My CT’s Classroom Management

I kind of wrote about this in my last blog for 517, but I’ll touch up on some of the things I have seen in my CT’s practices. It said in the article that classrooms should be inclusive and accepting, promoting membership and community. I agree with my discussion group member Liz’s comment on her blog…. “Duh!” This is pretty obvious, if any teacher feels differently they should not be teaching. However, actions speak louder than words and you can talk all day long about inclusive classrooms but if you don’t implement practices that effectively promote inclusion and acceptance, your words mean nothing.

My CT’s classroom management practices really do promote an environment that values every child. She implements practices that include everyone and she teaches students to care about each other, which makes the classroom a place where conflicts are minimized. Cooperation and friendship are what drives the classroom. We have a Kindness Chain, where the students share and write down instances where a classmate showed kindness to someone. The act of kindness is written on a slip of paper and stapled into a circle (like a chain link) and the chain grows everyday. Over time the classroom has become decorated with this chain. The students can look at it and remember times when they showed kindness or someone showed kindness to them. It’s pretty cool and the stories shared by the students are moving.

My CT also stops from time to time to have family meetings, where the class holds a discussion on an issue that she has noticed or something that needs to be improved. For example, my CT had to hold a discussion about 4 Square at recess. The students consistently argue over rules and points and are sometimes driven to tears because of the frustration of the game. My CT talked about rules and working together and also brushing things off when you don’t win a point and have to go to the back of the line. The students came up with a plan to make 4 Square at recess a more positive and cooperative experience. They proposed whole class 4 Square… I guess it should be called 24 Square! One student was put in charge of Googling official rules for the game, which the class will adhere to. This type of working together and including everyone, but also holding everyone accountable and responsible for their role in the class is really what effective classroom management is all about. My CT held a discussion where rules, responsibilities and rationales behind the rules were discussed. The students responded very positively to the “family meeting” and I think this experience really shows how conflicts or problems should be dealt with.

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