Classroom Management Knowledge and Skills are exemplified by the following competencies:

19. Builds positive rapport with and among students

Reflection - The greatest reason that I want to become a teacher is because I am passionate about learning and I genuinely care about each of my students.  There literally is no such thing as a bad student; every young man and woman comes from a unique and vibrant background and they have so much to offer the classroom if you can find a way to reach them.

Artifact - One of the primary comments my cooperating teacher always makes is that I have a wonderful rapport with my students.  Likewise, my university supervisor has repeatedly commented that you can sense the positive relationships the moment you walk into the classroom. (This artifact also fulfills NCTE standard 1.4)

20. Organizes for effective teaching

Reflection - As my cooperating teacher states in his final evaluation, I am extremely organized with all of my materials to ensure that I can remain flexible when the unexpected inevitably occurs.  I keep all of my materials for each separate class inside a separate binder and I try to record and post grades on a daily basis so that I never become overwhelmed by a giant stack of papers. (This artifact also fulfills NCTE standard 1.4)

21. Demonstrates use of effective routines and procedures

Reflection - We begin every class with a grammar exercise on the board so the students know to come into the classroom, get in their seats, and write down the sentence on the front board.  Then as they are writing we go over the daily content and objectives and take a moment to address any questions or concerns.  This type of routine at the beginning of every class allows the students to focus as they enter the classroom and gives me a moment to take attendance and collect my thoughts.

Artifact - Scripted grammar exercise from an administrator's observation

22. Demonstrates efficient and effective use of time

Reflection - In my classroom I teach from bell to bell because every minute is valuable when you have so much content to cover in a limited time.  On each of my lesson plans I account for every minute of our class and then I also always include some additional activities in case we end up pacing our activities differently than I had expected.  Also, I always have back-up plans on days when I plan on showing movies just in case there is a problem with the television or tape/dvd.

Artifact - Student Learning Plan that breaks down the class into time intervals and includes additional activities if time permits

23. Maintains a safe learning environment

Reflection - We do not have many rules in my classroom because I think that a long list of do's and dont's can be intimidating and difficult to enforce.  However, the number one rule in my classroom is that students must respect one another at all times.  I will not tolerate any degree of disrespect and this covers a wide array of management issues.

Artifact - During the weeks prior to my student teaching I developed a classroom management plan that entailed everything from classroom layout to rules and consequences.  While I have not fully adopted all of these policies due to the conditions of student teaching, this paper allowed me to plan ahead for the ten weeks and now serves as a valuable reflective tool.  I can compare my expectations to the realities of teaching.

24.  Responds appropriately to inappropriate behavior

Reflection - In my classroom management plan I tried to predict potential scenarios and establish a set of consistent guidelines for reacting to problems.  Unfortunately, I did have two students who chose to abuse the level of freedom I tried to give them in discussions.  As I stated in one of my journal entries, I gave the students a warning and they proceeded to misbehave.  In order to convey that I was not simply making empty threats I had no choice but to follow through on writing them up and giving them referrals.  In reality, it was very difficult for me because I do care about them and neither of them is a bad person, they just were not making good behavior decisions.

Artifact - This is the write-up that I sent along to my administrators.  The content is graphic because I was instructed to be detailed and thorough and the incident involved some mature language.  However, due to my thorough account of the events, the administrators were able to easily address the situation and resolve the conflict. (This artifact fulfills NCTE standards 1.1-4 and 4.2)