The PALS Program

One of the first articles I found about the topic of classroom management in a middle school setting has turned out to be one of my most interesting and most useful for my project. "The Positive Alternative Learning Supports Program: Collaborating to Improve Student Success" starts out with two very real scenarios in the classroom with "problem children." The article then goes into ways that a teacher at any experience level can handle this situation.

One of the main arguments made in this article is for the use of mentorship, whether it be another teacher, counselor, parent, or some other authority figure, that the student can check in with periodically throughout the week regarding various topics. The student can discuss their social life, homework, classroom atmosphere, or anything that they like. This is meant to keep the motivation of the student up and not solely the responsibility of the teacher. Also, by having an outside mentor, the student can feel comfortable talking about problems in the classroom that he might not want to talk about with his teacher.

The results of this program have shown great success in the classroom. By collaborating teachers, administrators, parents and students, the middle school experience can be a success. With the use of assessment along with this mentorship, attendance has gone up as well as grades. This program seems to be a success all around and an option for my classroom one day hopefully.