Classroom Management

     A big part of successful classroom management, in my opinion, is keeping the students actively mentally engaged. I feel that if the students are actively mentally engaged, there is less time for behaviors that are considered inappropriate in the classroom. I plan on incorporating SLT and CLT into this part of my classroom management. CLT is obviously connected if I want my students to be actively mentally engaged, but SLT comes into play by allowing for discussion in the classroom. I find this to be a beneficial aspect of our 107 classroom and it's something I want to incorporate in my future classroom, but for slightly different reasons. I want to be an elementary teacher, therefore the discussions I provide for my students will differ. However, at this young age, discussions will be beneficial in a different sense just because providing young students with opportunities to communicate with their peers can help their language development. The big thing here though, is making sure the communication allows the to be actively mentally engaged, This can be monitored done by walking around the classroom (BLT), asking open-ended questions (SLT) and keeping concepts within the students ZPD (SLT). Another important aspect is making sure discussion is being done at the right times. You can use other students as concrete examples (DLT) to show students what appropriate classroom behaviors such as talking in an "inside" voice and talking at the correct times are by modeling these behaviors. By having little to no time for "down time" (CLT) I hope this will help my students stay focused and using appropriate classroom behaviors. Another aspect of classroom management is knowing when to hand out materials. (BLT) To me, this is a no brainer especially because I want to work with young students. Anything, can be used as a distraction to them, so I feel any type of material would need to be handed out after I have said everything I need to say as far as directions or etc.  Even at this young age, everything we do in the classroom can be made relevant (CLT, DLT) in order to keep my students interested and engaged. Just because something is hands on doesn't make it actively mentally engaging, but that doesn't mean there aren't ways to make concepts fun, but also actively mentally engage my students.