Classroom Management Assistance

I recently asked a number of veteran teachers the simple question, “What tips, suggestions, or strategies would you offer newer teachers to help them be successful?” Classroom management was a persistent theme among the replies.

Classroom management is an extremely important concern, especially for newer teachers in the field. Teachers who have poor classroom management skills may find themselves overburdened and consequently feel a desire to leave the teaching profession.

Let’s also consider the major focus within education: students. Students deserve to learn within controlled environments. Learning should be respected and students must become positively transformed as a result of taking their courses.

This is where we are at, helping teachers attain proper classroom management strategies in order to save teachers lots of headaches and consequently help students achieve the successes they deserve. The sooner effective strategies are adopted, the sooner teachers can focus on creative ways to address the curriculum, thereby making learning more enjoyable in the long haul for everyone.

Classroom management is something that comes naturally to veteran teachers. They have had years to streamline their classroom procedures and integrate discipline strategies and offer meaningful learning opportunities to their students. Their classrooms usually flow with uninterrupted learning.

We have all seen classrooms that were not as well constructed. A visual image is easily conceived without any prompting from me, as we have all experienced such a situation sometime in our lives. These situations are certainly no fun for the teachers whom fall victim to them.

Teachers fall victim to poor situations because of bad planning. This was Harry Wong’s message when I saw him at The Model Schools Conference in Orlando this year. It was quite a dynamic performance, which provided insight to his ability to motivate others and deliver a set of objectives to help teachers be successful educators.

His book, The First Days of School, explains in detail how to gain a set of procedures for achieving successful practices and good classroom management strategies. They are reasonable strategies that are able to be tailored to meet the style of any teacher. I recommend reading it or, better yet, getting a chance to see Harry Wong in action.

Fortunately, I have had the ability to monitor classroom discipline by working as a dean of students at the high school level. The frequency by which students were sent to my office by certain teachers was nearly always a strong indication of classroom management strategies that needed to be tweaked.

Of course, student behavior needed to be altered, too. Yet, had teachers been able to construct effective classroom procedures and build relationships – the latter part described by Crystal England within her blog – then student problems would have mostly disappeared.

There is a consequence to not having a sound classroom management strategy in place. Teachers deprive themselves of control by having someone else address specific issues. Students are very perceptive and realize who is in control. Sending students to others should be minimized to send the correct message to students: teachers are in control.

Most situations should be entirely handled by the teacher. Only extreme cases of violence, disrespect, or disturbance should be handled by anyone other than a teacher. Handling these situations is not as difficult as it may sound.

I have a number of materials that may help new teachers with classroom management. A free web tutorial can be found at http://www.mathguide.com/services/Discipline/. The section on Preventive Practices may be most helpful to newer teachers. Readers will find theory-based strategies and also helpful documents within the Advanced Strategy section.

The sooner newer teachers develop good classroom management, the sooner they can make leaps and bounds in student achievement by focusing on the curriculum. This step is one that cannot be missed on a teacher’s road to becoming an accomplished educator.

Resources

Harry Wong's Sites: http://teachers.net/wong/, http://www.harrywong.com/, http://www.classroommanagement.com/

Model Schools Site: http://www.modelschoolsconference.com/

Crystal England’s Blog on Classroom Management: http://www.crystalengland.com/blog/2006/03/classroom-management.html