Classroom Management Plan

Teacher-Student Interactions in the Art

Classroom
Mary Bozzelli

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The successful use of classroom management techniques is vital for
any classroom to run smoothly. In the art classroom, classroom
management is extremely important to ensure the safety of all students.
Along with safety, the art classroom consists of a great amount of studio
work time where there is the potential for students to become distracted. I
believe when students are extremely interested and engaged in a topic,
the buzz of activity in the classroom is of relevance and is not necessarily
negative. Establishing clear rules and guidelines in my future classroom
and creating a student-centered environment will allow me to employ a
classroom management style that I prefer where disciplining students is
not continually necessary.
Safety is an important aspect of the art classroom. Art teachers
must evaluate the maturity level of a class in order to better understand
what materials the students are ready to use. This is important for all
grade levels K-12. Teachers need to be sure that students will be
responsible with materials including hot glue guns, paper mache, and even
scissors. Understanding when students are ready to use each material
prevents accidents from happening and student from using materials in a
way that may be destructive or harmful to their work or others. Also, while
the majority of students in a class may be ready to use new materials,
sometimes a few of the students may act inappropriately with the new
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materials. These students must be redirected and should use other
materials until they show enough maturity. Students should understand
how materials must be used from the first day of class when the group
discusses classroom rules.
For my future classroom, I believe each class should have a part
establishing their own guidelines and rules to create a respectful and safe
environment. Students generally know what should and should not
happen in a classroom. Students and teachers can establish rules at the
beginning of the year to build a safe environment that promotes learning
and fun. This method is important for promoting democracy, a
fundamental aspect of our public schools. Creating rules as a class allows
for an even stronger sense of responsibility among students. Students can
be reminded that there was a democratic process in choosing the rules
and those they worked with their peers to choose the rules they would
follow. This is discussed in Discipline Survival Guide for the Secondary
Teacher. The author suggests that rules be stated in a positive manner
including should instead of shouldnt when listing rules. I plan on
working with my students to create a concise list of necessary should
rules and discussing consequences for when these rules are broken.
The teacher must have the power to add to these rules and veto
rules that are unnecessary. Most importantly, these rules should be
posted in the classroom and referred to constantly throughout the year. In
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my future classroom, I plan on spending the first few classes working with
students to create logical rules for the classroom to help promote
classroom safety and community.
Another important aspect of classroom management is attendance.
Taking attendance at the beginning of class has to possibility to take a long
time out of every class every day and the potential to really unengaged
and distract students. The Discipline Survival Guide states quite
specifically never waste your students time by calling the roll out loud
and I agree with this completely. Although this is not usually necessary in
elementary school art classes because the students classroom teacher
prior to art class takes attendance, it emphasizes another important aspect
of classroom management. How can a teacher expect students to be
responsible and show respect if a teacher does not even know their
students names?
There are multitudes of ways to help a teacher recall names and
take attendance rather than calling roll. This helps the students become
engaged more quickly and there is more respect between the teachers and
students. Although it is always best if a teacher memorizes his or her
students names, some people like me are not the best at putting
names to faces. If this happens when I have my own classroom, I plan on
having the students sit at the same tables every week a very loose type
of seating chart (unless a more strict seating chart is needed for discipline
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reasons). There are many other solutions to remember students names if
I decide I do not want a seating chart, for example having students pick up
their sketchbook with their name and a personal collage on the cover at
the beginning of every class.
Another way for communicating respect and building community is
the creation of a classroom blog. At first thought, this may seem to be
unrelated to classroom management but in fact it strengthens all aspects
of community in a classroom. A classroom blog documents process,
learning, thinking, respect, and discussions, just to name a few of the
benefits. A blog created by the classroom communicates to the parents
and community of the students the progress being made in the classroom.
A blog can also be used to discuss standards and rules between the
teacher, students, and parents. When students have a chance to work on
the blog themselves, they process of creating becomes important in many
ways. I plan to use blogging as an important documentation and
classroom management resource for my future art classroom.
An extremely important part of classroom management is the layout
of the room. This is especially important in an art classroom. It is
important that all storage for tools and materials is well labeled in cabinets
around the room. Ideally, there is a place for each class to store their
completed works and works in progress. Students also generally work in
tables and there is the possibility for collaborative work. Each table should
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have four to five students. The tables should be big enough that each
student has enough room to work on their own project without it getting in
the way of other students projects. The tables should also not be too big
that the students cannot reach the center of the table to share materials.
On station days, where the students have the option to use a
variety of materials, which are set at specific stations around the room,
students may work at larger tables or even on the floor. Hopefully, the
classroom will have tiled or wooden floors for easier clean up. Carpet
floors would be a nightmare to keep clean and paint-free. If there is carpet
flooring in the classroom, tarp or plastic will have to be put down for
messier projects and classes.
By thinking of all of these strategies for classroom management, my
art classroom will run smoothly with less need for constant disciplining of
students. I truly believe that when students are engaged and motivated,
the buzz of the art classroom is positive. Noise does not necessarily have
to be a bad thing in the art classroom, but when it is affecting other
classrooms students must understand from the rules at the beginning of
the year that it should be controlled. By developing a classroom where
there is a sense of respect among the students, teacher, parents, and the
community, I believe classroom management will be easier to facilitate and
discipline will be less of an issue. When the students are engaged in
personally relevant material, they become more absorbed in the work. I
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believe that instead of continually redirecting students when they are off
task, teachers should instead ask themselves if they are doing everything
they can to provide engaging material. In an art classroom, where subject
matter should be chosen by what the teachers believe will engage
students, the blame should not necessarily fall primarily on the students.
In my future classroom, I want to continually ask myself if the engagement
of the students and need for more classroom management could be my
fault and if I could be creating more personally relevant lessons to engage
my students more.