Classroom Management
Definition
- Classroom management consists of the practices and procedures a teacher uses to maintain the environment in which instruction and learning can take place.
- Classroom management creates the foundation for an effective and successful classroom. It is invisible when performed at its best. It is apparent when it is missing from classrooms.
What Effective Teachers Do...
- Effective classroom managers have effective classroom procedures.
- Effective teachers have procedures that governed students with regard to talking, participation in oral lessons and discussion, getting out of their seats, checking or turning in work, what to do when work was finished early, and ending class.
- At the beginning of the school year, effective classroom managers clearly explained their classroom organizational procedures and expectations and then followed their presentations with review and reminders of procedures and expectations in subsequent weeks. In all classes, the teachers gave clear, simple directions and were excellent in structuring transitions.
- Students are kept apprised of time left for an activity and were forewarned of upcoming transitions. Teachers brought one activity to an end before beginning another. They also told students what materials would be needed for an activity and had students get materials ready before beginning the lesson. When students were assigned to work in pairs or groups, procedures governed how students were to work with each other.
- Effective teachers produce results from a classroom that is predictable, reliable, and consistent.
- Consistency in a classroom is created when there is repetition of actions and tasks- procedures. Consistency allows students to know beforehand what to expect and how to perform the classroom procedures.
The Proof is in the Planning
- Good classroom management does not just happen; effective teachers plan good classroom management.
- The purpose of effective classroom management is to ensure that student engagement leads to a productive working atmosphere.
- Well Managed Classroom + Student Engagement = Productive Learning Environment
Procedures Form the Plan
- The basis of classroom management lies in the procedures that form a management plan to produce the successful achievement of learning goals.
- Procedures are the tasks students must do to increase their chances for learning and achieving.
- A routine is a procedure that students do repeatedly without any prompting or supervision.
The Need for a Trusting Environment
- Students must trust you before they will trust what you plan to teach.
- Students want to come to a school where there are no surprises. They trust the learning environment that has been established. They know what to expect, and it happens each day. Trust comes from the surety of consistency.
3 Steps to Effective Discipline
- Step 1 involves managing undesirable behavior. No teacher will get along well with their students if the children are constantly irritating them with whining, arguing, teasing, badgering, tantrums, yelling, and fighting.
- Step 2 involves encouraging good behavior. Encouraging good behavior such as cleaning up, transitioning, being courteous, and doing classwork, takes more effort-for both adult and child- than managing difficult behavior.
- Step 3 involves learning some valuable and not-so-difficult ways of strengthening your relationships with your students.
The 3 Steps to Teaching Classroom Procedure
- Most teachers who fail at teaching procedures do so because they merely tell the procedure to the class. To teach something to someone, you model, explain, show examples, allow for discussions and questions, ask for a demonstration of an understanding of the teaching and assess the demonstration for learning.
- There is a procedure for teaching procedure. All procedures can be implemented in 3 easy steps. Most importantly, teach the procedure step-by-step.
- Teach, rehearse, and reinforce are the 3 steps used to teach any procedure.