Something that we often discuss briefly in our methods course is classroom management.I used to believe that classroom management was about about punishment. Gaining Professor Kruse's insight has lead me to a differnt insight over classroom management. Here are a few conclusions I’ve come to for successful classroom management...
-Set realistic, but reachable expectations for you and your class.
-The Learning Behavior theory is a driving factor in determining management (You fix what you can observe).
-Follow through with intended consequences.
-Use the entire classroom space/environment for management.
-Use passive nonverbal Cues (walking by a group that’s talking, putting your hand on their desk).
I found this website http://www.science-house.org/CO2/educators/tips.html and it offers some great suggestions for tips in the classroom. The tips range from materials used in the class to procedures; all of which pertain to classroom management strategies.
Tips: Inquiry in the Classroom...
Invest time in activity design and creating questions.
Be a facilitator.
Invest in preparation time. Use your resources.
Label and reuse materials.
Make your own. Think cheap.
Think mobile. Think safety.
Let students help clean.
Try it yourself.
Have extras.
See the positives in "failure.
I really think the point of being a facilitator is so important. In order to maintain the way your classroom is ran, it’s important to model it to your class. It’s also important NOT to over facilitate things. You want your students to be independent, as well and take active leadership roles in the classroom with their peers. If we allow students to continually depend on us as teachers, we are allowing them to become helpless.
http://www.science-house.org/CO2/educators/tips.html
Are you talking about behavioral management in your blog? I feel this is one of the most difficult tasks as a new teacher to accomplish. I'm in my clinicals now and have been watching and learning a great deal about behavioral management in the classroom. The teacher I am working with has the respect of her 6-8 grade students so when she is serious and wants their attention, for the most part she has it. She is not overly strict by any means. Her students, because it is an inquiry based school, are allowed to talk and work in groups throughout the day. She also uses a system for discipline she calls frownies. I haven't asked yet what this entails, but from what I have gathered the students receive some sort of punishment after so many frownies.
ReplyDeleteNow on the other hand my son attends a charter school where discipline is much more strict. It is a school policy that the teachers should follow. No one talks out of turn or they run the risk of receiving a card flip. Of course there are other ways to receive card flips. One card flip has you in for recess, two has you eating lunch with the Dean and three, parents are called and the student is picked up. Hands must be raised to ask or answer a question. Eyes are on the teacher and pencils down during lectures. From what I have witnessed there is a little bit of leeway, depending on the teacher.
Is there good and bad for both examples? Of course. I'm starting to appreciate more and more the teacher's philosophy that I am working with. I had hoped there was a course I could take in behavioral management but I'm starting to realize that it is something that I must learn for myself through experience not through direct instruction.