MANAGEMENT MODEL 1

Management Model

Rachel Monteleone

Bridgewater College
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What does the ideal classroom look like? Many people picture the ideal classroom as one

in which the teacher stands in front of the classroom, all the students looking with excitement,

cooperating with their peers and teacher, and most importantly, actively learning. However, this

can be difficult to achieve with a poorly managed classroom. In order to maximize students

academic learning time in the classroom, teachers must follow a good management model.

Below I will talk about the management model that I believe to be effective in a fifth grade

classroom.

Having good behavior management is extremely important in order to create an effective

and positive environment in schools and classrooms today. As a teacher, it will be my

responsibility to create a positive environment in which students are able to learn and grow

physically, mentally, and emotionally in a constructive manner. It is impossible to accomplish

these things without a clear set of expectations, procedures, rules, and consequences for both

teacher and student behaviors. Clearly setting expectations and rules limit distractions and chaos

in the classroom, creating more time for student learning. Teaching, modeling, and practicing

procedures with students increases the amount of organization in the classroom. This paves the

way for smooth transitions and an effortlessly executed lesson with brisk and steady movement.

Out of the allocated time, this will decrease the amount of time spent on instruction and increase

the amount of academic learning time.

Even with good behavior management, I know that some misbehaviors will occur. When

this does happen, consequences created by the students and myself will be implemented in a

consistent manner. Unlike punishment, the consequences will be explain and justifiable through

the use of Linda Alberts four Rs: related, reasonable, respectfully, and reliable. This ensures

that the consequences are related to the misbehavior, reasonable and proportionate to the
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misbehavior, respectfully applied, and reliable as well as consistent. The consequences applied

will be used to fix the misbehavior and its effects as well as teach the students the correct

behavior. By doing this, the student might learn to choose the appropriate behavior next time an

opportunity for misbehavior arises. This should increase student independence and

responsibility, hopefully fixing the misbehavior long-term, creating a more positive and safe

environment for learning. Behavior management prevents misbehaviors leading to more positive

student learning. Without behavior management, teachers cannot teach and students cannot learn

(Charles & Senter, 2005).

Creating a positive and safe environment for students as well as creating a well-managed

classroom has a lot to do with the roles of the schools and teachers. It is difficult for a school to

function without collaboration and partnership with its staff. The teachers need support from the

schools and the schools need support from the teachers. For that reason I believe there should be

a school-wide system dealing with extreme student misbehaviors, consequences for those

behaviors, and conflict resolution programs similar to that explained in Loraine Amstutz and

Judy Mullets (2005) book, The Little Book of Restorative Discipline for Schools.

I feel that restorative discipline is best used as a schoolwide system. As a team, teachers

and students should confront misbehaviors and harms done in a way that strengthens

relationships and focuses on fixing the harm done through collaborative problem-solving. At the

beginning of the year, I will clearly state and explain expectations for the students, procedures

used, rules of the classroom, and consequences if those rules are broken. Of course, the

classroom rules must always collaborate with the school rules and I will expect students to

follow these to the best of their ability. I understand the importance and need to be consistent

enforcing the rules and enforcing the consequences. If a small problem or outburst occurs in the
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classroom, I plan to apply consequences that correlate with the wrong done and that teach and

encourage accountability. My goal is to keep my students in the classroom learning, not sitting

in an office. Students will be trained so that when a conflict arises between students and if they

are willing, they will go to a negotiation mat located in the back of the classroom to see if they

can resolve the problem on their own (Amstutz & Mullet, 2005).

If and when the problem has become an escalating or major problem that can not be

handled within the classroom, administration or other teachers should support and help in any

way until a solution can be reached. If the school is following a system such as restorative

discipline, the principal, vice principal, and teachers should be willing to support the students

involved in the conflict, the parents or caregivers of the students, and the teacher involved. If a

conference needs to take place with the students parents and with the students, then the school

should set up a time and place to make this happen, as well as provide a mediator if necessary. If

they agree, students and guardians are expected to come to these meetings to discuss and agree

on a way to fix the harm done. Once this is decided, the students will follow through with this

plan of action. The support of the school should continue until a solution is made and even after

that in order to meet and follow up with all parties involved. It will also be my job to follow up

with the students, making sure everything is running smoothly, and to integrate them back into

the classroom if necessary (Amstutz & Mullet, 2005).

In Discipline: Is it a Dirty Word?, Linda Albert (1995) states, Building a strong

partnership with students and parents is essential to maintain a positive discipline program that

works (p.45). I personally maintain Linda Alberts statement and belief. In order to create a

constructive environment for learning there has to be plenty of communication between the

teacher and the students families. The students families are the connections that bring home
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and school together. For that reason, I will be contacting the parents or caregivers of my

students constantly, starting with a letter sent home on the first day of school. In this letter, I

plan to emphasize that we are team members working towards the same goal, to meet the needs

of students and focus on the students learning. Parent and guardian phone calls, visits, and

conferences will be encouraged, but preferably scheduled beforehand. My contact information

and general availability will be provided to families through a written letter, email, and will be

posted on my class website. Student assignments, classroom rules, and a class calendar will be

posted on the website as well. At the beginning of the school year, I would like to talk to the

students caregiver in order to gain insight about the students behaviors, beliefs, culture, and

home-life that could potentially effect the students learning. Ideally, it would be nice to have

families being supportive and helpful after school as well as during school, such as helping

students with homework or spending time reading. However, I know that this is not always

possible and accommodations will have to be made. My goal is to keep in constant

communication and create a partnership with my students families in order to learn more about

my students and to help me to be the best teacher for them. Hopefully this will encourage

families to be a part and continue to be a part of the students schooling throughout the duration

of the school year.

In order to create a management style that is effective in my classroom, I first need to

reflect on the characteristics and needs that are important to me, such as organization and

structure. For me this includes a place for everything and everything in its place, such as

materials, students belongings, and my belongings. Because of this, I know I will have my

students clean and organize their desks once every two weeks. Not only will this make the

classroom appear more organized, but it will also help students to keep up with their assignments
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and belongings. Similarly, having a place for my belongings will help me keep up with student

assignments, preventing loss once they are turned in. Having a set place for materials such as

scissors, crayons, markers, pencils, etc. will allow students to know exactly where they can be

found at all times which should help lessons run more smoothly. Because I prefer organization

and structure in the classroom, I will teach a lot of procedures for students to follow so that they

will know what to do in certain situations. These procedures will be created for situations such

as entering the classroom, exiting the classroom, sharpening pencils, getting the attention of the

entire class, cleaning up, transitions, and turning in student assignments. I will introduce each

procedure to the students when each situation arises naturally; this way students are not

overwhelmed with learning all the procedures at once. I will model what the procedure looks

like and then have them practice doing it themselves a few times while I provide immediate

feedback. They will continue to practice the procedure for the next few weeks when the

situation presents itself or if I believe it is something we need to work on as a class.

In my classroom, student interaction, collaborative learning, and peer tutoring will be

encouraged. I want to do the best that I can for my students and I believe student interaction can

be beneficial in a number of ways. Student interaction can help and accommodate students on all

learning levels. If I am unable to explain the material in a way that is understandable, an

explanation from a peers perspective may get through in a way that makes sense to the student.

For students that need a challenge, it may help to teach or explain it to other students through

student interaction such as peer tutoring or even parts of group work. In collaborative learning,

everyone has a job and is actively learning. Through this process, students are helping each

other learn and working together towards an end goal, which can also teach social skills and

cooperation through the teamwork. Because I will have a lot of student interaction in my
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classroom, I know the noise level may be above average. This is expected and acceptable as

long as students are actually working on the assigned tasks. This may require intense monitoring

of the students during group work. Learning is not always a quiet thing in which students must

sit and listen to me lecture, though this method will be used in my classroom as well. I believe

there is a time for noise and a time for quiet and I cannot wait to hear my students learning.

When developing a set of classroom rules and guidelines, I will follow a method similar

to that mentioned in Linda Alberts cooperative discipline theory. My classroom rules will be

called the classroom code for excellence because, as Albert stresses, a code of conduct specifies

a broader range of behaviors instead of rules that the teacher controls, appealing more to the

students. On the first day of school sometime before lunch, we will develop the classroom code

for excellence as a class. Through this process, we will identify and discuss appropriate and

inappropriate behaviors. The goal is to get students thinking about their behavioral expectations

for themselves, classmates, and myself. I am not excluded from the classroom code of conduct.

The code of conduct will encourage accountability. Because the code was developed by the

students, they will feel the listed behaviors are reasonable and fair (Charles & Senter, 2005).

Starting off, I will announce to the class that we will be creating a classroom code for

excellence, explaining that it is a list of behaviors that we want to live by in this classroom. The

next thing I will do is ask students to silently think to themselves about how they think the

classroom should look. After about a minute, I will ask a few students to share their thoughts.

Then I will tell the students how I think the room should look; students should always be

prepared and working as a team to learn and create the best environment. I will then merge the

two visions which are usually similar.

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In order to achieve this vision, as a class we will identify appropriate and inappropriate

behaviors. Initially, I will provide them with a list of five broad principles: Be Respectful of

Everyone and Everything, Be Prompt and Prepared, Be Responsible, Listen While Others Are

Speaking, and Work as a Team. There will be five posters placed before the class where

everyone can see. Each poster will have one of the five principles written at the top. Students

will then be asked what they think are appropriate behaviors for each principle. As they give

suggestions, I will right them down on the posters as long as they are reasonable. The list may

be lengthy, but that is okay. Because they are fifth graders and have been in school for a number

of year, I suspect they will state be kind, follow directions, dont talk while others are talking,

raise your hand if you have something to share or a question, come to class on time, bring all of

the needed materials for class, and be helpful to those around you. If any important behaviors

are neglected, such as walking in the classroom and hallways, I will suggest them and ask the

class if they think these are appropriate. Once we all agree, I will write them on the posters as

well (Charles & Senter, 2005).

After I have written the suggested appropriate behaviors, we will begin to discuss

inappropriate behaviors for each of the five principles. The inappropriate behaviors will not be

written on the posters. I just want students to think about behaviors that would not be

acceptable. For this category they might state pushing people, throwing things, talking when

someone else is talking, not turning in assignments, coming to class late, and disturbing others as

inappropriate behaviors. These five posters will be displayed in the classroom for everyone to

see and they will remain there throughout the school year. The principles as well as my contact

information will be provided through a letter for the caregivers of students making sure they see

the classroom code of excellence and giving them a chance to make suggestions or give
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feedback. Two of the same letter will be sent home with the child. One for the caregiver to keep

and one for students to bring back signed (Charles & Senter, 2005).

It is not enough just to write down appropriate behaviors and expect my students to

follow them. For this reason, as a class we will clarify the five principles which includes

modeling and practicing the appropriate behaviors. For instance for the first principle, Be

Respectful, I could have a student drop their pencil and then I could have another student pick it

up and return it to its original owner. I could also have the class practice being polite by saying

please and thank you to others. We would go through similar situations for each of the

principles. It is important to remember that while they are practicing, I should be providing

feedback about the behaviors being demonstrated. It might also be a good opportunity to bring

up new procedures as well. For example, for turning in assignments on time, I could have

students practice taking an assignment to the completed assignment box. It is important that

these principles and behaviors are clear and understood because students will be constantly

reminded of them and they will be rehearsed once a week throughout the year as a refresher for

appropriate behaviors in our classroom, hopefully preventing misbehaviors (Charles & Senter,

2005).

Linda Albert believes to prevent inappropriate behaviors from occurring, teachers need to

meet the needs of their students through encouragement. With this in mind, I plan to prevent

misbehaviors in my classroom by implementing Linda Alberts three Cs of encouragement:

connect, capable, and contribute (Charles & Senter, 2005).

In order to encourage students to make the best choices, I am going to have to make them

feel as if they belong in the classroom by helping students develop positive relationships with

those around them. I can accomplish this by using Linda Alberts five As: acceptance,
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attention, appreciation, affirmation, and affection. Therefore, I will recognize student birthdays,

address and greet students by name, offer written and verbal praise about the students

accomplishments and good behaviors, and make sure the students knows I like and accept them

no matter what theyve done or where theyve come from (Charles & Senter, 2005).

It is also important to make my students feel like achievers. To make my students feel

capable, I will make sure they know it is okay to make mistakes. While grading student work if

applicable, I will try to focus on one or two mistakes at a time, that way students do not feel

overwhelmed. In my classroom, students will also make individual I-can cans in which students

will place strips of paper with accomplishments, such as completed assignments, books read, and

skills they have learned. I will never tell a student that an assignment that they are having

trouble with is easy. The goal is to raise the students confidence, not make them feel

incompetent or unable. (Charles & Senter, 2005).

Having students contribute to the classroom is very important, giving students a reason to

improve and giving school a purpose. Student will have opportunities to help others in the

classroom through cooperative learning and peer tutoring. I will also provide classroom duties,

such as feeding the class pet, leading the line, erasing the board, and passing out papers.

Classroom duties will be assigned to students by me and will alternate once a week. I will also

try to take student requests when rearranging the room every two weeks. Hopefully by doing

these things, my students will feel as if they have an influence in our classroom (Charles &

Senter, 2005).

Circle time, similar to that of Judy Mullet and Lorraine Amstutzs (2005) circle

processes, will also be scheduled in the classroom at least once a week. During circle time,

students will physically form a circle on the floor and a ball or toy will be passed around as a
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talking piece. Whoever is holding the talking piece is the only person allowed to talk. In circle

time, a student may talk about something good happening to them, a problem they are having

with school or at home, or they can pass the talking piece not saying anything at all. With this

students create a connectedness by communicating, sharing experiences, and values. The goal of

this process is to divert potential problems in the classroom and to create a more positive

environment.

I know misbehaviors are going to occur in my classroom and will need to be handled in

an appropriate manner. However, there are many different types of misbehaviors, such as minor

problems, student conflicts, and major problems, which will all be handled in different ways.

Minor problems would consist of behaviors that do not follow the classroom code of

conduct, such as talking when asked not to or throwing objects in class. I believe the best way to

respond to minor misbehaviors is with constructive assertiveness. With constructive

assertiveness I will state the misbehavior clearly, ask how the behavior conflicts with the code of

conduct, explain why it is a problem, and then insisting on the appropriate behavior. This may

mean removing an item from the students possession. It is important not to be hostile toward

my students, but on the other hand there will be no pleading with them. My tone of voice must

be firm and confident as well as my body language because I know intervening is the right

decision. In this process, I must let the student know that the misbehavior is taking away from

their learning and possibly others learning as well. The main reason students are in my class is

to learn and if something is preventing that, it needs to be stopped. By explaining the effects of

the misbehavior students will understand why it is considered inappropriate and how it effects

their learning. Asking the student how the behavior conflicts with the classroom code of conduct
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causes them to evaluate their actions and maybe next time they will choose the appropriate

behavior.

When student conflict arises, I will use Judy Mullets negotiation mat for conflict

resolution. The mat will be available in the back of the classroom at any time except during

whole group instruction. Prior to unsupervised student use, the class will need to be trained on

how to use it. Twenty minutes a week, I will provide the class with fake scenarios which they

will use to practice going through the steps of negotiation with the mat, during which I will be

providing feedback. After they have been properly trained, they will voluntarily use the mat to

solve their problems with four steps. Using these steps each student will state how they feel and

why, cooperatively come up with at least three ideas to help make the situation better, choose

and agree on one idea, and finally shake hands while saying a gratitude statement. Through

negotiation my students will learn empathy, how to listen to one another, collaborate, and solve

problems on their own which are very useful skills to have. If the problem is too much for the

students to handle on their own, I will have to mediate during the process.

However, some conflicts and misbehaviors are too big for the negotiation mat. When a

major problem occurs or a minor problem occurs repeatedly, I believe it is best to use Linda

Alberts Six-D conflict resolution plan which is similar to that of Amstutz and Mullets

restorative discipline. The six Ds stand for define the problem objectively, declare the need,

describe the feelings experienced by both sides, discuss possible solutions, decide on a plan, and

determine the plans effectiveness. Unlike the negotiation mat, this process should take place in

a private conference with the victim, the victimizer, and myself. But, there may be some cases in

which the students will need to be separated and I will have meet with them individually. There

might also be cases only involving one student. These conferences may be scheduled before or
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after school, depending on the situation. Through the Six-D conflict resolution plan, students

will learn accountability and responsibility by listening and responding to the need of others,

personal evaluations, and cooperatively working with me or the other student to fix the wrong

done. The last step in the process is to determine the plans effectiveness. This mean the student

or students and I will meet to make sure the solution and plan implemented is working and

everything is going smoothly. This may include integrating the student or students back into the

classroom as a valued member. My goal in using the Six-D conflict resolution plan is to create a

healthier, connected, and caring classroom (Charles & Senter, 2005).

The management model used in my classroom will be a combination between Linda

Alberts cooperative discipline theory and Lorraine Amstutz and Judy Mullets restorative

discipline theory. Through the use of Alberts three Cs, capable, connect, and contribute, I will

promote positive behavior by encouraging students and influencing good decision making. If

conflict arises, big or small, I will use constructive assertiveness, the negotiation mat, and the

Six-D conflict resolution plan to correct and fix the misbehavior and harm done creating a more

positive classroom overall. However, it is not all about strategies that I use. It is about knowing

the students needs as well as my own and being able to meet these need through classroom

management. I believe that is what will lead to the ideal classroom in which everyone is actively

and cooperatively learning.

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References

Albert, L. (1995). Discipline: Is it a dirty word?. Working Mother and Family, 43-46. Retrieved

from https://www2.bc.edu/~peck/CooperativeDisciplineArticle.pdf

Amstutz, L.S., & Mullet, J.H. (2005). The little book of restorative discipline for schools.

Intercourse, PA: Good Books.

Charles, C. M., & Senter, G. W. (2005). Building classroom discipline. Boston, MA: Pearson.

Retrieved from http://faculty.washington.edu/cadavis1/503%20Readings/AlbertChapter.

pdf