alone. Another thing I noticed was that there did not seem to be a behavior management plan. I felt that it was very hectic and noisy at some points in the day. At one point during the day I read them a story. It was very difficult because students were interrupting or not paying attention but I was not sure on how to discipline them because there did not seem to be a plan.

Today I learned how important it is to have a behavior plan. The students continued to act out because they were not disciplined for their actions. I believe I still have a lot to learn about classroom management and discipline but I believe that this class will challenge me to think about how I would handle different situations. This has also helped me realize how much I have grown in that I noticed something was missing and feel that something should be done about it.

Thematic Units

Thematic units are important to implement into the classroom. I have not experienced much with thematic units. I did, however, go to the workshop that included a teacher that taught his curriculum based on different themes. It was interesting to learn how he implemented each theme into the curriculum. Chapter four helped me understand the practical considerations to have when implementing thematic units. The considerations are: scheduling, resources, mandated curriculum, administrative support, parental involvement, and evaluation and assessment.

One thing that I found interesting while reading this was the techniques that were given to assist teachers in managing their classrooms when students were involved in a variety of activities. One suggestion that was given was to have the students’ record their group working together so that the teacher can listen to the tape to determine if the students need assistance. Developing a monitoring system in order to keep the teacher and their peers informed about their activity is a great way to keep track of student progress. Another suggestion that is given is to have a place where students can sign up for a conference with the teacher. I believe that this allows the students to take responsibility and decide when they are ready to speak with the teacher. These strategies allow students to become responsible for their learning.

I plan to implement thematic units into my classroom. I think that it provides an opportunity to include students’ interests into the curriculum. I believe that it will take a lot of planning; however, it will be very beneficial. I believe that the most difficult part will be to be sure that the standards are being addressed and met by the students. This chapter has helped me understand how to schedule my time to make sure the students are getting the most out of each unit. It has taught me how to use my resources to create a unit that will benefit my students. I have also learned how important it is to gain administrative and parental support if I wish to implement thematic units in the classroom.

Twenty Questions

1. I believe that students should behave in a positive way. An effective teacher teaches students how to behave and react positively in different situations. I feel that children learn to be more positive as they encounter different social situations.

2. I feel appropriate behavior is what is expected of the students. It means handling social interactions in a positive manner. Appropriate behavior would be helping other and being truthful. Misbehavior is behavior that is not appropriate in a certain situation. Two examples of this is annoying others and stealing from others.

3. Misbehavior is bad because it distracts other students learning. Misbehavior often takes time out of teaching because the student needs to be disciplined. The flow instruction is interrupted and often it is hard to get back on track.

4. There are many reasons why students misbehave. Often students copy certain behaviors from their peers. Sometimes children don’t know how to act different or the right way because they have not been taught how to react positively in certain situations. They also may have something happening at home that is causing them to misbehave. Students may also misbehave because they are confused in class and do not understand what is being taught.

5. A teacher should understand their student’s needs very well. They should understand their strengths and weaknesses to help them learn to the best of their ability. They should also learn what interests their students. If a teacher teaches in a way that the students can relate to then they will get more out of the experience.

6. “Positive” discipline is encouraging students as well as teaching them how to be positive. A teacher should relate to them personally and teach them to take responsibility for their actions. When a student is disciplined in a positive way they are told why they were disciplined and encouraged to think how they could handle the situation in a different way.

7. A teacher can help students behave properly in many different ways. One way is to create a positive learning environment in the classroom. When creating a positive learning environment they should build community and teach students how to behave appropriately in a social setting. They should also model appropriate behavior for the students to follow.

8. I feel that teaching methods do affect behavior. If a teacher does not teach the students they way they learn then students will become more disruptive. Students need hands on learning experiences. If they are taught just through lecturing they will not learn to the best of their ability and become disruptive.

9. I feel that physical environment affects behavior greatly. A classroom should be full of enrichment for students to learn. It should be organized with little clutter so the students are not distracted.

10. If there is not a positive psychosocial environment then I feel the students will not learn to deal with their emotions in a positive way. If a community is not built within the classroom then students will not be feel safe or comfortable sharing their feelings.

11. Communication plays a vital role in the classroom. Teachers need to communicate with their students to help them understand the difference between positive and negative behavior. Teacher also needs to communicate with their students to understand their needs so that they can be met.

12. A teacher can help students work productively by modeling positive social interaction. They should build students social skills before they put them in groups. Students need to first learn how to act in a social interaction before they are expected too work together productively. Once the students are in groups then students should be assigned a job that is explained clearly by the teacher.

13. Parents play a big role in discipline. If parents continue modeling positive behavior at home then children are more likely to pick it up. If they also discipline their children in a positive way then students will be able to learn from their misbehaviors positively.

14. Teacher can establish good relations with parents by communicating with them. They could send out a weekly newsletter to inform them what their child will be working on in the classroom. They could also call or send notes home to discuss certain behaviors or just to tell them something positive about their child.

15. Students need to feel safe and trust their teacher. If a student trusts their teacher they will be more likely to communicate and share their feelings. Teachers need to have good ethics and exemplify this in the classroom. They should treat each student the same and make ethical decisions when disciplining the students. If a teacher is charismatic then students are going to behave positively. The students are going to be more motivated when a teacher is excited and interested in what they are teaching.

16. A teacher should handle misbehavior positively. They should address the misbehavior as soon as it happens. The students should be given an explanation or guidance to understand why his behavior was wrong.

17. To handle a problem in the classroom a teacher should look at why the problem is occurring. If the problem is affecting the whole classroom then it should be addressed to the whole class and solved with the students help. The students need to learn how to solve problems in life and it will be a great learning expedience if they are taught how to solve problems positively.

18. I feel that there is conflict because there is a problem that is not being addressed. The teacher should find the problem that is causing the students to conflict and work on that with the students. Students should be involved in figuring out how to resolve the conflict.

19. You can make your class energetic and lively by showing charisma. Show the students that you are excited about the actively they are going to be doing. Explain to the students what is expected of them so that they are not afraid to show excitement.

20. Students need structure. They need to understand that they have to follow rules as well as why they have rules. The teacher should establish the classroom rules early on so that the students understand what is expected of them. It is important to have an organized strategy so that students know that it is not accepted when they do not follow the classroom rules.