Behavior Management Plan

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Behavior Management Plan

Now that an ideal learning environment has been set created to facilitate learning between teachers, and students, the next step is to come up with a behavior management plan to guide the behavior of both learners and instructors. It is important to lay down rules and regulations that will inform the behaviors and interactions with each other as well as their teacher. Worth noting, if rules are not established, there is bound to be chaos within the classroom that tends to disrupt and derail the learning process. Procedures in the way matters are handled within a classroom setup are important as they help establish order and respect. Expectations are important as they encourage individual and group responsibility.

Rules

Various rules should be observed in the classroom by the students. Class rules are important because they help maintain order among learners. They should be observed regardless of whether the teacher is in class or not. One such rule is ‘Complete assignments and home works daily.’ This rule is the most important rule that should be observed in class. Learners need to recognize that it is their duty to attend all classes, contribute to the discussions, and finish all their daily assignments and homework. Learners should be deliberate with their assignments. They should prioritize them and avoid completing them during rush hour. They should create ample time to do their assignments. Learners, including high school students, have ample time to finish their assignments when they get home or before they go to dinner. Students should not have to rush in the morning to the classrooms to complete their assignments just five minutes before class starts (Alter, & Haydon, 2017). Additionally, students should be diligent and refrain from copying from colleagues or plagiarism work. They should make a point of finishing homework just the night before. Furthermore, learners should be systematic with revisions on daily classes, and they should prepare themselves for lessons scheduled for the next day.

Another rule worth considering is ‘maintain good body and personal hygiene”. It is important that learners know the importance of observing good personal hygiene. Personal hygiene is important for students as it helps students stay comfortable so that they can deliver desirable results. Students should make a point of taking a shower on a daily basis before attending class. For in-person classes, observing cleanliness is important as being dirty, smelly, and sweaty can make other people uncomfortable. This can affect their productivity levels in class and negatively influence their overall academic performance. After spending a long day in class, it is important for learners to take another shower to stay fresh. Furthermore, learners should also wash their hands before and after eating and sneeze into a handkerchief. Another rule is to ‘always be on time”. This rule is common in learning institutions. This is because everything operates on a schedule. Classes are timed, hence the need for learners to observe timeliness. Being punctual is one of the qualities that learners develop right from their first day of school. Learners must show up for classes on time to provide ample time to cover what they have planned for the lesson. Learners should know clearly when a specific class shall commence and end. This enabled them to plan and leave their homes early for the start of the class. It would help if learners developed a routine of arriving at school and being well settled in class before the bell rings. Another important rule to observe in the classroom is ‘No sleeping in class.’ This rule is important as it keeps learners engaged and focused on the right activities of learning. Students should remain active and fresh during class sessions. They should strive to listen to their teacher and takes notes or stay engaged in the topic of discussion by contributing their insights. If learners get tired, they should request a break from the teacher. Alternatively, they can also do warm-up sessions between classes and take enough water. Unless a student is ill, they have no excuse for sleeping during class sessions. A learner may also sleep in class with their instructor’s or school nurses’ permission.

Expectations

One of the most effective methods of assisting students in taking responsibility for their learning is encouraging goal setting and personal reflection. As a teacher, one can support students in this undertaking by helping them define their goals for studying. It helps if learners are given a chance to reflect and re-evaluate themselves. When students set a goal for themselves and try, they will do anything to attain those goals. Goals build a person’s confidence and boost their willingness to keep trying. Goal setting can be as telling learners to note down what they intend to learn on a given subject matter by the end of the lesson (Gentrup, Lorenz, Kristen, & Kogan, 2020). Another way to ensure students take responsibility for their learning is by giving them choices. Instructors should avoid making decisions on behalf of the students and encourage them to make their own decisions. This way, they will form opportunities for themselves to pursue their interests. Another expectation that can encourage learners to take responsibility for their own learning is talking less. The teacher should reduce the hours spent standing in front of them and addressing them. Instead of arranging classrooms in the convectional way where numerous rows of learners face the front of the class, teachers should consider arranging them as roundtables. This way, students can think together, communicate, collaborate, construct meaning through discussion and share ideas. The teacher does not have to approve every exchange; students should communicate with each other directly.

Task Procedures

While different pencil-sharpening procedures seem to work for different classrooms, it is important for every teacher to develop effective sharpening pencil procedures. To start with, only pencil sharpeners will be allowed in the classrooms. Secondly, the teacher should provide all students with pencils. This would mean that the pencils would be shared amongst the learners. The third procedure would be not allowing learners to store their pencils inside their desks. A team manager would keep all pencils under lock and key and only distribute pencils when instructed. Regarding procedure for going for lunch, learners will be required to wait to be served in the school cafeteria in a line and enter the service area in an orderly manner. Also, learners will raise their hands for assistance. They would sit at a designated table and remain sited until they finish their meal. As regards handing back graded work, the instructor can make their work easier and fast by developing group baskets and folders and using them to hand back the work to the students to employ while handing in their work. Then as the teacher grades the work, the teacher should stick it back into the folder for the group. When done, the teacher can now hand the folder back to the group, and together they can collect individual graded assignments.

References

Alter, P., & Haydon, T. (2017). Characteristics of effective classroom rules: A review of the literature. Teacher Education and Special Education, 40(2), 114-127.

Gentrup, S., Lorenz, G., Kristen, C., & Kogan, I. (2020). Self-fulfilling prophecies in the classroom: Teacher expectations, teacher feedback and student achievement. Learning and Instruction, 66, 101296.