4 Tips for Effective Classroom Management Classroom management is simply the techniques teachers use to maintain control in the classroom. Educators employ a variety of strategies and techniques to ensure that students are organized, on task, well-behaved, and productive during the school day. A lack of effective classroom management can cause chaos and stress, which can create an unsatisfactory learning environment for students and an unsatisfactory work environment for the teacher. However, these tips will help you master classroom management and create a quality learning environment. Know Your Students and How They Learn Implementing successful classroom management strategies creates a positive learning environment for students and ensure that they successfully master the materials presented. Teachers always want their students to succeed and thrive, but what that looks like for each individual might differ. Have a Strong Lesson Plan A key aspect of effective classroom management is knowing what you're going to do.
Why Instructional Design Must Focus on Learning Outcomes, Not Learning Activities It’s no secret that kids learn better when teachers provide learning activities that keep them engaged. Teachers work tirelessly to plan engaging lessons that capture and keep the interests of their students, thereby making content more accessible. However, teachers continue to feel the daunting pressure to compete for their students’ attention amidst the ever-evolving and rapidly-hanging mass media, social media, and entertainment industry, as these elements do a stellar job of keeping students highly engaged outside of the classroom. Although it is vitally important for us to know and understand our students' interests and the best conditions under which they learn, there is good news: It’s not necessary that we focus our efforts on competing with the devices and activities our students engage in during their downtime outside of the classroom! Recreation, entertainment, and downtime for students outside of the classroom are just that: recreation, entertainment, and downtime.
20 Questions Parents Should Ask Teachers 20 Questions Parents Should Ask Teachers by Terry Heick Back-to-school content is usually focused on teachers and students, and as these two groups will have the largest workload ahead of them, that makes sense. But for students, the ultimate support system is not an expert teacher, but an informed and supportive family. While schools (hopefully) work to update themselves and the way students learn within them, many parents have to work with what’s available to them. Ask them what they did today.Help them with homework.Help them stay organized.Help them with separation anxiety.Talk to them about their struggles.Get them a tutor. But these kind of topical interactions aren’t always enough, nor do they do anything at all to create transparency between schools and communities. So, in pursuit of that transparency, below are some questions parents ideally would be asking you to better clarify what’s happening in the classroom. Your shoulders, then.
What Is Classroom Management? A Guide for Newbie and Veteran Teachers There are some topics that are so broad, so overwhelming that it’s hard to know where to begin. For teachers, classroom management can be one of those topics. It is a critical skill; some say it’s more important than content knowledge. And yet, there is no single method or protocol to follow to ensure success. So what’s a new teacher, or a teacher returning to the classroom after many years away, to do? What is classroom management? Simply put, classroom management refers to the wide variety of skills and techniques that teachers use to ensure that their classroom runs smoothly, without disruptive behavior from students. This can look different depending on which subject and age group you teach, how many students you have, and most importantly, your core personality. Of course, the ultimate goal for any teacher is an academically productive classroom with focused, attentive, and on-task students. The bottom line is this: Effective classroom management is an absolute must.
7 Classroom Management Techniques That Really Work Some classrooms run like clockwork, with teachers seeming to manage them effortlessly. Others … well, not so much. But there’s nothing magic or automatic about classroom management. It’s a skill that teachers build over time, constantly refining their classroom management strategies to find the ones that work best for them. 1. While teachers don’t usually get to choose their own classroom management systems, sometimes one stands out enough to be brought to your administrators’ attention for consideration. 2. This is the most important of classroom management strategies and often the most challenging. Be realistic about how much information you can hold in your head. 3. This doesn’t just mean calling home when there’s a problem. If this sounds like a lot of work, we’ve got good news! 4. These days, there are no set rules for what a classroom needs to look like. 5. Most teachers start the year by sharing their classroom rules and procedures. 6. 7. 8. 9. Sitting still is hard. 10. 11.
Multiple Intelligences: What Does the Research Say? Many educators have had the experience of not being able to reach some students until presenting the information in a completely different way or providing new options for student expression. Perhaps it was a student who struggled with writing until the teacher provided the option to create a graphic story, which blossomed into a beautiful and complex narrative. Or maybe it was a student who just couldn't seem to grasp fractions, until he created them by separating oranges into slices. Because of these kinds of experiences, the theory of multiple intelligences resonates with many educators. It supports what we all know to be true: A one-size-fits-all approach to education will invariably leave some students behind. Howard Gardner's Eight Intelligences The theory of multiple intelligences challenges the idea of a single IQ, where human beings have one central "computer" where intelligence is housed. The Difference Between Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles References Tomlinson, C.
12 Questions To Ask Your Students On The First Day Of School - 12 Questions To Ask Your Students On The First Day Of School by Terry Heick The premise here is simple enough, and I’ve written about this kind of thing before in greater detail (see 20 Questions Parents Should Ask Teachers). You’ll likely learn their name, roughly be able to estimate their height, know what school they attended last, know what languages they speak, and get a sense of what school–at least so early in the year–seems to ‘mean’ to them. The big idea here is to use the first day (or week or month) to get to know the right things about your students. We’ve shared 11 Simple, Back-to-School, Getting To Know Students Questions where Dawn Casey-Rowe takes a look at–well, the kinds of questions teachers might consider asking students above and beyond the common. Below I’m going to offer up 12 more that you might consider. How relevant they are depends on the student, their grade level, how articulate they are, how comfortable they are with thinking about thinking, and so on. 1. 2.
Classroom Management More Articles of Interest CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT TIPS Differentiated Instruction, Flexibility Make Multi-Age Classes Work Multi-grade classes sound like a lot of work for teachers. But by regularly assessing students, differentiating instruction, and using flexible groupings, the experience can be revitalizing for a teacher. Included: Tips for planning lessons in multi-grade classes. Goal Setting Made Easy Teaching students how to set goals is easy with Goal Setting 101, a 3-part article that describes the process, and the Goal Tracker booklet, a student journal for recording goals and focusing on action steps. Tools for Teaching Supplies Specifics for PBIS and RtI The objective of Tools for Teaching for the past 40 years has been to develop specific classroom management procedures that prevent both discipline and instruction problems.
A Classroom Management Plan for Elementary School Teachers Every school day isn’t perfect, even for the best teachers; kids are human and will have bad days. But, you can work toward whatever your ideal classroom looks like by establishing clear classroom rules and procedures from the first day of school. When students know what is expected of them, and these expectations are reinforced daily, there is little room for power struggles between teacher and student, or complaints from parents. Classroom Rules Imagine a basketball game in which none of the players know the rules. The referees would blow the whistle constantly, admonishing players for breaking rules they didn’t know existed. In your classroom, you are the referee, your students are the players, and the fans are parents and guardians. Less is More Create a few straightforward yet inclusive rules for your classroom. We just gave you a lot of rules for writing classroom rules! Communicate with Parents Be Consistent Classroom Procedures Teaching Procedures I do: We do: You do: Common Procedures or