Classroom Management

Proactive, Productivity-Driven, Promotes Responsibilities, Increases Learning Time, and Creates Predictable Behaviours!

Classroom management is ultimately how the teacher runs the classroom, in such a way that there is effective teaching and learning going on. It is all about organization and consistency, so that students are productive, successful, and there is minimal need for discipline. To ensure effective classroom management, there are five main topics of interest that educators should take note of:

Classroom Culture- 

• Respect and trust between the teacher and the student.
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  A warm and welcoming teacher that is willing to go above and beyond for their students' success. This includes extra time spent outside of class, working with individuals.
• Include the students in lesson planning and assessment.
• Consistent communication with parents/guardians.
• A teacher that is empathetic, enthusiatic, and cares about their students above everything else.
• Classroom Beliefs- instead of listing a bunch of classroom rules that the students shouldn't do, have the whole class collaborate a list of classroom beliefs. This changes the negativity from things students shouldn't do, to allowing them to describe what they want their classroom to look like, sound like, and feel like.

Teaching Style-

• Incorporate lessons that involve multiple learning styles, so that each child can feel successful.
• Differentiated instruction.
• Demonstrate the task first.
• Hands-on activities to get the students engaged and excited about the lesson.
• Provide a mix of individual, group, and class work. This ensures that students get a chance to collaborate ideas, learn from each other, but also take some time for themselves, to understand the content.
• Student-focused approach.
  
  
  
  

Physical Environment-

• Seating- consider who is sitting next to eachother, what kind of flexible seating you have included in your classroom, are the students situated individually or in groups, how are the groups decided, etc?
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  Distratcing Objects- the classroom should be warm and welcoming, with inviting displays on the wall. However, not to the extent that would become a distraction, and prevent students from completing their work. This also includes items that students may leave to go and “explore”. These should be kept away until the time is right.
• Easily Accessible Material- common materials that students may need to complete a task are situated in a place that can be accessible for all students, at any given time.
• Organized/De-Cluttered- cluttered classrooms can lead to students wasting time looking for materials, which may cause misbehaviour. This is because they aren’t focused on doing their work. Organized classrooms are a must, as they reduce student anxiety.

Procedures/Routines-

• Washroom Breaks
• Classroom Jobs
• Technology Use- depending on the grade level that you are teaching, your procedure will look a little different, but make sure that all students are on the same page about your expectations of technology use, (mainly personal) during class time.
• Morning Duties (Before the 9:00am Bell)
• Transitions Between Classes

Intervention Strategies- used to manage your classroom in order to intervene with mis/off task behaviours, or stay on track. Non-verbal interventions should be attempted with first, before going to verbal interventions.

• Non-Verbal- these are proactive and used to change the pace of classroom activities, or remove distracting objects. They are interest-boosting for a student who show signs of off-task behaviour, and can be used to redirect those students. They provide a non-putative time out, encourage the appropriate behaviours of others, provide cues for expected behaviours, and are active and visible. An example of a non-verbal intervention would be going over to a student’s desk who continues to talk through your lesson, and tapping on their desk.
  
  
  
• Verbal- these should focus on the behaviour, not the student. They should be kept as private as possible, and very brief. Additionally, when giving an intervention verbally, you need to avoid sarcasm, or any other behaviour that may humiliate the student. An example of a verbal intervention could be pulling a student outside the classroom to tell them that they need to stop interrupting during a class lesson.