RUNNING HEAD: Reflection Paper

Reflection Paper ED 556 Models and Theories II Iris Harris Averett University January 26, 2013

RUNNING HEAD: Reflection Paper

Creating a strong classroom culture is important in todays society. It helps foster children into a productive learning environment. The five principles of a classroom culture are discipline, management, control, influence and engagement. Discipline: teaching students the right and successful way to do things. Management: The process of reinforcing behavior by consequences and rewards. What we call disciplining is often really management or giving consequences. Without the other four elements, management ultimately suffers from diminishing marginal returns: the more you use it, the less effective it is. Control: Control is your capacity to cause someone to choose to do what you ask, regardless of consequences. Teachers who have strong control ask respectfully, firmly, and confidently but also with civility, and often kindly. Influence: Ideally all teachers connect to their students and inspire them to want for themselves the things the class is trying to achieve. Inspiring students to believe, want to succeed, and want to work for it for intrinsic reasons is influencing them. It is the next step beyond control. Engagement: Give students plenty to say yes to, plenty to get involved in, plenty to lose themselves in. Get them busily engaged in productive, positive work. I use all of the five principles in my class, especially discipline, control and engagement. In order to maintain order, there has to be rules and regulations established. Students need to feel a level of comfort in a class and the teacher needs to have structure. Students need to know there is a consequence for a negative action and the teacher must deliver consequences on a consistent basis. Controlling the classroom has to do with the preparation and attitude of the teacher, the more prepared the teacher is with the lessons the students will be more opt to paying attention and learning. Many students can detect when a teacher is unprepared and this brings on distractions and interruptions. Teachers

RUNNING HEAD: Reflection Paper should control the classroom by always moving freely throughout the room. This helps cut down on behavior issues and keeps students on task. If a student is off task they should be redirected and the teacher proceeds with the lesson, the redirection should not

take 5 to ten minutes or the teacher will lose control. Teaching Business and Information Technology gives me an opportunity to be creative and explore different software. I have several different projects that the students are involved in. The most recent was the technology scrapbook with a power point presentation. I really enjoy doing projects with the class that keeps them engaged and learning at the same time.

RUNNING HEAD: Reflection Paper

References Akhnoukh, A. (2012, September 19). The Opportunity to Create More Champion Teachers. In Education Next. Retrieved January 20, 2012, from http://education next.org/the-opportunity-to-create-more-champion-teachers/ Lemov, D. (2010). Teach Like a Champion: 49 techniques that put students on the Path to college. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010.