The Most Appealing Ideas Expressed by the Author
The book titled “Best Classroom Management Practices for Reaching All Learners” was written by Randi Stone and presents a selection of multiple useful and very important practices for the successful classroom management. One of the best ideas of the author was to create a very comprehensible and easy to navigate outlay of the book. I enjoyed reading it due to the ease of the material presentation.
Each chapter of the book is dedicated to a specific technique and begins with a vivid story of an educator facing challenges and addressing them with the help of a described classroom management strategy. Further, at the end of the chapter, the tips are provided for the readers to make sense of the material, memorize it better, and notice the key points. Each of the techniques can be named as an outstanding idea.
In my personal opinion, chapter three contained the most appealing strategy that provided guidance as to the successful work with the challenging students. I believe that this aspect of an educator’s daily practice is one of the most important because successful teaching and learning are impossible in a classroom that lack discipline and focused atmosphere. Besides, any classroom has at least one student who disrupts the working process and prevents the other learners from grasping the material.
It is critical for a teacher to be able to address the unwanted behaviors of the student and establish the desired order in the classroom in order to facilitate productive work and successful learning for the benefit of the children. The strategies for classroom management and work with the challenging students are outlined in a very clear manner and present a list of tips that can be easily applied by an educator.
The Implications of the Ideas in the Book
For me, as an educator, the book by Stone is a pure treasure because it does not only provide theories as to work with various types of classrooms, but offers practical guidance and advice illustrating it with the help of stories from the experiences of the practicing teachers. That way, the strategies are easy to use for any reader. The implication of the ideas in the book is that a teacher facing challenges related to classroom management may consult the book by Stone looking for answers and help and find useful tips that can be easily adjusted to the particular kinds of setting and classrooms. In other words, the book by Stone is a collection of great ideas helping the teachers improve their relationships with the students right away and establish discipline.
Due to this book, classroom management, an issue that has been faced by thousands of teachers worldwide, is made easy to address. The author makes the techniques very easy to access and covers the most common problems of the educators of all sorts. As a result, the book is made universal, applicable to many situations, and suitable for most teachers and classrooms. The book implies that today, classroom management is no longer a challenge because the experience of generations of teachers has served to create a set of helpful practice and strategies for a purpose to eliminate the most common issues of the educators working with children.
The Ideas of the Author That I Challenge
All in all, the book by Stone is extremely valuable as a guidebook of a teacher regardless of the length of their professional experience and the depth of their knowledge. The materials and tips presented in the book are versatile and aimed at addressing very different situations related to classroom management.
However, there is a particular technique that it would like to challenge. To be more precise, the technique comes from the first chapter of the book and relies on the use of artificial currency to monetize the interactions carried out in class. One the one hand, this strategy educated children about money, improves their math skills, and the ability to manage their budget. On the other hand, this strategy may be seen as a very pragmatic way to disseminate capitalism in its wrong and dangerous forms because the children may begin engaging in corruption and bribery and associate money with the activities and concepts that cannot and should not be sold (such as friendships and mutual help and support).
Differently put, I see that the strategy involving class bucks can be rather helpful for decision making, critical thinking, and problem-solving. However, it is also a potential gate towards dangerous practices that children should not be learning and getting used to at such young age. I believe that this idea should be restricted and regulated by the teacher in a variety of ways in order to protect the children from the harmful side of money and capitalist interactions. Compared to all the other practices described in the book, this one seems particularly challenging in terms of supervision and monitoring.