classroom managment

1. Make your first words and actions confident, enthusiastic, and
welcoming.
Let your students know how glad you are to meet them or see them
again. You might say something like this:
I am really pleased to have you all in this class. There are
a lot of great things we'll be doing, and there's lots of new
stuff to learn. I'm excited about the year ahead. I want to
tell you a little bit about myself. [Share something
personal, such as a few sentences about your family, your
hobbies, how you spent your vacation, etc.] My goal is to
be the best teacher I can be -- but I am not perfect.
Sometimes I make mistakes, and so will you. But there is
no shame in mistakes. Every day, I expect myself to be on
time and ready to go. I expect the same from each of you.
Does anyone have any questions you'd like to ask me?
2. Set guidelines for how you plan to handle misbehavior.
Most teachers are good at letting students know routines, rules, and
even consequences, but many neglect to share what might be the
most important component that preserves everyone's dignity when
rules are broken. Tell students that while most of what happens in
class will be for everybody to hear, individual feedback including
consequences will almost always be given privately. Here are two
statements that you might make:
1. There will be many times this year that I will be
dropping by your desk with an individual message that is
only for your ears. It is the way I usually give feedback
that tells you what I think you are doing well or how I think
you could do better.
2. I don’t expect rules to be broken, but whenever lots of
people share the same space, there are times when
someone might do something inappropriate. I rarely stop a
lesson to deal with unacceptable behavior. It may actually
look like I am ignoring it, and maybe I am. I hope you do,
too. But ignoring it doesn't mean that I'm not going to do
anything about it. It just means that I think teaching is
more important in that moment. It means that I'll get with
that person later when it won't steal our time to learn.
3. Let students know when and how they can give you feedback.
Establish a time and place when students can give you feedback. I
like the idea of having "conference time" where students can
schedule a time with you for this purpose. If you prefer, have a
"Feedback for Teacher" box where students can leave notes to
express appreciation as well as suggestions about how you can be a
better teacher for them. This could be your message about feedback:
It's very important for me to be the best teacher that I can
be for each of you, and I will try very hard to be respectful
even if you do things that I don't like. That's why most of
the time I will give you feedback privately. In the same
way, if you have ideas about how I can be a better teacher
for you, let me know. You can write me a note and put it in
the feedback box, see me at conference time, or tell me
after class.
4. Define the difference between fair and equal.
Make clear that if a student breaks a rule, you will do whatever you
think is best to help that student fix the mistake:
Since everyone doesn't always learn the same way,
consequences may not always be the same, and it will up
to me to decide which consequence(s), if any, would be
best for that student. There will be times that I might even
ask you what consequence(s) you think would work best.
Anyway, if you ever think there is a more effective
consequence, let me know in a respectful way, and I might
change my mind. What I won't accept are complaints like,
"It's not fair because Max did the same thing as me and
you called my mother but not his." I'll talk to you about
you, but not about Max. What I did with Max is between
him and me, and what I do with you is between us. I will
only listen to suggestions that you think could work better
for you.