Behaviorism in the Classroom

In today's school systems, there are many conflicts and opinions dealing with students behavior in the classroom. In many different books and articles, behaviorism says that human behavior is determined by the forces in the environment beyond our control and not by the exercise of free will. In my opinion, teachers can not teach students how to behave in the classroom. Teachers can provide knowledge for proper manners and behaviors that they expect in the classroom, but they should not expect to change any child's behavior just by telling them how to behave. After doing some research and finding different articles on behavior, I realized that some teachers are able to teach children how to behave by incorporating behavior styles into their lessons. By teaching students how to behave while during a lesson, students do not feel as if they are being lectured and taught about how they behave. This provides a fun way to students to learn their academics, and apply their learning process with the way in which they behave while doing it. As I stated above, there are many different opinions and perspectives on behavior. After looking over these different theories on behavior, I think that I, as a future teacher will be able to integrate behavior techniques into my teaching styles in order to help my students learn and grow and a calm and somewhat structured environment.

I also found some websites talking about different teachers approaches to behaviorism and how they include in their classroom. This specific website states that some college professors expect students to be academically ready to enter their classroom. They feel that they should know how to handle their curriculum and expectations. I feel that this website helps future teachers learn how other teachers of various grades expects their students to behave and enter their classroom.

Inclusion

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Inclusion is a term that expresses commitment to educate each child, to the maximum extent appropriate, in the school and the classroom that they would otherwise attend. It brings support to the child in their classroom as opposed to having the child leave their classroom to go elsewhere. There is a big controversy over inclusion in the classroom. Some parents will argue that inclusion is the best thing for their child because the child does not feel different and embarrassed in front of their peers while leaving the classroom. Other parents feel that their child should not be sitting in a classroom with other students who know and understand the material better, which could be distracting and discouraging to their child. It's difficult for teachers to talk with parents and other staff members on this subject. In many ways, inclusion is a great way for the student to learn and move on with their classmates, but in other ways, being in the classroom with 20 other students is just way to distracting for that one child. After finding many different articles and websites on inclusion, I came to an understanding of my feelings on inclusion. I feel that no matter what the state or school decides, the student should have the say to whether or not they want help in or out of the classroom. Some students do not like being pulled out of the classroom during the middle of a lesson because they may be at a slower pace then their peers. In this case, another teacher integrated into the classroom would benefit this child. On the other hand, some students are able to concentrate better when they have one on one time with a specialist, which is perfectly appropriate too. It really depends of the needs of the child and how comfortable they are with their learning disability.
As stated on this website, inclusion can benefit the students with disabilities and also the students without disabilities. Depending upon the classroom and the class size, not only do I think that the students should have a say to whether or not they want help in or out of the classroom, but I think that it needs to be thoroughly discussed with the regular teacher, a specialist, and the child in which will help the team come to a decision to what is best suited for the child.

Eliminating Racism in the Classroom

From my perspective, racism is a problem that teachers have to deal with on a day to day basis. It can start from as young as 5 years old continue on up throughout high school and college. In my opinion, there are many different ways that racism can be prevented within a school setting. From my personal experiences, I observed a 5th grade classroom for my freshman year education class. The theme of the week was diversity and racism. When I entered the classroom, the students were in the middle of doing presentations using poster boards and acting out scenarios in which racism is used and how negative it is. As I was continuing to observe these children, I looked around the classroom to see their peers reactions to what their classmates were trying to establish with their presentation. Almost every single student had amazing eye contact with their classmates who were doing the presentation. They were really interested in learning about racism and how to help prevent it within a school district.

After doing some research on the topic of racism, i found a website that discussed ways to help eliminate racism in the classroom. Within this website, the author gave ideas and strategies to help teachers teach and prevent racism from happening in the classroom. One of they ways that the author uses is by using multi sensory learning styles. Multi sensory learning styles helps students to get a feel for what other cultures are like. In this specific article, the author uses examples such as children making posters and doings skits in order to show what racism is and what it is like. After doing these posters and skits, the students are able to discuss and understand what it feels like for these diverse children to come into a place to which they are different.

Also on youtube, i found a video that shows a teacher using racism in his classroom. He was caught using a negative slur to one of his students. How are teachers supposed to teach students not to be racist, if the teachers are provoking it?