Comprehensive Project

• Home
• Management and Discipline Defined
• Motivation and Discipline
• The Physical Environment
• Time Management
• Proximity and Mobility
• Praise, Prompt and Leave
• Visual Instruction Plan
• Say, See, Do
• Calm and Consistent
• Limit Setting
• References
• About the Authors

Proximity and Mobility

 Proximity emphasizes two different ideas. One idea is that if the teacher is in close proximity to students then they are more likely motivated to learn because the teacher is near them and they are most likely to be called on. Another idea is that if the teacher is near students then they are most likely not going to be able to disrupt and misbehave with one another. If the teacher is just always at the front of the classroom then students in the back are not being paid attention to, which will result in disruptions. This is where mobility comes into play. If, the teacher is always moving around the room than, this allows students the opportunity to participate and are least likely going to be tempted to misbehave.

 Jones (2007) describes zones of proximity. There are three zones of proximity and are represented by the colors: red, yellow and green. “The red zone is a circular area around the teacher roughly eight feet in radius” (Jones, 2007, p. 31). The red signifies stop, meaning since the teacher is in close proximity students are given the cue that it is not safe to goof off.  Yellow is the next zone and it is outside of the red zone. “The yellow zone extends another six feet in every direction” (Jones, 2007, p. 31). Yellow signifies caution. Meaning that students should act in the same way as if they were in the red zone, but only if the teacher is facing them. “But if the teacher should become distracted by helping a student for a little too long, especially if the teacher’s back is turned” then to the student the coast is clear to goof off (Jones, 2007, p. 31). The final zone is the green zone and it lies outside of the yellow zone. The green signifies go. To the students who are furthest away from the teacher they first see that the coast is clear and when the signal is clear than it is a go for them. When the teacher is able to identify the zones of proximity is truly when the teacher will respond with movement making sure that all students are on task.

Mobility cannot be accomplished without arranging the classroom environment. "The objective of room arrangement is to create walkways in order to make mobility easy" (Jones, 2007, p. 41). The teacher should be able to get to every student within the fewest possible steps. In order to get to every student the teacher needs to establish an interior loop. The interior loop is a walkway that is placed around the center desks of the students so that the teacher is able to get to the students within a few steps. Making walkways that are spacious helps mobility come into action.

Spiritual Application: Matthew 18:12-14 (New Living Translation) “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish." This passage encourages us to keep our students at a close proximity so that they will not have to be off task. We believe that it is one of the teacher's job to be consistently monitoring students by walking around and standing at all times. We must not lose sight of our students because that results in a loss of learning.