Wonders of Education Essay

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teaching is a fourth grade Language Arts class. It will take place in a private school with relatively small class sizes -- ideally no more than 20 students, with a minimum of at least 15. The private school setting for this class is crucial to its implementation since it will provide a setting in which students who are in the upper grades in elementary school (fourth and fifth graders) prepare for middle school by actually walking to different classes for their various subjects. This practice is routine in middle school and secondary school, and the fairly expensive private school that this class will take place at (with a tuition of approximately $20,000 per year) is definitely a college preparatory school. Its grades span from kindergarten to 12th grade. Students are taught early on to think for themselves via a combination of conventional and less conventional methods which will allow them to foster intellectual independence and to associate the learning process with their own innate growth. The small class sizes will ensure that the students have a greater propensity for interacting with the instructor.

Explanation of Parent Communication

Parent communication will actually play a substantial part in the education processes of the various students attending this class. In this respect, such communication will not simply be reserved for disciplinary action, or take the form of a 'back to school night' as a one-time parent teacher interaction at the beginning of the school year. It is noteworthy to mention, however, that both a back to school night and a disciplinary recourse of communicating with parents when students are consistently breaking classroom rules or engaged in other egregious violations of behavior will certainly be a part of the parent communication. However, I believe that the education process is most thorough and transformative for a particular student when he or she receives instruction and concepts from a pedagogue, and in turn has these notions reinforced by the child's first teachers -- his or her parents. Therefore, one of the regular means of parent communication will involve students returning their graded tests and written documents with the signature of at least one parent. Moreover, doing so will also provide parents with the opportunity to express any concerns or provide any sort of feedback regarding the nature of instruction, the curriculum, or the sort of materials that students are tested/writing about. Graded assignments and tests will specifically include spaces on them for parents to write to teachers. Additionally, the instructor will also present her email address to parents at the beginning of the year, include it on tests and written assignments, and encourage communication that way as well. There will also be quarterly progress reports for parents to respond to.

Explanation of Assignments and Grading Rubrics/Methods

The focus of this particular class is on composition. Naturally it will incorporate elements of grammar, syntax, and punctuation, and require a fair amount of reading comprehension as well. Still, its focus will be on the way that students express themselves via the written words and the ideas which they are able to foster -- from the reading of various pieces of literature -- that they are able to discern. Fourth grade is the beginning of the upper level cognitive processes regarding correlations between reading comprehension and composition. Assignments will reflect this fact in that they will emphasize the five paragraph essay format. Students will have various assignments in which they learn to write the three elements of these paragraphs, and spend a good deal of time writing them collectively as well based on reading materials. Their composition will provide them the means to display their proficiency in various grammar, spelling and syntax issues, which they will study via workbooks and worksheets. Students will keep a portfolio of their written efforts in regards to the five paragraph essay format, which will detail every step of their progress (or lack thereof) from each of the individual components in these essays, to their proficiency at composing entire essays. The grading rubric will be included in these portfolios, and will be based on each of the different paragraph types (for the practice essays in which students are simply writing just one of the paragraph types) and on the essay as a whole (when students are writing entire essays).

Floor Plans Classroom Arrangement

The classroom will be arranged in a basic format so that all of the desks are in a circular formation. That way, all of the students will be able to see both one another and the instructor at relatively all points in time. Such an arrangement is designed to foster interactivity and a type of Socratic dialogue between the instructor and her students, so that students can benefit from the examples and the experiences that they have had and which are most readily shared.

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Additionally, students will not have the opportunity to 'hide' behind others and will be more responsible for the individual and collective facets of their learning. Finally, such an arrangement actually corresponds to certain elements of classroom management -- particularly those that are disciplinary. Students who need a 'timeout', for instance, will be removed from the circle in one of a couple desks positioned on the extremes of the classroom (facing the corner, perhaps) where students must complete their work in silence prior to reentering the classroom environment with their peers.

Positive Classroom Rules

Positive classroom rules are a critical element of proper classroom management. It is typically important to involve the students in the formulation of these rules -- which should ideally take place within the first week of the school year -- and to actually post them in various places around the classroom so that the students can see them and easily be reminded of them. The rules are designed to foster a positive learning atmosphere in the classroom in which students treat one another and their pedagogues with a respect that will hopefully extend beyond the classroom. Research indicates that it is typically best to have a circumscribed number of rules so that they are more eminent to the students and easier to follow (Slavin, 2015, p. 279). Thus, the rules employed for this particular class will denote that students: Remain Focused on Learning, Raise Hands for Recognition, and Treat Each Other Respectfully. These rules truly are the foundation for a positive and encouraging classroom environment. Raising their hands for recognition implies that they are called on before they speak, which helps to keep the environment orderly. Staying focused on learning prioritizes their edification and academic prowess, while treating one another with respect ensures that they are able to maintain positivity and an environment of equanimity in which learning can take place.

Philosophy of Classroom Management Which Includes Research-Based Strategies

In my opinion, classroom management is best handled when it is implemented in a proactive fashion in which there are a number of preventative measures in place that decrease the likelihood of managerial issues arising (Sayeski and Brown, 2014, p. 119). Thus, it is necessary to formulate classroom rules early to cultivate awareness of appropriate behavior which reduces the likelihood of management issues, and in which students participate in creating. Additionally, my preemptive approach to classroom management will involve a number of laudatory measures that students can look forward to receiving and which will help keep the classroom orderly. Specifically, I will incorporate the strategy known as appropriate behavior specific praise, which is a means of offering verbal plaudits (as well as demonstrable written ones) to students regarding their efforts in various aspects of academic progress or upstanding behavior. In addition to simply commending students for doing well in both of these pivotal areas of classroom management, I will also use more non-traditional measures such as emailing partens to make them aware of their student's success as well as creating tangible markers of success around the classroom -- such as writing on spare whiteboards the names of students who have excelled in some praiseworthy area. According to Curran and the Iris Center (2003), this strategy can develop "positive relationships with students and assist in creating a supportive classroom environment" (p. 6).

Rewards and Consequences

Rewards and consequences are a valuable means of maintaining classroom management and helping students to stay on task and not get distracted. Although the focus of my classroom rules and classroom management strategy is to take a preemptive approach to discipline, there will occasionally still be the need to employ basic disciplinary measures. Such measures will include giving students a "timeout," which will last either for five minutes or until students are able to complete their assigned work when verbal reminders of the rules or other notifications of intolerable behavior do not prove effective. Additionally, consequences will include emails and notes to parents, the latter of which will require a student signature the next day. Recurring violations of rules will result in students staying inside and doing academic work instead of partaking in recreational activities such as lunch and….....

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