Classroom Management

As a teacher, I believe that the biggest challenge you face in the classroom is managing your classroom. Although it is a challenge, if you instill an effective management plan, it no longer becomes a difficult task. In the classroom, there is no instruction without attention and no attention without order. Behavior management is the foundation of a classroom and it must be conquered before effective teaching can take place. In order to build a community where this effective teaching and learning occurs, you must install a solid behavior management plan.
An effective management plan that I plan on implementing includes a mix of operant and classical conditioning. I believe that there is no one single answer to behavior management; an intertwining of ideas is the best option. Besides rules and punishments I believe that by conditioning your students and utilizing reinforcement and punishment appropriately is what develops an effective management plan.
I believe that conditioning must take place in order to help manage your classroom. I don’t believe in conditioning students to fear class, tests, and homework. I want to incorporate the opposite; I want to condition my students to not fear those things so I can appropriately manage the class. I feel that if students are confident in their work and do not fear learning, mis-behaving will not be a big concern. Classical conditioning is the first step in settling student’s behavior problems. An example of conditioning I will use in my classroom is conditioning my students to not respond to assessments with fear. To do this I believe that you must give several assessments that do not pressure the students as much and may not necessarily be counted as a grade or do not count as a lot of points. Through this method, students will not fear tests or mis-behave when they have an upcoming assessment; many students mis-behave through stress and pressure of assessments.
Operant conditioning is the second method that I plan on using in order to incorporate an effective management plan. I believe that punishment and reinforcement used strategically can create a community classroom with well-behaved students. Reinforcement is the first thing I would incorporate in my classroom as apart of the operant conditioning theory. I believe that in order to manage classroom behavior, you must identify the behavior you expect, and then when it occurs communicate with your students why the behavior is desirable, then immediately reinforce it. I believe that you need to communicate with your students in order to find out what kind of rewards they like so you know what to distribute in order to reinforce good behavior. Punishment is the second thing along with reinforcement that I plan to use in managing my classroom in terms of operant conditioning. In order to manage behavior I believe that you should install removal and presentation punishment. Behavior cannot be managed unless you use the presentation of an unpleasant consequence or removal of a pleasant article. Through this method of conditioning by using reinforcement and punishment, you can shape the behavior you desire so you can effectively teach and your students can learn without having to worry about behavior problems.
By establishing order in the classroom through these methods you will be able to effectively instruct. Through classical and operant conditioning a classroom management plan can be maintained in order for learning to take place in the classroom without any unnecessary distractions.