TEDX1899X - Build School Communities: Brain Smart Classroom Management

Course Description

This course helps teachers build genuine bonds between themselves and their students and between students and their classmates, to create “kindred class homes” with a foundation of acceptance, respect, and shared purpose. For many of our students, our classrooms may be a safe, nurturing refuge…the eye of the hurricane they experience as life. This course will help you develop strategies, rituals, and environmental design skills to create these safe havens of learning: kindred classhomes where students and teachers work together in synergistic ways that benefit all members of the school family. Students will learn how to differentiate for classroom management and discipline similarly to differentiating for students’ diverse academic needs. One size does not fit all, but all sizes can fit together.

Traditional models of classroom discipline and management are grounded on punitive consequences in top-down authoritarian systems. Teachers make rules and enforce them, often without any discussion with students. This results in disequilibrium in the classroom, some students receiving praise and tangible rewards while others suffer the consequences of noncompliance.

Most educators are familiar by this time with Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, but the concept is limited to academics. Behavior management must be differentiated in the same way that instruction and learning experiences are differentiated. Academically, students have diverse learning styles and preferences that must be addressed if they are to reach their full potential. Why would we expect students to be any less diverse psychologically than they are academically? Some of our students have physiological or psychological disabilities that affect their behavior, such as ADHD, fetal alcohol syndrome, Asperger’s syndrome, autism, etc. Other students’ behaviors may be affected by environmental factors: divorce; incarcerated parents; foster care; physical, sexual, or emotional abuse; domestic violence; drug or alcohol abuse; poverty; gang influence; poor nutrition; transience; homelessness; negligence; etc. One set of rules, rewards, and consequences cannot possibly be expected to work with the diverse groups of students we have in our classrooms today.

As a result of this course, participants will demonstrate their ability to:

• Remember and articulate the differences between traditional school relationships versus kindred school relationships
• Understand and discuss Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Model and how it relates to classroom development
• Understand and describe the of Senge’s Theory of Learning Organizations how they relates to classroom synergy
• Analyze and describe Gardner’s A-Typical Intelligence Types and how these affect behavior and learning
• Analyze and describe Reverman’s Synergy Types and how these affect behavior and learning
• Analyze and describe Myers–Briggs 16 Personality Types and how these affect behavior and learning
• Review Brain-based behavior models and their affect on learning and social behavior
• Understand and articulated how bullies are created and how bullies can be untrained 
• Evaluate by comparing & contrasting of Fred Jones’ Positive Discipline model with other classroom management systems
• Review and discuss how to create a nurturing, safe classhome
• Develop/apply literature and lessons that reinforce positive relationship-building with students
• Develop/apply songs and activities that reinforce positive relationship-building with students
• Develop/apply cooperative games that reinforce positive relationship-building with students
• Understand and describe how to develop empathy in students
• Understand and describe how to help students self-regulate emotions, behavior and social interactions

There are no prerequisites.

As a student you will be expected to:

• Complete all four information sections showing a competent understanding of the material presented in each section.
• Complete all four section examinations, showing a competent understanding of the material presented.  You must obtain an overall score of 70% or higher, with no individual exam score below 50%, to pass this course. *Please note: Minimum exam score requirements may vary by college or university; therefore, you should refer to your course addendum to determine what your minimum exam score requirements are.
• Complete a review of any section on which your examination score was below 50%.
• Retake any examination, after completing an information review, to increase that examination score to a minimum of 50%, making sure to also be achieving an overall exam score of a minimum 70% (maximum of three attempts). *Please note: Minimum exam score requirements may vary by college or university; therefore, you should refer to your course addendum to determine what your minimum exam score requirements are.
• Complete a course evaluation form at the end of the course.

30 Hours

365 Days

3 CEUs

For Additional Information Visit: https://www.virtualeduc.com/html_syllabus/BSC/BSC_UP3_syllabus.htm