DISCUSSION 1: Social Contracts
We considered the concept of social contracts, which outline how members of the class promote improvement for themselves and for the group at large. Think about a class where there were few rules, but all the students seemed to understand the expectations, practically to the point of managing themselves! Now, think about a class that has many rules and consequences listed, but the teacher is still very much a focal point of active classroom and behavior management. What did the teachers in those classrooms do differently from each other?
Now, review pages 152 and 153 of the Transformative Classroom Management, where the author identifies four techniques to promote the social contract within your classroom: first, positive recognitions; second, clarifying statements; third, mantras; and fourth, clarifying examples. Provide examples of how you have used these in the classroom, how you have failed to use these in the classroom, or how you plan to use these in your classroom. Be very specific about what you would say, as so much of the new classroom management paradigm is related to careful communication.
DISCUSSION 2: Reflecting on New Learning
You will do some Internet or library research and rely on your own experience to write about how technology can be used as part of classroom management to keep communication open between home and school. You might consider texting, e-mail, school-hosted teacher Web pages, blogs, app, and so forth. Be sure to relate the selected technology to classroom management.
DISCUSSION 3: Consequences Versus Punishment
There are important differences between consequences and punishments. The most effective consequences are those that occur naturally, as logical results of cause and effect. Often, lifelong lessons are learned through consequences, such as when a child is told not to touch something because it is hot. The child touches it anyway, and the natural consequence is that it burns-a logical and natural consequence. Punishment, on the other hand, is administered by an authority figure, and involves some kind of unpleasantness. A main challenge in using punishment is that it is effective for a very short time, but does not usually result in long-term behavior change.
In schools, it is a very common practice for teachers to use punishment to try to manage children in their classrooms. Do a quick (5 minute) search online for information on punishments used in schools. List and discuss a few of the punishments that you found. Did it surprise you that all of the ones you found are considered punishment? Which types of punishment have you seen most frequently used in classrooms? For what behaviors? Select one common punishment you have seen and describe a way that a particular behavior might be addressed without the use of punishment.