Limits In The Classroom

In the article, “Setting Behavior Limits in the Classroom”, by Karen Plumley, she shares how effective, important, and beneficial it is to have a set of classroom rules that are able to be followed and are visible to all the students, especially for students with disabilities. Karen states how it is extremely important to have rules that are able to be visually seen by the students and how important it is to go over the rules with the students. This is important because you will be able to refer back to the rules when children are misbehaving and it makes the rules known to the students. She states that teachers should also leave some sort of leeway so if for any reason they need to change or revise the rules they are able too. Karen also discusses the importance of teaching and giving students examples of how they should behave in public places and at home. In doing this she believes that teachers should correct the student’s manners and behaviors and show them what they should have done. Karen Plumley’s article shows how having rules and limits in the classroom will help the classroom run more smoothly.

            I feel as if Karen Plumley’s points are very true because a teacher will not have any control over his or her classroom if the students have no set rules to follow. The room would be absolute chaos and the students would have no respect for the teacher or anything else in the classroom. She does a great job of supporting her key point because she gives examples and ways to solve these problems throughout the article and gives details that are very helpful. Another thing I found interesting was that throughout the article she provide helpful suggestions and advice to help maintain a controlled and organized classroom setting. For example, she shared why it was important to have rules for the classroom and students and also how to handle a situation when a student is not using manners of behaving correctly. I feel as though these small suggestions could be extremely helpful for a beginning teacher.

            After reading “Setting Behavior Limits in the Classroom”, I felt as though I was able to relate to a lot of what Karen Plumley was talking about. I remember many times in high school, middle school, and elementary school where teachers would have no idea how to handle some of the problems in the classroom and times when there was absolutely no control over the students. When I was in fifth grade my teacher had no rules in the classroom and every student did what they could to push her buttons. It was an awful experience because my class that year ended up going through three teachers. When you experience something like that it helped me realize the importance of having rules and being able to handle your students.  If the students respect you and you respect them, it is more likely that they will appreciate you as a teacher and listen and follow what you tell them to do.  Like I had stated before, I learned how important it is to have classroom management. It is beneficial for the students and for the teacher. I feel that the better classroom management you have the smoother the days in the classroom will run. This information will benefit me because I now have an idea of some of the things and behaviors that could, in the future, come about in my own classroom. After reading this I now have a better understanding of how to handle and prevent some situations.