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Weekly Investments: Classroom Management 

This weeks prompt is in one of my personal favorites: Classroom Management. And by that I mean one of the things that makes everyone in the cohort worry a tad.  

As an Agriscience Teacher we fill three roles at once in our classroom (Instructor, Mentor, Coach) and as a teacher in my opinion that is a little different than compared to other teachers.  Thinking back on my summer reading I remember that classroom management isn't something that works the same way for everyone.  Classroom management is in my opinion something that varies based upon the students in the classroom.  

Classroom-Instructor 

SAE - Mentor

FFA Leadership - Coach

Looking at classroom management I think the essential is to establish expectations in which the students buy into.  Looking around my cooperating classroom I noticed right away that Ms Romberger has classroom expectation posters on her one wall.  Here they explain not only her layout of class but also her expectations of students in the classroom. This is something that would have gone over on the first day and from there the students are expected to understand them as well.  

To me there are three essential posters that every classroom should have: Expectations of the Classroom / Lab, Classroom Outline, and Finally a Consequences Poster.  

Classroom / Lab Expectations

To me this is to outline what are the general expectations of the Class and the General expectations of the lab environment.  Examples that I will use are things like Be Engaged, Be Timely, Be Respectful, Be Safe. These ideas to me are important in the overall atmosphere of the classroom.  Now these are not the only rules of the class/lab/shop but these are the basics. I think it is also important that students buy in by creating another two or three general rules based upon each class. In fact I plan on having that as an activity in my first day lesson when I teach a new classroom.  These expectations are used to help students know and understand that this isn't an "Easy A" class but instead a class in which they are expected to actually do work for their grade.

Classroom Outline:

To me this is key. KIDS NEED ORDER IN THEIR LIVES. Also students learn best if there is repetition in the classroom. In my classroom I see the following outline:

• Arrive promptly and find your seat
• Bell Work / Warm Up Question
• Main Lesson
• Wrap Up / Ticket Out

This will be very similar to the lab/shop as well with the addition of a clean up section which will most likely take over the Wrap Up / Ticket Out portion. This is because the expectation of respect is not just of respect for each other but respect for our classroom / lab / shop space as well. I think it is critical that they environment students learn in is a clean one. 

Consequences:

So this one I would make dependent upon the school I would be a part of based upon their expectations of consequences so that my layout of discipline will work with the school policies. I though would still have an aspect of it where we would have a discussion about behavior after class if time allows.  Talking with people I like the idea of taking each aspect of discipline separately but fairly. As I firmly believe you don't know what's going on in a child's life an as a result they will be emotional at time. Obviously there need to be standards which I will uphold, but I also believe that you do not allow one bad day ruin the instructor/student relationship you have been working on all year with them.  

• Verbal Warning
• Student to Teacher Reflection (notification to parents)
• Office Referral

Other Posters In My Classroom

Some other posters that I Plan on Having In My Class are meant not just as classroom management but also procedural management tools as well.  For Example I will have a Electronics Usage Poster which is something I got from another Ag Teacher where is sets the expectations of electronic usage of the classroom as well.  For example some days it will be "We are going deep into the Web" and other days "Stone Age Tech Only". Another poster will be guides for some aspects of the classroom. For example I firmly believe in a standard for the lab notebooks and a specific format for hypothesis and conclusions that I will be looking for. So I plan on having an additional three posters in my laboratory environment which will have these up as well.  I think that this will be more helpful for students then hurtful. Also I like the idea of having classroom learning related posters up which rotate during the year. I plan on having a couple of different posters which rotate based upon the units we are learning to help get students into a mindset that in this class we are immersing ourselves with this curriculum.  

All in all I feel like I have some great plans in preparation of student teaching. The main thing is I will need to keep myself accountable and my students accountable to all of my lessons.  I'm excited for the next step in student teaching.

To Be Continued . . .