The Power of a Teacher: Shaping Classroom Climate and Student Behavior

1. “I have come to a frightening conclusion. I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or dehumanized.” • Hiam Ginott

2. Classroom Structure • Classroom Management: • Physical layout of classroom • Manageable room • Accessible materials • Procedures clearly stated and understood by students • Behavior Management: • Rules should be clearly stated and consistently reinforced throughout the year.

3. Historical Perspective • Traditional • Bureaucratic and Monitorial • New England Pedagogy • Progressive • Conservative Restoration

4. Models for Classroom Structure: • Lee Canter • Assertive discipline • Teachers should insist on responsible behavior • Many teachers fail to discipline because they believe that firm discipline is inhumane

5. Assertive Discipline: Teachers • Teachers have three basic rights as educators: • To maintain an optimal classroom setting for learning • Expect appropriate behavior • Expect help form administrators as well as parents

6. Assertive Discipline (students): • Students have three basic rights: • To have teachers who help them develop and grow by limiting self-destructive behaviors • Teachers who support and encourage appropriate behavior • Students should have prior of the consequences of their behavior

7. Canter Model of Classroom Behavior: • The following items are essential to good behavior management • State and clearly teach expectations early • Use “I” messages • Calm voice, eye contact, non-verbal gestures • Repeat the rules when needed • Firm, positive insistence

8. Jones Model of Classroom Behavior Management: • Reduce the loss of instructional time • Statistics: • 50% of class time is lost because of misbehavior and being off task • 80% is lost due to talking • 19% is lost to daydreaming, out of seat and making noises • 1% is lost to more serious behavior

9. Focus of Jones Model: • Apply effective body language * Use of body for non-verbal communication - Eye contact - Facial expression - Posture - Signals and gestures - Physical proximity • Incentive systems • Individual help

10. Mackenzie Model for Classroom Structure: • Structure is the organizational foundation of the classroom. • Common Misconceptions: • Teaching rules is the parents job • Children should know what to expect • Explaining the rules should be enough • Students resent firm rules and the teacher who makes them • Male teachers are the best disciplinarians

11. Mackenzie’s Setting Limits Program: • Rules in theory • Rules in practice • All rules should be introduced to students the first day • Broad and inclusive rules • Limit rules to three to five

12. Harry K. Wong’s Classroom Structure: • Main characteristics of effective teachers • Classroom management skills • Teaching for lesson mastery • Positive expectations • Classroom management is organization of students, space, time and materials.

13. Classroom Management: • Security • Accessible materials • Manageable room • Highly focused students • Clear expectations • Little wasted time, confusion or disruption

14. Managing Your classroom: • Engaged time • Academic time • Achievement • Predictable environment • Rules-(General and Specific) • Consequences • Rewards