I plan to monitor the classroom by circulating and immediately responding to misbehavior.

The first step to successful monitoring is my presence everywhere and my awareness of everything. This makes a significant impact on classroom management issues because students know that I am alert to their behavior. This is why I will circulate around the outside of the room and never have my back to any group of students. If they know that I am always watching their actions they will be more likely to abide by the classroom expectations. When students are misbehaving or being off task I will first use my presence to show them that I hear and see what they are doing and it is inappropriate behavior. If students continue to remain off task or continue to misbehave I will be forced to verbally intervene. To begin this conversation I will get down at the students level by squatting or sitting near them. It is important to get down at their level so the conversation is not one the entire class will hear. It is definitely not effective to embarrass students in front of the class because this will have a negative affect on the student-teacher relationship, as well as damage their trust in you. In the conversation I will inquire as to why the student or students are not on task, rather than simply demanding that they get on task. This shows that I care for them and whatever they are dealing with that prevents them from meeting classroom expectations. I believe that more often than not, students are off task because they do not understand what to do or personal issues are affecting them. If the students are not engaged in the activity the class is doing classroom management will immediately become an issue. An engaging and developmentally appropriate curriculum will limit the amount of classroom management issues because the students are not bored. If a verbal intervention in the classroom does not work I will ask the student to come outside the classroom to have a conversation with me in the hallway. This will take the student away from their audience of peers and can improve student response to the intervention. If this conversation does not improve the students behavior my next consequence will be to call home to talk to the students parents. Partnering in the intervention with the parents can help the student to realize how serious of an issue the misbehavior is and greatly increase the effectiveness of the intervention. However, if talking to the parents does not have an impact on the students misbehavior a principal referral will need to be given. In light of all these consequences it is important to always forgive students and to not hold grudges against students that particularly struggle.

Hierarchy of Responses to Disruptive Behavior

My presence

In class verbal intervention

Hallway verbal intervention

Call to parents/guardians

Principal referral