Describe what is meant by classroom management. Why is it important?
Classroom management are the techniques used to ensure that the students are in the optimal state to learn. There are various factors including voice level, body language and focus that can affect a child’s attention span and learning abilities. The goal with classroom management is that, as a teacher, you ensure that each student is using the appropriate behavior so that they are at their best learning ability. Classroom management is one of the most important, yet one of the most difficult things, to grasp within the classroom. Without an accurate understanding of these techniques, this can really affect how well a student learns and retains the information. There are countless different strategies that can be used to achieve this level of focus, and many of them target a specific age group of kids. It is important that the strategy is age appropriate for students and that the teacher also has a somewhat comprehensive idea of how each individual student reacts to this type of management as well. Many factors play into this practice, but it must be learned to the fullest extent so that each student is able to learn to the best of their abilities.
What classroom management strategies will I use in my classroom to encourage active learning, positive social interaction, and self-motivation?
I think that there are a plethora of classroom management strategies out there that do a fantastic job of bringing kids back to this optimal learning state. However, in the future, I want to be sure that the strategies that I use in my classroom are trying to teach more than one lesson, thus promoting active learning. I want to implement a class community where they may have jobs that teach them not only to be in that learning state, but also to teach them accountability, leadership, or things about the real world. I also really liked the idea of a classroom economy, but really just a way for the kids to move up due to good behavior, on a scale of real world ideas. I want this classroom management to also encourage the kids to be interacting with one another and being able to look up to other classmates as examples. Not only will this promote positive interaction, but I believe this will also self-motivate the kids to do their best. I think having the kids look at their peers is a great way to switch the language in the classroom to something positive. For example, if the class is walking in the hallway, instead of pointing out students who aren’t doing their jobs, compliment the ones who are. I want to be sure that I am making a routine for the kids to follow so that we can manage time, as well as ensuring that there is some sort of procedure expected of the kids during transition times or activities. I feel like this may change from year to year depending on the class, as well as the activity or type of transition. One of the last things that I want to do with students to work on classroom management is take time out of my day to talk to one different student individually each day, whether it is a good day or a bad day. I want to share with them the little accomplishments of a good day and reaffirm them when they have had a bad day. I think something I have seen very few teachers do is notice the small things that mean a lot to a student that most other people don’t notice. But I hope that that can become part of my classroom management because I think that means the world to a student and it is very meaningful. It might be a bit of a stretch but that is my goal!
Middle School Observation Artifact:
Teaching Portfolio 