Classroom Management - Reflection

Classroom management practises should always be done with dignity, fairness, equality and respect for one another (Department of Basic Education, 2012)

Welcome to my blog about my classroom management journey. I hope you enjoy the read and please feel free to comment.

"Effective teachers have a classroom management plan with all the procedures necessary for a classroom to run consistently and smooth for learning to take place." – Harry and Rosemary Wong

Classroom Management Tool

My classroom management tool was a sticker rewards chart. The sticker chart appealed to me because it was a tool that allowed learners to see where they have gone wrong, where they are succeeding and how to intrinsically develop themselves. Classroom management tools should not be a tool to highlight negativity in a child, but to show them their progress and how they are succeeding (Logue, 2019). The rewards chart correlated with the 'hand-in' drawers. The objective of the hand-in drawers was to maintain learner's self-regulation in their learning tasks. Learners focused on their tasks and handed their tasks into drawers that correlated to how they felt about the task. From this, I knew where more feedback was required than usual. With the two tools together, it aimed to keep learners focused on their learning and moving away from class disruptions.

Classroom Management Strategy

My classroom strategy was an action cycle that I had developed correlating to the Classroom Management School Safety Framework Document (Department of Basic Education, 2012). It was a cycle of steps that needed to be implemented into every lesson and effectively benefited classroom discipline. The cycle made the lessons incredibly structured which gave the learners routine and indirectly influenced their behaviour positively.

Effectiveness of the discipline approaches

The classroom management strategy was incredibly successful without any vulnerabilities. It gave a lot of structure to the learners which positively impacted their discipline. The sticker chart was very effective because after it was implemented I noticed a drastic, positive change in learner behaviour. Learners that I had been experiencing difficulties with succeeded when the charts were implemented. They started to focus and work hard because they had the initiative to work towards something. They had guidelines on how to earn positive stickers and negative stickers. The only vulnerability I had experienced with the sticker chart is some of the learners started to put on a facade. They were being 'over-friendly' to peers in an effort to be rewarded a sticker which works against the statement of everyone having a right to dignity in the classroom (Department of Basic Education, 2012). In future, I would implement the sticker chart for a much longer period of time. The chart was only implemented in "block two" of teaching experience which meant the chart was very focused on because it was new. Over time, however, learners would eventually forget about the chart and the teacher would be able to award stickers for more natural behaviours.

The objective of the charts and strategies was to build a culture of humanity and responsibility within the schools (Department of Basic Education, 2012). After spending time with the classes and analysing them carefully I noticed learners were often nasty to each other and had dominating personalities. I wanted to teach them about respecting one another (ubuntu) and the reward chart, for me, was an incentive to get them practising the positive behaviour towards one another until it became natural (Logue, 2019). As mentioned, the timing was incorrect and for some learners they became disingenuous.