CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

Classroom Management

Classroom Management

Introduction

One of the biggest concerns that first year teachers have is how are they going to be able to control the classroom. Teachers need to be able to successful establish a good model of discipline for their classroom; otherwise they will not be able to effectively transfer their knowledge to the students. If a teacher does not spend enough time on discipline then the class might become out of control, on the other side if a teacher spends too much time on discipline then the class may not misbehave as much and there is barely any time left for actual teaching. This is why we as teachers need to find the right balance of discipline in order to effectively teach the class; otherwise we just become another babysitter to them during the day.

Discussion

Biggest fear as first year teachers is not that we will not know the material to teach our students, but whether or not we will be able to control our classrooms so that we have the chance to successfully teach them. Most every first year teacher has said that the hardest thing for them to deal with was classroom management. How to handle the classroom discipline and time management are key components to having a good learning environment.

The first step to having a successful classroom management plan is to define what misbehaving actually is. Each teacher can have a different definition of what misbehaving actually is. Some teachers may think that speaking out of turn may be misbehaving while others will actually encourage it. So it is important for us as teachers to clearly define what misbehaving is to our students, that way there is no confusion as to what we expect from our students. Discipline system may vary class to class, but base definition of what misbehavior is as follows: Misbehavior is any kind of action that a student does to affect the learning environment of the classroom in a negative way (Joanne, Robert, Roy, 1986).

When a student misbehaves teachers tend to think that they are purposefully trying to disrupt their class just to make life hard on them, when in most cases this is not true. Students usually have a reason for acting out in class or not doing what the teacher tells them to do. Our jobs as teachers should be to not over react and punish that student unnecessarily, which is most teachers do. Instead we should keep a clear head and try to find out why that student misbehaved the way that they did. It may be something small that the student can work out after class.

Knowing why students are misbehaving in our classrooms can help teachers to make a plan to prevent misbehavior in the class. The best kind of discipline that there is, is the one never have to use (Burden, 2000). This will allow the teacher with more time for actual teaching and give the students the optimal time for ...