Classroom Management

In a virtual environment, it is crucial to utilize classroom management strategies based on the practices of traditional classrooms: organization, community-building, and engagement in conversation with students (Wolpert-Gawron 2017). My experience with classroom management this year has been unconventional but incredibly helpful in learning how to build trusting working relationships with students. Because I was not in a physical classroom with my students, much of my classroom management centered around building student engagement and participation in class activities, discussions, and assignments. My cooperating teacher and I agreed that the best way to manage our "classroom" was to build relationships with students and encourage collaboration, conversation, and support amongst students. This, in turn, would motivate students to attend virtual class every day and hopefully promote excitement about the reading, writing, and discussing we were doing together.

At the beginning of my time with the seventh graders at my placement, it was difficult to build authentic connections with students outside of the work that they submitted. However, as time went on and I began to take on a more active role in the class, it became more of a natural process: I always made sure to check in with students at the start of class, left room for feedback, and provided time during and after school hours for students to meet with me if they had any questions or just wanted to talk. I placed much of my management efforts on building trust and honesty between myself and my students. I always made it clear why I was in the class, why we were doing the work that we were, and how the work we were doing would help in the future. When problems arose -- most of the time because students were not participating in class or were not turning in assignments -- I met with students privately to check in and develop a plan to get back on track. The key to managing the classroom, I found, was consistency and communication.

One of the most useful tools we utilized in our classroom was the chat feature on Zoom. My cooperating teacher, from the start of the year, placed great emphasis on empathy and the value of learning from others’ stories. And so, when I jumped in, I continued to remind students that we were gathered together, even if not physically, to engage in a space of learning and connection; in a time when everything seemed to be a question, we could at least be sure that we would gather together for an hour each day. To practice empathy, our classes made use of the chat feature to support one another and connect through connections to our class materials or work. Students were only able to send messages to the class as a whole or to one of the teachers privately, and this ensured that students were not privately chatting on the side. Because we had established an air of respect and support throughout the year, it was clear to students what was expected of them in the Zoom chat. We encouraged discussion and questions while reading, comments on lessons or assignments, and checking-in in the chat. The chat was especially helpful in providing an alternative method of sharing for students who were uncomfortable or unable to share out loud. It was also a space of support and encouragement, especially during creative writing share-outs. As seen below, students reflected upon their classmates' work, which was often personal or close to students' hearts, and celebrated their peers. This helped us build relationships amongst students and lent to the excitement of class.