Post #3

The book I selected this week, ClassroomManagement: Creating a Positive Learning Environment, is written by Hue Ming-tak and Li Wai-shing. I gained two pieces of knowledge from this book that I would like to share. The first piece of knowledge I gained from this book comes from chapter five, Approaches to Students’ Misbehavior, which mentions that there are four goals of misbehavior. When students feel that they do not belong in the classroom they turn to these four mistaken goals that include: attention-seeking, power-seeking, revenge, and helplessness or inadequacy. The second piece of knowledge that I gained from this book comes from chapter three, Effective Classroom Management. I learned that you can break down classroom management into four smaller components so that it is easier to tackle, especially for novice teachers. The four components include: management of the physical environment, management of learning, classroom procedures and rules, and managing discipline.

This week I used some new search strategies that were particularly helpful in locating the books I found. I began by using Leatherby Libraries and narrowing my results by three search terms and e-books. This was not very helpful for me because I only received two results and neither had anything to do with my research topic. After that failed attempt, I changed my search to only include two search terms. This time I received more results and I found one book that would be helpful for my research, but I did not want to finish my research here. I decided to try the Google Books database. I put in my search terms and found one book that would be very helpful with my research. I liked using the Google Books database more than the Leatherby Libraries and will probably use Google for the majority of the research I do in the future. The only frustration I had with the Google Books database was that the book I found was not an e-book. However, the book had a very large preview that included the majority of all the chapters, the foreword, the preface, and the table of contents. I can overcome that the book was not available in an e-book version by going to my local library and checking out the book to continue my research.

As I continue my research I am hoping to find even more ways to effectively manage the classroom and student behavior. I am interested in finding out more information about the physical environment of the classroom. For example, I want to find out about seating arrangements and visual aspects of the classroom like wall colors and decorations. I am also interested in finding out more information about ways to discipline students who misbehave.