My goal as a teacher is to foster a classroom environment where students are focused, are in a state of flow as often as possible, and where all students feel respected and comfortable to be themselves. Rules and procedures become the skeleton of body of this environment, bringing about the actions, behaviors and attitudes which support the body, and eliminating the actions, behaviors and attitudes which don’t – which make the body ill, just to carry the analogy further. Ideally, those rules and procedures will be so effectively taught, applied and reinforced that over time, the students themselves would be able to operate the classroom without me – they would know how to conduct themselves and treat each other in such a way that I become almost obsolete as a “policer” of actions, behaviors and attitudes. The way to reach this point, I believe, is to be in a state of constant application and reinforcement of rules and procedures, in such a way that students fully internalize them and assume them almost as second nature.
Creating that environment will mean actively and repeatedly reinforcing positive behavior, and stopping/redirecting behavior that is not in alignment with our goals. To help visualize what both of those kinds of teacher actions will look like – and give myself an at-the-ready battery of strategies I can pull from – I’ve created the flowchart here in coggle. The chart contains examples of actions I want to take in the face of both aligned and misaligned behaviors and actions on the part of students. It also underscores the need for effectively initially introducing and continuously reinforcing rules and procedures in the classroom such that students are invested in the vision of our desired classroom environment that these rules and behaviors could create. By helping students visualize what they WANT our classroom to be – and helping them get in touch with that vision again and again throughout the year – students will choose to self-regulate, and will also move towards regulating each other, both actively and also simply by serving as strong examples through their own choices.
Together with students, I hope to create an environment where all members (students and the teacher alike) feel on-the-hook for maintaining an effective culture, and where everyone truly believes they can be themselves in the company of others as they collectively pursue their learning goals.
References:
- Marzano, R. J. (2010). The art and science of teaching: a comprehensive framework for effective instruction. Alexandria, Va: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
- Teaching Quotes & Classroom Rules. (2015, September 13). Retrieved December 09, 2017, from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/309411436877739404/
trees do bend 