ARCH and Classroom Management

Our class will create their ARCH Rules and I will include that once it is all agreed upon by them.

Behavior and Classroom Management using

The ARCH and Responsive Classroom

The ARCH. Our classroom builds community through the structure of an arch with acronyms for each letter. Architecturally strong, an arch is held together by the center keystone nestled in at the top. If this crumbles, all other stones fall. Our keystone is Commitment. Students learn about each stone in the structure: Accountability, Respect, Compassion, and Honesty. All of these stones require Commitment to stay up. See the ARCH Sheet on the back of this page. These character qualities are demonstrated, practiced, and learned every day until they become an integral part of our classroom and individual. Teaching, modeling, and reinforcing allows even the youngest learner to grasp these high level concepts. While students regularly uphold the ARCH through their actions, they often are unaware of this. I provide continual positive reinforcement and clarity of expectations by recognizing student’s COMMITMENT of individual stones and the entire ARCH.

Responsive Classroom: This is a research based teaching model that recognizes the importance of a social curriculum. How children learn is as important as what they learn. The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction. Our children, families and school community all work together to best meet each individual’s needs. Teaching the ARCH in conjunction with these concepts creates a strong foundation for real learning to happen. This starts with our hopes and dreams. To ensure success of these, together our class develops goals for the year as well as classroom rules and expectations. The class takes ownership of their classroom and rules within the framework of the ARCH. We follow rules, routines and procedures. My goal is to be positive, personal and proactive in my classroom management. If after much modeling and practice we have a breakdown, logical consequences that are RESPECTFUL, RELEVANT, and REALISTIC follow.

Consequences: I establish orderly, consistent, and predictable consequences that nurture empowerment, responsibility, self-respect, and self-control. Children need to know what to expect when a rule is broken. I use:

Teacher Language-redirecting, reinforcing, reminding;

“Your break It, You Fix It”-fixing broken objects, cleaning up messes, picking up dropped items, AND fixing broken feelings

Loss of Privilege- If an inappropriate behavior is displayed while using materials or participating in the activity, the priviledge of using the material or doing the activity will be taken away for that time. When the privilege is given back, so is trust given back to the child, which says “I believe in you.”

“Take a Break” Students will be asked to “take a break” if it becomes necessary to get back in control again or “cool down." This 1”-3” time away is for the “little things” BEFORE they have the chance to escalate into more disturbing behaviors. We all need to take a break at times, even voluntarily. In most cases the child decides when to join the group again. If there continues to be a problem with the student, they will have a sheet to fill out and after conferencing with the student, it will go home. This will need to be signed and returned back to school.

Buddy Room-This is another place outside of the classroom (i.e. another teacher’s room) that students may need to go to truly calm down in.

My goal to be positive, personal, and proactive in my classroom management through the use of the ARCH and Responsive classroom model. I hope to create a classroom community in which each child feels safe and is encouraged to do his or her best.