Coursepreparesfor class management

by Terry Cipollini staff writer

Education majors are taking a course to prepare them for the true classroom experience. Classroom Management Techniques is being taught by Dr. Harold Wingerd. The class is structured to teach students how to maintain a learning environment in the classroom.

The course features two basic parts. The first part is to learn effective teaching strategies to .,maintain control. 'Tremendous amounts of research support the theory that a start-up activity everyday is important to maintaining classroom momentum," Wingerd said.

The start-up lesson is designed to get the children actively participating. Other ideas include developing motivation for learning and building esteem through learning success.

The second part of the course teaches how to respond to an incident to minimize the problem. "Children misbehave for a reason. The goal is to minimize the payoff and teach children to seek good attention," Wingerd said. The course uses an analysis of case studies to determine about 15 things a teacher could do to resolve the situation.

"The more strategies a student can develop the more powerful they will be," Wingerd said. "The case studies help you learn how to get a child on task without disturbing the rest of the class," senior education major Bill Cascarina said.

Other methods include active listening.; listening to angry children and letting them know they are being heard. Teaching children to help other children by letting the disruptive one know how he makes others feel. Stop and think is a program that is featured throughout a whole school. Stop signs and posters are displayed to reinforce the message. Stop and think before you act.

This course is also designed to help teach the students how to effectively communicate with parents. "No parent wants to hear about problems with their child," Wingerd said. As a teacher, students will need to be able to discuss a child's behavior without offending the parents. This will enable the teacher to maintain a good parent-teacher relationship.

For more in-depth behavioral situations the students develop their own case studies. During their field placement they identify a child in need of help. They chart and observe the child's behavior. The chart includes triggers, time and frequency. Then the student develops a behavioral modification contract. The contract is between the child and the teacher. It is used to es tab Ii sh goals with rewards and consequences for the child to strive to reach. "This class gives you a head start for student teaching, it helps to prepare you for actually being in the classroom," Cascarina said.

Two area school districts look for this knowledge when interviewing perspective teachers. Mr. Dave Willhauer, principal for Spring-Ford School District uses many situation based questions during the interview process. The school district also uses the stop and think program and behavioral contracts. "We have high expectations for our students with consistent consequences because we believe that is what children want," Willhauer said. The school district also supports the staff by providing training for non-violence crisis intervention.

Mr. R. Scott Klinger, director of personnel for Colonial School District, looks for a variety of behavioral techniques. Teachers should know many cooperative learning methods and classroom situational methods. "We spend a lot of time with new teachers, but there are certain expectations," Klinger said.

This course was designed to prepare the students for as many situations as possible. By playing and replaying the different situations, the responses will be more like second nature. The greater the variety of the situations, the greater the number of responses. 0I like to think of it as creating a tool box for the students, the more tools, the better they will perform their jobs," Wingerd said.