Classroom Management

Three classroom management strategies that I will try to use in future classroom settings....

1. My cooperating teacher advised that I create a seating chart for a class I was about to add on and begin teaching. He suggested this because they were his most energetic class and gave him the most trouble from a classroom management standpoint. With his help (because he knew the students better), we created a seating chart and I have had very little trouble with the students in the class. I think it was helpful for two reasons: the obvious reason is that I was able to move students who would talk to one another non-stop away from problem areas and the other reason was it sent a message to the class immediately that I was serious about them behaving in my class.

2. I have found, especially in the honors classes I am teaching, that it is extremely important to always have a next step and make my transitions from activity to activity as smooth and quick as possible. When the students have any dead time they are prone to turn to the side and ask their friend a question or become distracted by something outside. When they have instructions for the next task on hand; however, they ideally do not have time to begin causing any problems.

3. When I am lecturing, I like to incorporate a lot of questions and class discussion/participation. For the most part the students are willing to go along and I really appreciate this, but occasionally, side conversations will spring up that are distracting from the main lecture and the front of the class. When this occurs, I stand up front quietly with my hands crossed, looking at the students who have begun talking to one another. Everyone quickly notices that I am not trying to talk over the other conversations and ususally the problem settles itself very quickly.