Landscape Painting Self-Evaluation of Classroom

Landscape Painting

Self-Evaluation of classroom management skills

Establishing discipline in a 4th grade classroom can be intimidating at first for a new teacher. The students are often widely different in their motivations and levels of ability, and this makes setting goals for student academic progress more challenging than setting similar goals for students in younger grades. Furthermore, students enter the classroom with varying levels of maturity -- some of the students still look and behave like very young children, and are intimidated by their teachers and students, others seem on the cusp of pubescence. I have tried to be fair and firm in my discipline, because I believe students in this age group crave a clear sense of expectations and want the teacher to set reasonable boundaries and rules. 4th grade students seem fascinated by rules and categorization, from everything from the rules of the classroom to the different classifications of the animal kingdom.

I believe very firmly in the idea that undisciplined behavior by a child is not the result of an attack upon me as a teacher, but is very often an attempt to gain attention from the child's peer group, especially in the case of middle school children, for whom peer recognition is very important. This is why 'respect for others' is such an important disciplinary concept in middle school -- if students feel as if they are letting their friends down rather than pleasing their friends when they misbehave, they are more likely to be attentive in class.

I have tried to emphasize positive behavior, when I see the class obeying the rules. I was careful to take note of when the class is quiet, for example, rather than trying to make an example of noisy children. I have also tried to address the student's need to feel mature at this age, and demonstrated in my own behavior that doing things like not raising my voice and behaving in an orderly, friendly, and cooperative fashion is the way that people ought to behave themselves during a school day. I did not always succeed in not raising my voice, and grew impatient waiting for the class to grow silent on some occasions, while I waited for them to 'simmer down.' Establishing a commanding and quiet classroom presence to facilitate order is something I need to work on as an educator.

I think my greatest problem, partially because of my nervousness as a new teacher, is failing to single out individual students and praising them for their unique, personal milestones. I have been so concerned about being fair to everyone and creating a cohesive class, I have not wanted to seem as if I favored boys over girls, or the more talented and confident students over those who were less extroverted. I also want to work on showing the children that the reason there are rules in the classroom is that these rules are necessary for everyone to learn, not because I wish to be mean or even simply because 'I say so.' Understanding consequences of actions are an important developmental milestone for 4th grade students. This is why it is so crucial that students receive positive as well as negative reinforcement for performing to expectations and beyond expectations! But it can be hard for a teacher to remember that what may be normal good behavior for one student may be an important positive step forward for a struggling student. Consistency is important in classroom management, but so is reinforcing critical developmental milestones for each student