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                                          "Oh, do behave!"

(Seventh graders editing papers at The College School)

    I believe students learn the most in a classroom when they have the desire to learn and are able to do so.  In order for them to do this, they have to be able to pay attention first.  This concept is part of the big reason why classroom management is so important, one of which being, it gives children the opportunity to make the most of their schooldays.  If a child is being distracted from listening to the teacher because another student is distracting them, they won't have the opportunity to learn as much.  Jane Nelson, who believes in the positive discipline theory asks, "What good is academic learning if young people don't learn to become contributing members of society"  (Charney, 1991, p. 14)?  Therefore, I believe that teachers need to enforce classroom management in order for students to have the best opportunity to become contributing members of society.

    Through observation, I have realized that establishing classroom management is much more than a teacher putting forth a boundary line of what students can and can not do.  In fact, a teacher needs to establish a “widely overlapping network of positive interdependence”  (Zemelman, 2001, p. 274).  In order for a teacher to create this, they need to show a sense of trust and confidence in their students instead of acting like authoritarians.  “Once this richly interdependent community has been created, when the time comes to institute complex structures like reading workshops or hands-on science projects, students are able to adjust and make the transition”  (Zemelman 274).   I agree with Schmuck and Schmuck when they say that there are six ingredients that teachers can shape to create that initial climate.  When teachers nurture these six factors, they can create a   Therefore, when a teacher establishes a democratically harmonious environment in the classroom by promoting student’s freedom of choice, they will have a much easier time managing the classroom later on. 

    Assertive discipline conflicts with Schmuck and Schmuck's theory, founded on control rather than community.  The underlying message that this sort of discipline implies:  “You are not trustworthy”  (Zemelman, 1998, p. 274).  This message is the total opposite of what the 6 factors produces.  Instead of the teacher being the authoritarian of the classroom, these 6 factors consciously distribute acquaintance, power, responsibility among everyone, opening up every possible channel for communication-verbal, nonverbal, written, and artistic”  (Zemmelman, 1998, p. 274).  In establishing this, teachers can maintain better control of their classroom by keeping things interesting by not having themselves as the sole focus of the classroom community.  By showing kids they are just as important as everyone else, they will feel even more entitled to speak up in class and everyone will get more involved.  There’s always going to be more harmony and cooperation in the classroom when students are treated democratically.  Class will also be more constructive because students will speak their minds.  Therefore, more learning will be going on. 

  There are a few main concepts that the teacher would need to institute in their classroom in order to establish this interdependent community.  First of all, they would need to “emphasize the students choice”  (Charney, 1991, p. 117).  It is important that a student feels responsible for their own actions so they can understand the importance of making good decisions for themselves in the future.  For example, while in one first grade science class at Mullanphy Elementary, I observed one boy trying to share with the class while two other boys were talking amongst themselves.  The teacher addressed this issue by asking the class a question and allowing them to decide for themselves whether interrupting was right or wrong.  She said, “Now if Lee talks, we are all supposed to be listening to him, looking at him, right?”  Because she asked this in a form of a question, she was showing the kids that she believes in them enough to know that they will make “the right choice.”  She also implies “the way in which Lee should be treated,” so the students would understand right away, why she asked the question.  By doing this, teachers “consciously distribute, acquaintance, power, responsibility among everyone, opening up every possible channel of communication, verbal, nonverbal, written and artistic”  (Zemelman, 1998, p. 274)

It is also important that the teacher has an engaging lesson plan, so students don't have as much of a desire to misbehave.  One teacher declared, “Having a good lesson plan is 9/10ths of classroom management.”  At this first grade science class at Mullanphy Elementary, one of the first things I noticed, was, how engaged all of the children were in the teacher’s lesson plan.  They were talking about the five senses and that day, they were focusing in on tongues.  The teacher had a very engaging way of teaching them about their tongues.  After the children listened to the teacher read a book to them on the floor, they moved to the tables to finish talking about their lesson on tongues.  This transition could have been chaotic.  However, the teacher made them focus right away, by keying them in on what they would be learning about next.  She told them that they needed to sit and wait in their chairs while she passed out different selections of food for them to taste-test.  They all sat there waiting patiently, following her orders. Their good classroom behavior could have been greatly due to the teacher's in-class use of "the rewards method."

    There are definatley views that conflict with this theory though.  How is any kid going to learn, why, not to do something for a good motive instead of simply because they don’t want to be punished.  The method, “fear of punishment,” does nothing for a student compared to positive reinforcement.  Because students have been trained to function only under direct teacher oversight, “either kids won’t work independently or they’ll do it superficially, just enough to avoid sanctions”  (Zemalman, 1998, p. 274). With positive reinforcement, kids will want to set goals and behave.  Even though they might be behaving just for the reward at first, they will soon realize that paying attention so they can learn is their reward.  So, either way, positive reinforcement is the way to maintain classroom management.  Then again, if a teacher has already established a classroom with order, discipline, and productivity that “arise out of children’s engagement in work, not their fear of punishment and humiliation,” they won’t have to deal managing the classroom as much.  Instead, it will manage itself more or less  (Zemelman, 1998, p. 274).  Even though the Assertive Discipline system “sometimes does create quiet, orderly classrooms, it works by suppressing students, not by empowering them or transferring responsibility to them.  Once the system is loosened or passed to the next teacher, control and suppression must start over again, because kids have internalized nothing about monitoring themselves”  (Zemelman, 1998, p. 274).

    At Mallanphy, I also observed that, from the beginning of class, the students busied themselves trying to answer her questions while rationalizing how they felt and sharing their own stories, they didn’t have time to misbehave.  This teacher obviously had no problem “laying down the law” however.  For instance, there was a student that was talking while another student was trying to tell a story to the class.  The teacher asked the class; “Now if Lee talks, we all are supposed to be listening to him, looking at him.”  In her doing this, she is reinforcing the idea that it is respectful to listen to the other students when they are sharing something.  In other words, instead of the situation escalating towards the need for discipline, the teacher stopped the situation by making “the talker” quiet down after the first time.  This way of discipline was not only done in a loving way, it was done in a positive way as well.  The teacher didn’t directly address “the talker” when she asked the question, placing unnecessary stress on him.  Instead, she had the whole class make it obvious what the right thing to do was by making them answer, yes.  Therefore, this teacher will have an easier time managing her class in the future. 

In the words of Carry Brown, “giving them a voice is less discipline for you.”  Therefore, students will feel like the classroom is fairer because it is run democratically.  By setting the classroom environment up this way, students will feel less compelled to rebel against their teacher later on because they feel like they have already been heard, while getting their individual point across.  Many students will appreciate this democratic atmosphere, becoming more involved in classroom discussions by intensifying their focus on the topic at hand.  In that sense, there will be much less of a need to discipline students  (Carry Brown and his hands-on experience).

  I feel like conferences are also good ways for teachers to suggest possible disciplinary methods that parents could use to enforce discipline in their own homes, that would run streamline with the teacher's management techniques.  So, managing students similarly, in both their homes and classroom,  would give students the opportunity  to think more about learning and less about how they are supposed to behave in those two differing circumstances.  Therefore, students will already understand what is expected of them in terms of classroom management.  Not only that: “Teachers need ways to organize their classrooms so that structures such as conferencing work, because these are the only powerful and proven alternatives we have”  (Zemelman, 1998, p. 274).  Therefore, I believe it is important for teachers to convey to a child's parents, the importance of them receiving the same behavior management at home. 

When I visited an eighth grade Social Studies classroom at McCluer High School, I observed a classroom that was very poorly managed.  Not only did the teacher talk most of the time, he allowed the students to get away with too much.  He hadn’t placed any responsibility on the students to comply to his standards.  In order to maintain a standard, “you’ve got to have a clear line and you can’t stretch the line, otherwise, they’ll walk right over it”  (Carry Brown).  And that is exactly what Mr. Ernie’s class did.  He handed them a test and told them that they had 20 minutes to take it.  He said, if they talked during it, he would only give them 15 minutes.  They started talking and 15 minutes later the teacher didn’t take away the student’s tests.  Instead, after 20 minutes, he told them they had 5 more minutes to take the test.  When they were not done at that point, the teacher said, “you have until 2:10, then I don’t want it.”  Now, are these students really going to believe their teacher by then?  Of course not!  After all of the times the teacher kept going back on his word, don’t you think a student would still think they could turn their paper in after 2:10?  This teacher is obviously setting himself up to be shot down.  Will the students now mirror his behavior and call him a hypocrite so they can get away with acting like him in the classroom?  How can classroom Management is not maintained when teachers like Mr. Ernie neglect to enforce their own teaching behaviors.   

If teachers, like Mr. Ernie would reinforce students by making them turn in their tests on time, they could better reinforce classroom management.  By doing this, teachers are showing the students that they believe in them and that they think they have the potential to do so.  Schmuck and Schmuck say, "Implying that other's behaviors are unchangeable leaves little room for dialogue"  (Schmuck and Schmuck, 2001, p.94).  I believe they are saying, unless we have hope for another's behavior to improve, it will not.  In my eyes, everyone has the opportunity to improve their behavior.  Experience will bring us this opportunity, as we adjust our behavior in accordance to how we see fit.  This will depend on the way the idea of improving our behavior has been presented to us.  Hence, when a teacher focuses first on building an hopeful environment, classroom management will be easier to reinforce later on because students will have hope in themselves, causing them to want to learn.  When you actually give students a voice, there is nowhere near as much of a need to even have to reinforce classroom management.  When you do give kids a voice, they don’t feel so much like causing trouble because they appreciate their freedom of choice.  Therefore, by using this method, a teacher can manage their classroom much more affectively.      

(The art room for the kindergarten class at The College School)

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