Kindergarten Classroom Management the Most Effective Classroom Essay

Kindergarten Classroom Management

The most effective classroom environment is one in which there is a sense of trust, advocacy for the student, engaging learning activities, and a sense of regular adventure. Students should be encouraged to actualize, to participate, and to think of their classroom as a community. Because each individual is unique in their learning style, classroom success is based on flexibility and the willingness to adapt and evolve on a moment's notices -- the idea of fluid intuition taken to the nth degree. Within the modern pedagogical rubric, classroom management remains challenging at almost every level. In its base form, it is the process of ensuring that the classroom lessons run smoothly and that learning is accomplished with a minimum of interruptions. Research abounds as to the importance of classroom management in the contemporary school, as well as the frustration many teachers feel in an increasingly litigious environment in which their every disciplinary action is scrutinized and criticized. In fact, the U.S. National Educational Association noted that almost 40% of teachers surveyed said that given the choice, they would probably not go into teaching again because of "negative student attitudes and discipline" and their lack of freedom in managing their class (Schneider, 2003).

The realities of the modern classroom necessitate the ability for a teacher to organize a classroom and manage the behavior of students in order to achieve even the minimum of positive outcomes. Changes in class size, dimmension, and in particularly divergent backgrounds and economically challenging demographics tend to increase disrubptive behaviors; which sometimes perpetuates into additionally self-fulfilling prophecies and outcomes. All stakeholders have a reason to improve classroom management; and a multi-level approach will ensure that teachers can become more effective, while at the same time, provide a more robust learning environment -- even in the Kindergaten environment.Of course, one of the things we know is that younger children have a much harder time self-regulating behavior, which contributes to classroom chaos and difficulty managing the classroom. Over the past few decades, in fact, expectations both academically and behaviorally have drastically increased for kindergartners; particularly with the expectations of what they must be ready for to transition to a full-day First Grade environment. Research shows, though that the more effective classroom management a teacher shows, the greater behvioral and cognitive self-control the students manifest and the more time they are able to spend on-task by the Spring of their Kindergarten year. This has important considerations when preparing students for the primary grades; it is not so much about rigidity in classroom management as it is in expecations and consistency of behavioral management. The children must understand what is expected of them, and the teacher must follow through with those expectations (Rimm-Kaufman, Curby, Grimm, Nathanson, & Brock, 2009).

Indeed, task-avoidance is particularly visible when children are presented with heavily cognitive expectations -- math, for instance. Teaching math in the early years is no longer simply a luxury, but a necessity. Reseach in over 1200 children who were tested during their Kindergarten year showed a great deal of variance in avoidance behaviors. The teachers who had stronger behavior management (e.g. more instructional support, more communicated expectations, and more multilevel modeling) also had the combined effect of higher math scores, greater attention to detail,….....