PL: Management Tips, Culturally Responsive CM

Prof. B. Walker's Handy Management Tips

1. Minimize crowding and distraction: furniture and seating arrangements, etc.
   
2. Maximize Structure and Predictability: have teacher and student routines (most classrooms waste 90 min. a day on this stuff)
3. State, teach, review and reinforce positively stated expectations: Consider, what are your values? This defines your philosophy. What expectations define this? Be specific.
   
4. Provide more acknowledgements for appropriate than inappropriate behavior: If a child can't be successful in an environment, then he/she won't try.
5. Maximize varied opportunities to respond to instruction
6. Maximize Active Engagement
7. Actively and continuously supervise
8. Respond to inappropriate Behavior quickly, positively, and directly: In most cases, forget Skinner: pay attention, and allow feedback. What you focus on expands, what you look for, you'll get more of.
   
9. Establish multiple strategies for acknowledging appropriate behavior
10. Provide specific feedback for errors and correct

Foundations for a successful year:

• Build preventative discipline: see 1, 2, 3, 8
• Create a climate for learning: see 4, 5, 6, 7
• Connect with students - build positive relationships: see 9
• Connect students with learning- help them experience themselves as successful learners: see 10
  

"Toward a conception of culturally responsive classroom management" (CRCM)
-Weinstein, C.S., Tomlinson-Clarke, S., & Curran, M.
A frame of mind including 5 essential components:

1. Recognition of one's own ethnocentrism
   
2. knowledge of student's cultural backgrounds
3. awareness of the broader social, economic, and political context
4. ability and willingness to use culturally appropriate management strategies
5. commitment to building caring classroom communities

Helpful topics of questions to ask: Family background and structure, education, interpersonal relationship styles, discipline, time and space, religion, health and hygiene, history, traditions and holidays.