Kate Quigley

Classroom Discipline

CI 4000

During my full time out at Bethel Elementary school I choose two students to observe. I observed one girl “Birdi” and one boy “Henry”.

While observing these two students I focused on their behavior during large and small group activities. I was able to record some of the observations and draw a conclusion about what time of child they were.

“Birdi” has one strong characteristic that carries through all the observations I did. She tends to be clueless about the lesson or activities going on in the room. Part of this is due to the fact that she does not pay attention and she enters her own little world. She will space out and then blurt out random things that have nothing to do with what is going on. I have found out that “Birdi” fits the characteristics of “The dreamer”. She is not worried about what is going on around her and she is a little chatterbox. She thinks that other children around her are doing the same thing she is, so she tries to talk to them and get them to join her “world”. Other students also tell “Birdi” what she should be doing or that she is wrong. They have told her during calendar time to pay attention and stop dreaming. Over the period of a week “Birdi” got called on for her behavior 6 times. She was in the think chair a total of 2 times that one-week.

“Henry” also has some characteristics of “the dreamer” but not as many. He has a problem sitting still very long and likes to talk out of turn or just blurt things out. Overall “Henry” has his good and bad days. On his good days, he is very attentive and he can follow along with anything that is given to him and he has these days most often. When he has his bad days, they are really not that bad. It is just that it is a change from the easy going, attentive boy we knew earlier in the week. “Henry” tends to have problems keeping still and he just gets plain silly.

I know that there is a good chance that I could have these types of students in my classroom for an entire year. I would first and foremost try to have the most patience possible with someone like “Birdi” I would try to keep her on track by giving her little things that she would have to keep up with. Asking her to be more part of the lesson in little ways can help keep her attention. In a situation like “Henry”, there are probably going to be 20 kids in the room like him. When discussing classroom discipline with my grade level group, a big thing that was discussed is the attention span of little children. A teacher has to keep this in mind when planning her instructional time with her students. The time that you have a child’s complete attention is short and sweet. A teacher has to do the best job she can in that short and sweet time. I have learned that I will have to use my instructional time very wisely. Making sure that my students have their focus on me will help in managing the classroom. I will also make sure that I have clear rules and consequences. I will want to make sure that I implement these during the first day and first week I am in my own classroom.