Influences in the Classroom

Dorothy Reed
March 31, 2013
EDU- 450
Stacey Concepcion

Influences in the teaching environment In my experiences as being a head start teacher for eight years, I have seen a lot of different classroom conditions that hindered the children’s learning, as well as behaviors that contributed to the teacher not being able to teach the students that really want to learn. The ten negative conditions or behaviors that I have seen in my years are as follows. Fighting Not sharing Not following directions Hiding from the teachers Hitting teachers Yelling in the classroom Children not sitting during group time Biting Throwing toys or other objects Breaking the school toys when mad or upset
These negative conditions or disruptive behavior will cause the function of the classroom to become chaotic for other students that want to learn, as well as for the teachers that are trying to teach. The first disruptive behavior I will talk about is fighting. Some students have never been in a classroom setting and have to adjust to the rules they have to follow. Some children will come in fighting other children because they want to have their way. This also ties in with the sharing with your friends that I have down. They may have been the only child and is not use to sharing things. They will fight for what they want from another child. This causes disruptive behaviors in the classroom. This behavior also causes the teacher to have to stop teaching and deal with the behaviors of the children that are fighting and not sharing. These types of behaviors take away from the children that really want to listen and learn in the classroom. When behaviors like these occur, you have to have procedures in place that will let that student know what consequence he or she will face if that behavior occurs again. You have to be consistent with what you say you are going to do and do it. Not following directions and not sitting down during carpet time are two other distractions that can occur in the classroom. Some children have a hard time following directions in the classroom. When this happens, you might have to change the directions of the lesson or get them one on one and explain it to them. Sometimes children do better with the one on one direction method. Once you get the other children settled down with their assignment, then you can attend to the students that may need that extra help with directions. Sometimes children just choose not to follow directions just because they do not want to do anything. In the head start program that I work in, I see this all the time. Some students cause confusion in the classroom just because they do not want to do anything. You just have to make sure you follow through with the rules of the classroom procedure. If they choose not to follow directions, then just put them away from the group at another table. This will allow the other students at that table time to do their work that has been assigned to them. In the school that I work in, we have some students that do not like to participate in anything so they will hide from the teachers. This really disrupts the classroom and any activity we are trying to do. We have to stop teaching and try to reason with them to come from out of hiding. We even try to ignore the behavior, but then the rest of the children want to do what they see them doing. We then have to get off our lesson and try to explain what the other children are doing is not appropriate for the classroom. Then we have the task of trying to get the class back on the lesson being taught. Sometimes we play a game with the sight words and this gets them back on track with the lesson. We have students in our school that like to try and hit teachers, as well as get in their face. This is the biggest disruptive behavior and distraction ever. As teachers, we have to make sure we know how to deal with this type of behavior. Even if we have to remove the child from the classroom, this will help settle the classroom back down and bring it back to order. Sometimes we as teachers have to remove ourselves from these situations. At the school I work at, our supervisor will come and get the children that do that to the teachers. She takes them in the office and contacts their parents to let them know what is going on. This gives the teacher time to get themselves together as well as the class back together.
Yelling is another disruptive behavior that I have seen in the classrooms. Teachers have to know how to deal with these behaviors when they occur. When children yell and lash out, teachers have to know how to keep calm and deal with the behavior that is in front of them. You need to get eye level to that child and in a calm voice see if you can find out why they are yelling. It just might be something simple that can be fixed quickly. So using a calm voice can make a big difference in the reaction you get from a child that is yelling in the classroom. Biting is a huge thing that happens in early childhood classroom settings. If you have a child that is a biter, you have to make sure that the child knows the consequences that will come behind him or her biting a child. Once they know the consequences, then if it happens again, you have to enforce the consequences that you gave them earlier. If that does not work, then the teacher or supervisor needs to contact the parents to inform them of what is going on. Throwing toys is another distraction in the classroom. Sometimes a child will throw toys at other children if they cannot have their way. I have seen this type of behavior so many times in a preschool setting. When this type of behavior occurs, you can use the time out method or cool down as some people call it. This gives the child time to think about what they have done and why they have to sit by themselves and not be a part of the class. Finally there is breaking toys when you are mad. This is an unacceptable behavior that is not appropriate for a classroom. Children have to learn that they have to take care of things that are not theirs. If they break something because they are mad, then they need to be sat down in the cool down chair. While in the cool down chair, the teacher might want to go over and explain to them why it is not ok to break things that do not belong to them. So sometimes cool down can lead to productive behavior in the classroom. In conclusion, making sure you have a productive classroom management schedule together will help your classroom run smoothly. It will help keep down the disruptive behaviors in the classroom, as well as allow the teachers to do what they were placed in the classrooms to do, teach. So make sure you enforce the rules that have been set and let your students know what consequences will follow for them when they choose to use the wrong behaviors in the classroom.