Running head: CLASSROOM AND BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT 1

Classroom and Behavior Management

Jaclyn Cordero

Regent University

In partial fulfillment of UED 495 Field Experience ePortfolio, Spring 2018

CLASSROOM AND BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT 2

Introduction

For any teacher to be an effective teacher, she must first tackle the issue of classroom and

behavior management. When a teacher tackles this issue, she asks herself: How will I manage my

classroom? Managing one’s classroom includes making and enforcing rules and expectations for

students, keeping the classroom organized, and deciding how to reward students with good

behavior and/or academic performance, as well as deciding the consequences for students with

poor behavior. It is a good idea to start tackling this issue before the school year even begins. That

way, one can spend the first couple of weeks helping students get accustomed to the classroom

rules, procedures, and where everything is. A teacher with a well-organized classroom and clear

expectations and routine procedures for students is truly better prepared to teach.

Rationale for Selected Artifacts

For my second student teaching experience, I was placed in a Kindergarten class. I noticed

fairly quickly that behavior was the number one issue in the class. Part of this is due to the difficult

home lives these students have, but I had an idea. Too often, students with poor behavior are given

all the attention as they misbehave while the students who always behave are ignored. I decided to

expand on the teacher’s classroom behavior chart in which she moves clips with students’ names

on it by creating a “Good Behavior Chart”, which is my first artifact that represents behavior

management. I wrote every student’s name on the chart and decided that for every day a student

had “green” on the teacher’s classroom behavior chart, that student would receive a sticker to place

on the Good Behavior Chart. I also bought a treasure chest and way too many goodies to fill it

with. I decided that for every five stickers a student earns, he or she will get to pick one treasure

chest item. All the students have had at least five days of good behavior since I started this, except

for one boy (Boy 2). Once the first student got to pick from the treasure chest, even the most
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misbehaving students decided they wanted treasure, too, but I told them that they needed to earn

their treasures. Before I knew it, many students were approaching ten stickers. However, a handful

of students still needed five stickers. I decided to increase the incentive by giving every student

with ten stickers two treasure chest items. Once students reach fifteen stickers, they will receive

one more treasure. Once they reach twenty stickers, they will get two more treasures, and so on

and so forth.

This treasure chest idea has proven to be highly successful. My Kindergarteners love seeing

their progress and it is nice to be able to reward them for behaving well, especially since they do

not get a lot of positive reinforcement from home. I have only had a couple issues with the treasure

box. The first issue is that couple of boys took more treasures than they were supposed to. I made

the mistake of letting several students pick from the treasure box at once. I took back the extra

treasures that one boy took (he knew he was only supposed to take one and I had a conversation

about stealing with him) and decided to only call one student up at a time to “treasure dive”. I also

decided to keep inventory of every item I have in the treasure box so I know if/when a student

steals. I also decided to put a green line after every five stickers a student receives so it is easier

for me to keep track of who has received their treasures.

The second issue that came up was with one of the girls who has struggled the most with

her behavior (Girl 10). The teacher immediately warned me that she was a student to keep an eye

out for. She only had one sticker (a freebie), and she asked me if she could get a treasure item. I

said she needed five and encouraged her to keep up the good behavior, because she would probably

get a sticker by the end of the day. At the end of the day, she asked me again, and I said she needed

five (again). She said she had five already. Both the teacher and I walked over to look at the chart

and saw that she had stolen four different girls’ stickers so that she had enough for a treasure. I
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had already even drawn a green line to remind myself to give her a sticker without realizing it was

her! The teacher gave me some whiteout and I rid of that green line and placed the stickers back

where they belonged. I had a conversation with her about stealing and told her something along

the lines of, “I could just cross out your name right now and stop you from ever earning a treasure,

but I am going to give you a second chance. You will earn your stickers. If you steal any more

stickers, I will cross your name out.” Ever since then, her behavior has been remarkably better,

and she is close to earning her tenth sticker!

Another thing I noticed in the class is that the students constantly ask for pencils and

supplies because they are always losing things. I decided to organize the classroom set-up a little

bit by getting different-colored desk organizers from the dollar store. These desk organizers are

my second artifact and help manage the classroom by organizing students’ supplies. I even gave

each table a few matching pencil sharpeners (students are also always asking us to sharpen their

pencils). I further plan on creating signs and names for each table. For example, the table with the

yellow desk organizer and yellow star-shaped pencil sharpeners will be called the “Yellow Stars”

and there will be a laminated yellow star hanging above the table with the words “Yellow Stars”

printed on it. This will further help keep the students organized and help me when it comes to

lining students up. The best-behaving table will get to line up first for resources or go to the carpet

first and all I’ll have to say it, “Yellow Stars, please walk quietly to the carpet.” I look forward to

seeing how well Artifact #2 helps manage the classroom, as I placed these on their desks right

before Spring Break.

Reflection on Theory and Practice

There are numerous reasons why my students may have difficulty behaving. Some of them

display have little to no prosocial behavior, which is “voluntary behavior that benefits others,”
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(Bergin & Bergin, 2015, p. 409). Most people have a natural inclination to help others in distress

or to just be helpful, but this natural inclination can be inhibited by “antisocial models,” such as

family members, friends, or TV characters. I asked one of my Kindergarteners what he did over

the weekend and he told me that all he did was watch TV. Television may have an impact on his

and other students’ lack of prosocial behavior, as well as poor role models at home. Another reason

my students may not be exhibiting prosocial behavior is due to the costs of prosocial behavior; for

example, if they give away their cookie, they will not have one. Depending on how their lives at

home may be or if others take their belongings away from them, these Kindergarteners may simply

be protecting their self-interests (Bergin & Bergin, 2015, p. 411). Antisocial or disruptive behavior

seems to be common in this particular set of students. Some boys beat each other up on the

playground and some girls are mean to other kids or super clingy to both my cooperating teacher

and me. I know for a fact that every student in the class comes from a low socioeconomic status

home (low-SES home), which automatically makes them more likely to be antisocial than high-

SES learners (p. 436). Exposure to more-violent media, more-violent neighborhoods, and harsher

parenting are some reasons low-SES learners may exhibit antisocial behavior. Parents in these

homes struggle to pay bills and may take it out on their kids. Generally speaking, the more hostile

a parent is, the more aggressive their child will be on the playground (p. 436).

According to the book Child and Adolescent Development in Your Classroom, there are

numerous ways teachers can promote prosocial behavior in the classroom. One example is to

simply reinforce prosocial behavior or praise students when they act in a prosocial manner

(positive reinforcement). The text recommends not to use tangible rewards because they can

“undermine motivation,” but I personally support the use of tangible rewards with young children

who are still learning to behave well and who do not have good role models at home (Bergin &
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Bergin, 2015, p. 415). Other ways to promote prosocial behavior include pointing out examples in

the classroom or in learning, using victim-centered induction (suggests to students how to make

reparations during discipline in order to teach them to value others’ well-being), helping learners

feel and express gratitude in the classroom (positive learning environment), and establishing a

warm, secure relationship with students (p. 416). I feel that I am using all of these strategies to

help promote prosocial behavior in my classroom.

As a teacher, I agree with Ryan and Bohlin (1999) that all students really need is an

attentive ear (someone who really listens to them), inspiration (motivation and effective

communication of trust), structure (some sort of expectations or rules), friendship (with peers) and

most of all, love (pp. 173-180). If teachers help facilitate these five things, we can help promote

good character in our students’ lives.

As a Christian teacher, I believe that love is the most important thing I can give to my

students; after all, loving others is the second greatest commandment after loving the Lord with all

our hearts, souls, and minds (Matthew 22:34:39). These two laws are at the very foundation of

every commandment (Matthew 22:40). A major part of education, especially elementary

education, is discipline, which means to make a disciple out of someone, or “to drill and educate

them, and to bring them into effective obedience…” (Rushdoony, 2001, p. 121). To discipline

someone without loving them is contrary to God’s will for us. Hebrews 12:3-11 encourages

Christians who are dealing with the Lord’s discipline, which is done out of love for us and for our

own good (Hebrews 12:10-11). It is my prayer that all I do as a teacher will be done out of love

for my students, that the Lord would help me love them even when they are difficult to love,

because I know He loves me despite the fact that I sin and falter from obedience on a daily basis.

I want to show grace to my students and forgiveness, something I tried to show the girl who stole
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the other students’ stickers. But I also want to correct them in guidance and love. My number one

goal in my classroom management approach is to create a classroom environment that encourages

loving one another, as all good stems from love.

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References

Bergin, C. A., & Bergin, D. A. (2015). Child and adolescent development in your classroom

(2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Rushdoony, R. J. (2001). The philosophy of the Christian curriculum. Vallecito, CA: Ross House

Books.

Ryan, K., & Bohlin, K. E. (1999). Building character in schools: Practical ways to bring moral

instruction to life. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.