Educational Project

Name: Dima Al Kazzaz

ID: 21930576

Course and Section: Classroom Dynamics-B

Movie: Beyond The Blackboard

Classroom Management used to sound very familiar and easy to people including me.

In fact, classroom management turned out to be a complex process that can not be

achieved by everyone. It is the group of skills and techniques used by a teacher to

keep students engaged and on task to satisfy their own needs and learning objectives.

The purpose behind a well managed classroom is to improve good behaviors and limit

those that distract and disrupt students in class in order to reach effective learning.

The movie “Beyond The Blackboard” showed the powers of a teacher needed. A

teacher should be strong, creative, dedicated and never lose hope but keep trying

to get the best out of her students. This movie highlighted big titles that we already

discussed in classroom dynamics class in a way that spots the light on their importance.

These titles include physical design, businesslike atmosphere , disruptive off-task

behaviors, parent-teacher relationships and teacher’s responsibilities.

The movie shows a non typical physical design of a school and a class in general.

Instead, the place was scary, horrible and can never be considered as a safe environment

for students and teachers too. It was a destructed and polluted building with no desks,

books and appropriate equipment to be used. This made Ms. Stacey feel shocked and

disappointed at the beginning especially when the class turned into a whole mess because

of a mouse that moved in the room when the train passed by the school. This pushed the

teacher to make a shift into a good physical design of the classroom putting all of her

efforts and money to do so. Ms. Stacey kept asking the administration to get her the

classroom basic tools, in addition she cleaned up the mess and painted the classroom,

added posters with the help of an artist in the place who drew her some paintings that

make students feel that they are in a happy and peaceful place, arranged equipment

and used pleasant decor as Garet mentioned in the book. She added everything needed

to make the class feel like home for homeless people.  

Cangelosi talked about the importance of a businesslike atmosphere in the classroomThis means that the teacher and students live in a learning environment where they

make achieving learning goals a priority. This was clearly shown in

“Beyond The Blackboard”. Once the teacher prepared a good physical design,

she in her first class took the advantage to set rules and instructions through

discussion and agreement with students. Ms. Stacey was organized and always

prepared for her classes and used most of the time effectively in making

students learn something new and beneficial. She prepared learning activities

and conducted them in class where she used colored sticky notes and asked the

students to answer and stick their answers on board so they can feel confident

and successful. Adding up, she was obviously using a good communication style

with the students and their parents in which she was very kind and respectful

even though some of them treated her in a non professional way at the

beginning of the school year.

To be a good and effective teacher, it is important to grab your students' attention most

of the time although it is a bit challenging to do.  Usually, teachers in classes deal with

many types of students with different interests and backgrounds. That is why teachers

prepare themselves before class that they might face some off-task behaviors during

their lessons, that might be either disruptive or non-disruptive. In the movie, I noticed

a disruptive off-task behavior when the students in class were working individually on

a sheet of paper when two boys started fighting, the teacher immediately raised her

voice gently to redirect their attention so they stop and get back to what they were

doing not to distract their classmates, and this worked effectively. Keeping your

students on-task is very important to stay focused, attentive and engaged, this happens

by minimizing transition time and increasing allocated time as mentioned in Cangelosi.

Growing an educated generation was never the responsibility of the teachers only.

Parents too are responsible to get the best out of their kids, educate them, help and

support them to achieve better things and follow their  dreams for a change.

Teacher-Parent relationship is one of the most important factors in education,

where kids are monitored at school and at home in parallel. Ms. Stacey in

“Behind The Blackboard” prepared a meeting with parents and convinced them to

give their kids about two hours a day to do their homework and listen to them while

they tell what happened during a school day. She did the meeting after noticing that

her students are enjoying classes and willing to learn, so she felt responsible to keep

improving them in any way possible. Cangelosi highlighted that parents have a

responsibility in helping teachers teach their children and involve them in schools.

In addition, he mentioned that establishing good communication strategies with parents

before dealing with a problem makes it so much easier to discuss their kids’ issues with

the teacher later on.

Throughout our classes, we were always mentioning the responsibilities of a teacher

that are common between all of them. Teachers are responsible to figure out students’

needs, prepare learning activities, conduct them, assess students, prepare designed classes

to reach her objectives smoothly…  Ms. Stacey in the movie is a good example  of an

effective teacher who shifted students’ lives who are homeless, living in shelters and

never cared about being educated into students who love classes and get disappointed

if they were obliged not to attend. Although she was amazing in dealing with children

and getting the best out of them, she worked beyond her responsibilities. She was a

manager, a painter, a counselor and a parent besides being a teacher and that is not

what a typical teacher is. She painted the class, took “Maria” , her student, to live with

her  in order not to quit school, she also asked for a school in summer and for recruiting

teachers which are none of her responsibilities. As we have learned in Cangelosi,

teachers must be kind, caring, and love her students but not to the level to replace

their parents or beloved ones. Students see their teachers as role models and try to

imitate them. Going too far with feelings with students is not as good because a teacher

can be replaced by another due to many reasons and that will be reflected on

students’ mentality . This was observed at the end of the movie when Ms. Stacey had to

leave to give birth.

Being a teacher means you are a multitasker. It requires plenty from you for your

work to be done  properly. It is never easy to deal with many students of different

backgrounds but teachers do. They do it by being consistent, confident and flexible…

A good teacher is someone who does planning, organizing, managing, conducting and

is able to differentiate between her personal life and that in school. 

References:

•  Garet, T. (2014). Effective classroom management: The essentials.

•  Cangelosi, J. S. (2013). Classroom management strategies: Gaining and maintaining

students' cooperation. New York: Longman.