What kinds of classroom management concerns do you have in your Sunday school? How can you and your class work together to create a positive environment filled with the potential for the desire to learn? This section looks at many factors that contribute to a safe, secure, and positive learning environment.

You'll learn about:

• Creating learning experiences for learners
• Managing people
• Managing the environment
• Punishment and reward systems

My Class or Their Class?

Do the students you are with think of your time together as their class, your class, or the church's class? Many kids simply identify it as something they are required to do.

In his book A Biological Brain in a Cultural Classroom (Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, CA. 2000), Robert Sylwester says, "It is biologically impossible to learn something if we are not attending to it, and we do not attend to things that are not emotionally meaningful to us."

There are a variety of reasons why many students today do not find their time in Sunday school emotionally meaningful. Teachers report ambivalence toward what is happening and lack of attention as a major behavior concern. What can you bring to help learners attend to the work of learning and ignite the desire to continue to grow spiritually?

Begin by giving kids a voice in what happens in class. This does not mean beginning each day by saying, "What should we do?" Come prepared with a plan and a purpose. Be sure they know what it is and what you expect. Then engage their needs as people. Pay attention to the relationships. Even the youngest children will give you signals to help you know what they need. And, yes, this will require planning and preparing.

Engage, Solve, Act

Sylwester's description of how our brain causes us to pay attention to something may help you understand why kids (and other adults) do what they do. Here's how it works:

• Our sensory system notices a change (sudden loud sound), which causes
• Our emotional systems to kick in (alarm), and
• Our attentional systems take over (where should I focus?).

The greater the sensory change or emotional excitement the more attention it gets.

In the case above, the attention focused toward a previously open door and a windy atmosphere. The brain's solution was that the door slammed shut. An easy cause and effect.

The action based on this scenario is probably minimal and short term do nothing or open the door.

But what does that mean in your classroom? What is happening in your class and around your class that is competing for the attention of your students? What can you influence about the environment so kids will attend to your plan, rather than something else?

Energy, Space, Time, and Movement

According to Sylwester, four elements need to be managed simultaneously. Remember, ask the kids to help you manage these elements. The class belongs to them.

Energy Energy can be potential (waiting to be activated) or kinetic (moving), but it is always there. Plan activities that use moving energy as part of the learning.

Space Think of your space as the room or area assigned to you and all that occupies that area — students, furniture, and other resources. What can you control about your space?

• Just need table and chairs for a hard writing surface? Move it to the edge of the room where kids can stand around it to write or draw. You can sit on the floor in another area, and you have found space.
• Do you share your space with other classes? How can you plan together to create the best environment?
• Is there a hallway, corner, or space outdoors where you can move occasionally?
• Do children feel there is personal and physical space for them?
• Does your space look and feel welcoming?

Time Time can be spent, saved, or wasted.

• Does an activity spend time that helps kids learn?
• Does it waste time doing something that isn't focused on your learning goals for the day or year?
• Might skipping one activity save time for something more important?

Movement Movement is constant. Your challenge is to determine how to channel movement into experiences leading to understandings about themselves, their faith, and the world around them.

• Physical movement. Forty-five minutes is a long time for children to sit in one place and attempt to pay attention. Simply moving to a corner to read the Bible story can help kids refocus.
• Brain movement. Sounds and images voices, music, wind, and light keep the brain in constant motion. Can you control any of these for particularly focused activities?
• Psychological movement. The acts of beginning and ending on a daily or yearly basis affects the environment in your classroom. How do you greet kids when they arrive or say good-bye when they leave? Does this contribute to their sense of belonging to the class?

A Note about Punishment and Rewards

Most congregations would list creating the desire for lifelong learning as one of the goals of their Sunday school. Think about the role of rewards and of punishment in attaining this goal. Does receiving a reward (sticker, prize, toy, or certificate) increase or decrease children's internal motivation to engage in continual discoveries?

This is a controversial issue in the early 21^st century, a time filled with competition and rating systems. Alfie Kohn has become a prominent spokesman for the school of thought that says punishments and rewards stem from the same basic premise — if you do X, Y will happen. The systems are set in place to encourage learning or discourage misbehavior, and in the short term that is often the outcome. However, the long-term impact of doing or not doing something for what the individual gets, rather than for the good of the whole, works against the stated goals.

Do you have reward systems in place in your Sunday school? Treats for good behavior? Stickers for memory work? Is the long-term student behavior better? Do kids understand the memorized Bible verses or retain them? What would change if the rewards did not exist? For many youth the reward for attending classes is being confirmed and no longer having to attend. Was this the initial intent?

You are more likely to reach the goals of emotionally engaging kids in learning if you simply build surprises into your plans. Parties, stickers, a special guest, or certificates — just because — will help everyone find delight in each other and in being a part of a community of faith. The opportunity for surprises is open to all. You can read an excerpt from his book Punished by Rewards (Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, 1999), as well as reviews by adovocates and detractors at http://www.amazon.com. Type Punished by Rewards in the Search Box.

Use the Online Reflection activity to reflect on how the conditions in your class affect the potential to engage in learning. You can reflect on the questions online, print the Web page, or highlight, copy, paste, and save the text to work in a word document.

Use the suggestions in Linking Volunteers to reflect on the needs of your congregation and to create connections for online participants.