Classroom Management

How to curb and avoid misbehavior

My first year of teaching, I had horrible classroom management. Students would curse, call each other names, make jokes, eat, sleep and do anything and everything but pay attention to the lesson at hand. Needless to say no learning was happening, and the grades were horrendous. Students hated my class (although they grew to like me), and I wanted to quit. I felt like a failure. Well, I didn't quit. Instead I listened to the advice of my instructional coaches and leaned on my older sister/ veteran teacher (who was also named Teacher of the Year) for support. I gradually began implementing changes in my classroom to make the classroom environment more conducive to learning, and I saw immediate results. Each year that I taught I looked for new ways to improve my classroom management and compiled the findings from my experience below. If you see something you like, feel free to use my ideas. You're not in this alone. Consider me a part of your virtual network.

SETTING THE EXPECTATIONS

It's imperative that the teacher not only sets the expectations for classroom behavior but shares those expectations with students up front. Students should know what behavior is expected of them at all times. You have to delineate what your expectations are and explain to them why you put those expectations into place. Explaining yourself might seem like a foreign concept if you grew up like I did where you did what you were told and didn't ask questions. "Because I said so." was a sufficient explanation for anything if you dared to ask. But I'm telling you, it goes a long way in building a relationship with students if you appeal to their rationale and explain why you have the expectations that you have. What happens when you don't know that you have to explain certain things to students? After all it's common courtesy, right? Well...your students may not know what you consider respectful because in their house or in their culture respect is defined differently. Have a discussion with students. Ask them what behaviors bother them and allow them to have input in setting the classroom expectations. Once your expectations are in place, you can expect excellence from your students.

Transitions and Procedures

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Testing Procedure

Here's a PowerPoint that reiterates the testing procedure.

Ya Acabe-What to do when you're done

Here's a poster illustrating the things students could do if they finish all their work early.

Maximizing Instructional Time-the time driven agenda

Having a time-driven daily agenda benefits the teacher as well as students. It helps me keep track of time and allows me to chunk and pace the lesson. It helps students know how much time is allotted for each activity so that they can complete all activities by the end of the day. It also tells them what they should be doing at all times so there is no question as to what they are expected to be working on. Students really love that that it allows them to work at their own pace. Once they finish one activity they can move on to the next without having to wait in their peers who may still be working.

What to do when your student's behavior does not meet the expectations set forth

Behavior Infraction Tickets

In effort to be transparent, I'll admit that I haven' tried this yet, but it's something I plan to experiment with next year. Students know the classroom expectations and know the consequences for not meeting those expectations. We've discussed them. The expectations are posted throughout the classroom, and I posted the expectations online where students and parents can easily access them. However, I want to take it a step further and help my students reflect on their behavior to understand how what they did disrupted the classroom environment and for them to think of alternative ways they could have acted that would align with the classroom expectations.

Alternatively, I could also have students who misbehave record a video expressing the same information expressed on the ticket and have their parent sign the ticket.

CLASSROOM LAYOUT

How you arrange the seats in the classroom sets the tone for the classroom environment and reinforces expectations to students. The seating arrangement can vary from day to day or from one activity to another if students are taught how to transition from one arrangement to the next in a time-efficient manner. How you arrange the room is up to you as long as the arrangement 1) reinforces how students should be working on the activity and 2) supports the learning environment. You may have to play around with the seating arrangement, but eventually you'll find the right fit for you.

CLASS SURVEY

As an educator, it's important to get feedback from students on the learning environment and their learning needs. It also helps me as the teacher reflect on my teaching practices so that I can make adjustments as necessary. This survey was created using Google forms.

Google Sites

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