Free «Classroom Management and Discipline» Essay

Classroom management refers to the ability of teachers to create and maintain effective learning environment that encourages social interaction, self-motivation and encourages learning. The methods of learning have changed over the years. Teachers have been building up learning communities as they are seen to be more effective. They are developed to help students feel safe, valued and respected.

The five characteristics of learning communities are; security, open communication, mutual linking, shared goals and objectives, connectedness and trust. Security is an important characteristic for the student’s development that ensures no distraction during the learning process. The learning communities enable open communication among students. The students share freely their ideas with others in more open and cohesive environment. In fact, students have more opportunities to work together in situations where there are supportive classroom communities. This ensures the development of good relationships and friendships amongst students. The social bond between students is developed and they can freely share their goals and objectives in a class. Students also develop a sense of belonging to a community, which plays a vital role in their self-development. This relationship improves very much students’ self–confidence and self-assurance.

I would like to create a learning community where students are able to learn freely, feel secure and are able to create mutual relationship amongst them. This learning community will ensure that students are social and can share their problems freely. The cohesive community will ensure that students’ emotions are controlled; they feel appreciated and motivated to achieve their goals. Dividing students into groups will encourage them even more to work together. They will be provided with tasks which will make them work together and then compare their results with other groups. Also there will be motivational talks and talent shows.

There are seven areas of classroom responsibility which a classroom manager should handle. They include; the philosophical model of classroom management and discipline, organization of the physical environment, students’ behavior management, and creation of respectful and supportive learning environment, management and facilitating instructions. However, promotion of classroom safety and wellness as well as interaction with colleagues and families are also important to achieve classroom objectives.

The areas of responsibilities are interdependent in various ways. The selecting of a philosophical model in a classroom is interdependent with the area of organizing physical environment. The two areas are designed to prepare a student for a comfortable learning process. Managing students’ behavior is related with creating a respectful and successful learning environment. When students’ behavior is well managed there is respect and hence learning communities are effective. The promotion of classroom safety and wellness is interdependent to managing student behavior. When the behavior is well-managed the safety of all students is safeguarded.

Students’ misbehavior can be the result of factors that are not directly related to the school environment. For example, student’s health conditions, poor diet, neurological problems or taking certain medications. These all can affect student’s performance and behavior in the classroom. Such students will find it hard to follow instructions, be attentive and alert during classes. Teachers can do little to eliminate such factors but they can help students to cope with the situation. A lot of diligence and care is required to handle difficult situations with such students so that they don’t feel ignored. Such students require a lot of support not only from their teachers but also from other students. Society and family conditions may influence students’ behavior as well.

Students are likely to behave in a way they see in the society they are raised in. Sometimes parents rarely keep track of their children’s behavior and acts or at times supervision is inadequate. Such factors may cause moral decay and promote bad behavior among kids. It’s important for teachers to understand all these causes because they might try to eliminate such bad behavior while the true cause remains unsolved. Involving parents into helping students in their studies helps to tackle almost all issues concerning behavior problems. Physical environment at home and school may also contribute to behavior problems. Students are likely not to concentrate if the surrounding area is noisy or not appealing for learning. This will also be the case if the student comes from a noisy and congested home environment.

Teachers can work with students to prevent misbehavior through the use of several principles. One of this is through understanding your student’s needs and how to meet them. This involves encouraging dialogue so that you get to know what the students like and dislike, what motivates them, their desires and wishes etc. Being open to each other improves the relationship between teachers and students and raises their confidence towards tackling issues in life. The teacher learns a lot about the students and this puts him or her in a good position to understand the causes of behavior changes.. Another principle involves knowing what causes misbehavior and ways of dealing with those causes. Not all measures are effective in dealing with misbehavior, knowing which measures to apply to a given cause improves cohesion between the students and teachers. In a case when students’ mistakes are corrected, they don’t get upset but work towards rectifying their behavior.

The teachers should take actions to establish cooperative and responsible classroom environment that gives students an opportunity to interact, share their views and talk about their feelings. An environment where all students feel that they are responsible for each other and should work together to support and encourage each other to do what is right.