Classroom Management Is About Creating a Caring Environment

1. Think about your current classroom space, or the last classroom in which you spent time.  Would you consider it a “student-centered” classroom? What features were student centered?  What could you do to make it even more student centered? 
    
2. What role can school administrators play in the creation of student-centered classrooms and schools?
    
3. Describe and discuss the case of Mr. Jefferies (page 100). How might Mr. Jefferies (page 100) have avoided the situation presented with Ori and Sally?
    
4. Consider your own experiences in education.  Have you used or participated in a classroom where teachers used any of the twelve strategies provided on page 102 to co-create classroom norms with students? If so, how have these experiences with students differed from those where teachers did not engage in these practices? Describe some outcomes seen related to classroom management and student learning in each sort of environment.
    
5. On page 106, the authors provide nine reflective questions for teachers to think about in relation to their students. Choose two or three of these and apply them to your current or past classrooms with specific examples to describe how you have done each as well as the impact they had.
    
6. On pages 112-113, the authors use Milner’s previous work to discuss how teachers might cultivate relationships with their students. Critique each based on your perception of their feasibility. If you believe some are unfeasible, what is the basis of your belief? What might need to change about your environment (school or classroom) to make them more feasible?    How might you adapt them?
    
7. How might aspects of your identity (race, age, gender, religion, etc.) affect the ways in which you engage in partnering with families and communities? In what ways have you tried to include students’ caregivers in your classroom in the past?  What were the outcomes of your efforts in terms of student engagement and academic success?