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PEITF NEWSLETTER

Bob MacRae

Editorial by Bob MacRae
Effective Classroom Management Is?

Every teacher develops their own style of classroom management and classroom organization as they progress through their teaching career. For some, it appears effortless. Observers would say students are engaged and focused and although you do know an excellent learning environment is being organized and sustained. In other cases and at certain times and with some students, the classroom environment can feel strained; tension is evident. Clearly, all teachers face situations where it is a struggle to maintain a positive learning environment; nobody is perfect!

Beginning teachers, especially in their first few months of teaching worry about classroom management and classroom organization, some express dis-satisfaction about their level of preparedness by the teaching training institution. They focus on surviving the first few months and developing a style that works for them.

Other beginners sail into the classroom and immediately appear to have developed a management style that provides a positive, engaging learning environment. One school of thought is that classroom management skills can be explicitly taught to prospective teachers. A divergent school of thought claims it’s an art, and, at it’s most extreme viewpoint would say: “ you either have it or not.”

The truth is probably somewhere in between. Most teachers describe an initial survival period where we become at ease in the classroom and develop our own style of classroom management skills. For me, the first lesson was learning there’s no single answer followed by the powerful message that I could learn from fellow teachers.

What do the experts, both theoretically and practically say? The most recent Education Update, November 2011 published by ASCD (www.ascd.org) provides brief, clear advice in its article ‘How to Manage Your Classroom Effectively.’

According to Carol Ann Tomlinson, the coauthor of Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom; classroom management includes everything from seating to transitions to engagement to discipline. She suggests it should not include a command and control approach. The goal she suggests is to create a learning environment that is orderly but enabling.

A few favoured strategies from teachers are:

►take time to get to know your students and enlist them in their own
    success
►collaborate with your class to create guidelines for appropriate behavior
►establish a routine for starting class (post a problem so students begin
     immediately. Post the learning objectives for the class)
►establish a signal indicating when students should stop talking and give
    you their full attention (don’t talk over the top of students) give clear
    directions
►create a strategy for students to request help (check with three before
     me, hint cards, etc.)
►use technology strategically
►practice flexible grouping and provide time for collaboration
►let kids use their own words (e.g. use a fishbowl activity to have students
    respond to a provocative question)

The most significant strategy is to plan a high quality curriculum.

“A high quality curriculum is an effective method of discipline” says Tomlinson.

Enjoy the holiday season!