Five ways to establish effective classroom management
Does the word “ discipline” conjure up restricted scenarios or joyless feelings? It doesn’t have to be. It is the road map to guide your and your students’ attention. It is the act of focusing your students’ attention to actualize the intention set for that day or that class period. Teachers can get their students’ attention and maintain it through five conscious ways.
1. Preparation
Preparation–not planning–is planning for chaos in your classroom. Indeed all those first days of class activities such as establishing routines and policies create a strong foundation. Lesson planning is also crucial as it is the compass to deliver your content and build skills.
2. Know thyself and Know your audience
Do you know what kind of speaker you are? Most teachers are informational speakers but in general, students tend to remember the teachers that add some motivational or inspirational twists to their Informational repertoire. What are your students’ learning styles? What stories, visuals, videos, songs, and physical activities can you include in your lesson to grab their attention and focus? Knowing is growing. Identify your speaking style, improve it, and include elements of the other speaking styles to serve your students better.
3. Have a mantra
Of course, the teacher is not the only one doing all the talking. Use that mantra for success that you created at the beginning of the year at the onset of class. It helps to center the class and reminds the community of their common purpose.
4. Balance Pleasure and pain threshold
Happiness does not have to be some goal for the end. It can be experienced along the way. Research shows that students retain more content and are more immersed in it when they are practicing with their peers. What activities are embedded in the lesson that call forth curiosity, debate, discovery, engage the students’ physical senses? Can the students see themselves in the tasks that they are performing? Are the tasks relevant to their lives? They are called formative assessments because the students don’t have to wait for a big test at the end of the unit to validate their experience. They can experience enjoyment in the middle of the lesson and not boredom. Hence their pain threshold will be lowered and keep discipline issues at bay.
5. Participatory membership in sharing responsibilities and talents
A classroom community is created not born. It is not done by osmosis. What roles and responsibilities do the students have in their class? This goes back to setting a strong foundation at the beginning of the year. What roles do students have pre-lesson, mid-lesson, and post-lesson? Meaningful participation is how a class becomes a community of learners. A class is not a four-walled room but a group that cares and engages with the content being taught daily. With caring comes ownership which produces achievement. Consequently, that leaves little room for the lack of focus inherent in indiscipline.
More student engagement equals fewer discipline problems. In general, students want to please the teachers that they like and respect. Not surprisingly, they expect the same courtesy in return. Thus a strong foundation of personal and intellectual respect inherent in classroom policies and daily routines is essential. A Legacy of relationship-building among the stakeholders will go a long way in captivating the students' interests and creating a community of learners.