Domain II Resources

________________________________________

Article Title:  How to Develop Positive Classroom Management

The Edutopia article, "How to Develop Positive Classroom Management", offers eight educator tips on proactive discipline methods.  It makes the argument that “the secret to effective discipline is proactively building relationships, not reacting punitively to student misbehavior.”  Evantheia Schibsted, the author of the article, hopes to promote a dialog about what works in classroom management through this article, and provides an online comment board for ideas.  To begin the discussion, she offers these eight tips with details worth reading for each one.

1. Agree on Classroom Rules at the Beginning of the Year
2. Check in with Students at the Start of Class
3. Be Consistent About Expectations
4. Reinforce Appropriate Behavior
5. Maintain Student Dignity
6. Be Neutral, Not Accusatory
7. Look for the Cause
8. Establish a Fairness Committee

I agree wholeheartedly with this article and wanted to include it as a resource to remind us that, as teachers, we need to continue to meld our teaching of content with our relationship building in order to obtain each student’s greatest learning level.  Is it easy?  No.  Is it worth it?  I argue, yes, most definitely!  As our family units continue to break down in society, I believe this melding of content with relationships becomes even more critical.  Positive, healthy relationships are necessary for a child’s balanced development and too many of our students are already facing deficits in this area.  Do we want them to learn our content?  Of course.  Then we better learn to develop those relationships, too.

Article Link:  http://www.edutopia.org/classroom-management-relationships-strategies-tips

Schibsted, Evantheia. "How to Develop Positive Classroom Management." Edutopia. 13 May 2009. Web. 13 Sept. 2015. <http://www.edutopia.org/classroom-management-relationships-strategies-tips>.

Article Title:  Student-Teacher Relationships Can Be Built Five Minutes at a Time

This article offers a real life example of how Dan Ouellette, a former middle school teacher, implemented a plan on how to build relationships with his students spending just five minutes one-on-one with each student every two weeks.  During the first 15 minutes of each class, he asked his students to quietly read a book of their choice.  He then spent this reading time having an informal one-on-one conference with three of his students each day about what they were reading.  The entire class bought into this concept, and helped the teacher develop rules to make this quiet time successful.  The students gained reading practice and increased their fluency and knowledge, while the teacher spent time building relationships with his students, enabling him to give and gain respect.  It was a positive solution all around.

While this teacher’s particular example dealt with reading, I can see it applying to any content area.  My mentor teacher and I have a quick math warm-up over one concept several mornings a week.  I love spending that time with individual students, especially those who often are too afraid or embarrassed to ask for help.  Yet, when I see their pencil not moving and go to offer my help, it’s amazing how quickly they jump at the chance to understand.  They start taking responsibility for their learning.  And I gain the benefit of working with that student one-on-one, building a rapport while they learn math.

I am sharing this article to inspire all of us and bring encouragement, using a real world example of how we can apply a relationship building strategy which ultimately improves classroom management.

Article Link: http://www.edutopia.org/classroom-management-relationships-reading-time

Ouellette, Dan. "Student-Teacher Relationships Can Be Built Five Minutes at a Time." Edutopia. 13 May 2009. Web. 14 Sept. 2015. <http://www.edutopia.org/classroom-management-relationships-reading-time>.

________________________________________