Tips on Classroom Management
Managing an effective learning process in a classroom is like driving on the street. Sometimes you can speed up, but when the street is crowded, you can barely move at all.
Many factors contribute to successful classroom management: organized curriculum, students' background, students' motivation, available resources, clear lesson plan and organization, collaboration from the school and environment, discipline, supportive learning environment, and also relationship between the teacher and the students, and among the students inside the class.
Unfortunately, teachers cannot apply single management strategy to every class. There are no classes that have the exact same profile when compared to each other. In the beginning of the term and continuously, teachers need to identify the students profile, their best performances, and their problems, to ensure equal achievement for everyone.
Now, of course the 'traffic jam' needs the highlight. While teachers work hard to take control, why do problems still occur? There are some possible factors that hinder the students from fulfilling their goals, and how teachers can cope with them:
1. Comfort and communication in the learning zone
If teachers try to see the lessons from students' point-of-view, they know how the conservative teaching method has trapped people in dull, textbook-oriented schooldays. Teachers should think outside...
They can create few questions to motivate the students, to see what they like and what they don't, and find out if they understand and interested in the lesson. Some students are tired, or have troubles understanding the questions.
It is teacher's major part that determines, at least leads to, successful classroom management. Some important resources teacher needs to develop even before the class begins are "social skills, increased self-respect, and movement towards greater independence" (Long, et. al., 1999).
Teacher's experience does not necessarily regarded as the main factor to fulfill the classroom goals (Long, et. al. 1999). However, their experiences certainly will teach how they should organize the lessons, activities, and teaching aid to each particular class.
2. Clear rules
The class needs rules about what to assess and the scoring system. "Too much stimulation can lead to chaos, but too much control can often rob youngsters of their innate curiosity and exuberance" (Gazin, 1999). Teachers do not need to lower the standard just because students prefer less serious classes. Students need to know that they have specific goals to achieve by the end of the semester.
Clear rules help the students to clean up their conflict. Teachers also need to guide the students with equitable principles to discuss in class (Girard,…
