classroom management

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Home : 2002 : July : 29

classroom management
By Cathy-Dee

Actually in the beginning you were offered quite a bit of very good advice from many posters. It was after the number of negative posts you made that it began to turn much less supportive. It is nice to see you actually
ask a question and respond to those who take the time to answer your questions in a much more positive manner.
You are right in that there is no defining line when it comes to classroom management. If you are normally a quiet type of person, then using your voice may not get you anywhere with your students. If you are small in stature then you cannot use your body in such a way as to

demand attention. Everyone learns their style of classroom management through the years. You are not simply born with it, nor can someone simply give you a "pat" answer for it. I'm still learning and I've been teaching for 9 years now. The fact that there are literally 100's of books on the subject not to mention all the websites, shows how important the topic is and how frustrating as well.

When someone says to not be too friendly - it is more in the terms that you shouldn't try to be "buddies" with your students especially at the beginning of the year. This opens the door for them to take advantage of you. And all an adminstrator can do is to offer suggestions for you to try. It is up to you to make those suggestions work for you. And let's be honest, kids are smart, they know when you are putting on a false front or not. So I have always tried to do things that I am comfortable with in my classroom otherwise my students will just read into what I'm doing and not respond favorably.

As far as what to ignore and what not to, a few others have already given some good insight into this. Again you have to decide what is important (and yes sometimes what you decide needs to reflect what the Principal thinks is important). I have not always agreed with what my Principal has wanted in the way of behaviours but when I can I just go along with it. Learning and trying new techniques never hurts. With middle-school students (and often those in grades 5 and 6) you learn to pick your battles. It's not worth it getting into a battle with a student who has decided not to work that day. But it is worth it to get involved if a student is doing something very disruptive. You make sure your students know that all their work is important and will be counted towards their report card and the student who doesn't want to work is going to have to deal with poor marks. Once they get to middle school they do have to take much more ownership of their learning.

And not everyone is cut out for those grades. I know I would struggle with them simply because I am very strict with my expectations and I do find it hard to let the little things go. So it's simple, I don't work with those grades.