E-Portfolio (0332955) - Classroom Management

According to my mentor, one of the hardest things about teaching is having effective classroom management. With new and different types of students entering her classroom, it's difficult to reuse the same strategies over and over again because not all students are the same. What worked with the students in previous years, might not necessarily work for students in the current year. Classroom management needs a lot of research and I've learned that the best way to see if your management strategies work is through trial and error.

Importance of Effective Classroom Management

An effective classroom management sets the foundation of learning in your classroom. Lack of a proper classroom management can lead to a disorderly classroom filled with chaos; it can prohibit the development of positive relations with members of the classroom and can lead to a decrease of students' academic performance (Marzano, 2003). There are several things you need to keep in mind when creating your own classroom management. They include: constant engagement of student activities and a behavior system

Additional Learning Materials

One way to have effective classroom management is to constantly provide additional learning opportunities for students to do, a "back-up plan" of sorts. In addition to the primary learning activity, teachers can offer students a secondary learning activity, in case they finish their work early. The range of students' ability in the classroom varies, so, when given a task, the time it takes for them to complete it can also vary. One of the things I noticed in the classroom is that students with an expertise in the given subject, tend to finish earlier than those who do not. When they finish early, they physically display they're bored and begin to dawdle with other things. This can also affect other students; other students, who don't have the same ability, would try to finish their work early or also exhibit similar traits. It's important to give students extra learning activities as it can keep help them stay productive and keep their focus on the content of the class.

Behavior Management

Another way to have effective classroom management, is to have effective behavior management. My mentor informed me that it was much difficult to have behavior management during distance learning because she wasn't with them. Instead, she put the responsibility towards the students' caretakers because only they have the ability to properly manage their children's behavior during class. During one of our small groups, one of the student went missing. His camera was on, but he wasn't there. Later on, his sister came in and informed the teacher that he went off to ride his scooter. My mentor was unable to physically bring him back, so my mentor had no choice but to let him go. When I asked my mentor how she will respond to this situation, she merely stated that she will have to notify his parents. This way of managing the students' behavior was definitely effective, as the student no longer left the classroom during their lessons. Since parents are made aware, then they can begin to understand their students learning needs; for that particular student, his father now occasionally checks up on him to ensure he is focused in class. To reward his behavior, my mentor would often commend him on his ability to focus in task, and overtime I realized that he was able to focus in class without his father hovering over him. With behavior management, I learned that it's one of the hardest things to control because we can't restrict the students because they have their own minds, and sooner or later they'll begin to act on their impulse. That's why, we must create a system where students make the correct choices. My mentor often incorporates this with her student; oftentimes she will talk to the student in a way that makes students choose to behave well. She refers to this as, "mental manipulation".

Disruptive Behaviors

Disruptive behavior is when a student acts in class in a way that interrupts learning for both the student and their peers. Disruptive behavior can be seen to be a normal part of a child’s development because as children grow up, they model behaviors learned from family members, friends and even strangers (Bosah & Ejesi, 2016). When they bring disruptive behaviors into the classroom it is important that teachers address it firsthand or else it can impede teaching and learning. Some disruptive behaviors I noticed during my placement can be categorized into three different types: talking in class, excessive noise and coming in late.

Talking In Class

The most common occurring disruptive behavior during my placement was talking in class. While my mentor was teaching the kids a lesson, sometimes a couple of kids will unmute their microphone and interject my mentor’s teaching with a comment that can either be minor or unrelated. When this type of behavior occurred my mentor would usually just listen to their comments and proceed to continue teaching. It is only when they do it a numerous amount of time does my mentor address the behavior with the student. First, she would let the student know that they should not be interrupting the teacher while she’s teaching. If it happens again, she would give them an official warning and say, “That’s one.” If it happens three times, then she would email the parent to let them know of their child’s misbehavior and to help encourage them to stop.

Excessive Noise

Another occurring disruptive behavior during my placement was excessive noise. Normally, excessive noise wouldn’t pose a problem in the classroom as these noises can be contained and are generally unheard of due to the large size of the classroom, but during distance learning it was quite noticeable. During our small group instruction all students were encouraged to unmute their microphones. This is to encourage students to speak and allow them to exchange their ideas with the teachers much more fluidly. Oftentimes, this can backfire as noises from other students’ houses can be heard. Humming from the student, rustling of materials, and their family members activities are all projected through the screen. This type of misbehavior is quite unusual because if teaching was conducted in the classroom, these excessive noises would not pose a problem. Therefore, my mentor would not reprimand the student. She would simply remind students that their microphone is on and to be mindful of their noises with the other students.

Coming In Late

When students come into the classroom late, I noticed that there are two different reasons. The first reason (and the most common one) is that students have trouble entering the google meet due to connectivity issues or an error with their Google account. The second reason is simply because they were busy with their work. This occurred mostly after their reading lesson because students were being avid readers and simply forgot they had another session. The reason why this behavior is disruptive is because it disrupts the flow of teaching. Since the student is late, they miss the first part of the instruction and asks the teacher, “What’s happening?”. This stops the teacher from teaching and delays the instruction because the teacher would have to start the lesson all over again (if the student was only a couple minutes late) or give a speedy instruction to the student who was late. During in-classroom teaching, this disruptive behavior does not occur often because they have a teacher that can call out to them to begin the next lesson as well as a bell. At home, the students only have their parents and in a household where there are multiple children, it can be difficult for parents to manage all of their children. I noticed that the students who do come in late were those with two working parents and those with many siblings.

When dealing with disruptive behaviors, I learned the best way to combat this is to firmly deal with them; there should be no leeway and that everybody should be dealt the same way so each student can see the consequences are. One thing I noticed is that my mentor never made clear to students the consequences for not following rules. I have mixed feelings about this because establishing consequences can inform students of the expectations, but at the same time you don't want to scare the students. I think in the future, before we begin the school year I would definitely talk to the students about what they believe is the appropriate consequence when dealing with disruptive behavior so they can be more understanding and not be disruptive.

Rules and Routines

Rules and routines are important to have in the classroom because it puts a system in place for effective teaching and learning. Rules (depending on what they include) are statements presented to either encourage or discourage behaviors, while routines are procedures to encourage favourable behaviors. The combination of both rules and routines is one aspect of classroom management that ensures a classroom can run as smoothly as possible (NEA, 2020). Rules and routines should be established as soon as possible. Introducing rules and routines in the beginning of the school year will give students a framework as to how to behave in the classroom as well as give them time to adjust to their new learning environment (Alim, 2020). Therefore, when students begin to deviate from what is expected, they can be reminded of the classroom’s expectations. It also lessens the time taken away from teaching to address behavioral issues or gathering materials so teachers can have more time to teach.

During my placement, class was held online. Our first student-contact was during the school open house. It was there that my mentor had established the rules from the get-go. She explicitly stated the rules in front of the students:

“Always mute your microphone”
“Raise your hand if you have a question (or statement)”
“Turn on your camera”

She stated these rules again on our official first day of school and continued to do so for the rest of the week. Formally, she never brought up these rules again unless she needed to informally address them when a student repeatedly ignores the rule.

As for the routines, it was explicitly stated every single day. Everyday she would repeat the same phrases:

“Find your bookbags and take out three books”
“Grab your writing folder”

By the first week, my students had already mastered retrieving their folders, bookbags or general materials. I believe the routines were much easier to maintain than the rules because it was done every single day. They were able to listen to their teacher’s instruction and even witnessed other students do the same thing.

One of the most important things I learned about rules and routines is that when students come back from a long weekend or a day off from school, students can often forget the rules. A large part of this is because students are excited to share what they did with their teacher. As soon as students seen an opening, they will ignore any rules set in place to act on their impulse. I learned that a way to navigate this is to always display the rules when students come back from a long weekend and give students the opportunity to quickly share before class starts.

Reflection