Classroom Management

Rachel McGuire
Classroom management is an extremely important part of being a teacher. If you
cant keep your students under control, then you are never going to teach them
anything. The management comes first and the teaching comes seconds. Classroom
management however, isnt something that can necessarily be taught. Everyone is
going to have a different outlook and preference on how they need to manage their
class. For example, the big, bulky and tall chemistry teacher is going to have a lot
easier of a time than the small, quiet and short history teacher will. When you are
teaching, you just need to find what works for you and the students you have at
the time. My ideal classroom management plan will contain the following three
major elements:
1. Students will know what is expected of them the minute they walk into the
room. They will have to follow all classroom procedures and rules. If they do
not, then they are most likely interfering with my right to teach, and
someone elses right to learn and they will promptly be dismissed from the
room. When you are dismissed the first two times, you will be given the
assigned work to complete in the hall and turn in at the end of the period.
Any time thereafter, the student will be dismissed to the office with a referral
reading interfering with learning. No principal wants to hear that their
students are being hindered from learning.
2. My classroom will always remain very neat and organized. The desks will
typically be arranged into groups in order to promote cooperative learning. If
the class demonstrates that they are not capable of having that privilege,
then I will take it away until they prove they can handle it again. Seats will
be assigned by group and they will be arranged by skill level. The groups will
have no more than four students and will host an above average student, a
medium-high average student, a medium-low average student, and one
below average student. This is known as the Kagen method, and I have seen
it in action and it is highly affective.
3. I will always have an anticipatory set on the board for when students come
in. I call it a do now problem because students are supposed to come in, sit
down, and do the problem now. It is an amazing concept! The do now will
tell students what handouts they are supposed to pick up from the front day,
what they may need to take out from the previous day, and a math problem
to solve. The problem will either be related to the previous days material or
it may serve as a warm up for the material we are going to begin that day.