Thursday, November 5, 2015
Discipline and classroom management
For a couple weeks now I have been reading Harry Wongs book: How To Be An Effective Teacher The First Days Of School. Before even reading this book I had a different out take on discipline and classroom management. I use to believe that classroom management was how you kept your kids on track and quiet. As for discipline I thought it was a way of fixing behavioral issues. I have come to see that this is not entirely true. I believe classroom management should be how effectively your classroom runs with or without a teacher. For discipline I think that this means establishing rules/guidelines that must be followed. If these rules are not followed then you may use discipline to help ensure these rules are followed. I remember being a young girl how the classroom management was go to class and get to work don't slack off or you will go to the principles office. Last year when I was working with the first graders their classroom management and discipline was way different. They were expected to follow the rules/guidelines but now they had little faces describing how their behavior made the teacher feel. If you had a lot of frowns at the end of the day it was taken up with the teacher and parents. The same goes for this year with my Pre-K kids. The teacher has them move a picture of themselves to a different colored face. As for discipline I think the principle doesn't really get involved unless it is a big problem or the students behavior is not improving. For example, last week some students were arguing with one another and we asked them to try and get along. When that didn't work we pulled them aside and explained the consequences of not following the rules. This of course was no help they continued. So in the end we had another teacher take them to her classroom and she disciplined them. In the future I don't know how I'm going to react to any of these things. I am so use to following my mentors rules that I don't know how I would handle these types of situations. I guess I would just try my hardest to reinforce positive behavior since children love to be recognized for great behavior.
