Classroom Management: 5 Pillars of Success
That brilliant paper on Hamlet you wrote as an undergrad? Might as well be used as toilet paper. Your love of quadratic equations? Meaningless. Your ability to explain a complicated scientific theory in plain language? Meh. If you are not extremely good at classroom management, all those things will not be much help to your survival in the teaching profession.
Fortunately, managing a classroom of teenagers is not, as the cliche’ goes, rocket science. If you keep just a few principles in mind and practice them consistently, you will find teaching energizing rather than draining. You will still have moments of frustration, but they will be far fewer in number.
1) Love and Laughter are Powerful Potions: students need to know you care. If they see that, they are more likely to help you than hinder you. This does not mean you act like their pal; you must maintain a professional boundary. This does not mean, however, that you must remain aloof from their everyday struggles and cares. Ask good questions about what they are into. Laugh with them; lighten the atmosphere every once and a while! It goes a long way.
2) Your Door is the Gate to Two Different Worlds: students should grasp a very obvious demarcation between your room and the hallways. This involves considering things that many teachers think is trivial, like the configuration of your desks. Haphazardly putting the desks in rows hinders your movement. Desks should be configured such that you can reach any student from any point in the room with minimum steps. This will help your mobility, which will cut down on disruptions. What you put on the walls also counts. Make it interesting! Not only should rules and procedures be clearly posted, but go past posting a few stale school motivation cliches.
3) Master the Art of Non-verbal Kungfu: is verbally squawking at a student effective? You know the answer. Then why do it, especially when a long, calm, collected “look” will do the trick? Students know you mean business by your body language, not really what comes out of your mouth. Master body language communication and proximity, and your headaches will lessen.
4) Let Structure do the Heavy Lifting for you: there should be a certain way to do just about everything in your class. Just like with the previous three pillars, the details will make or break you. Have procedures for things you think don’t really matter–they communicate powerful lessons about your commitment to keeping order in the room. A lot of structure ensures you won’t have to do as much policing yourself.
5) Quality Instruction is your Gasoline: when students aren’t engaged in the lesson, they tune out. This leads to disruptions. Students should be engaged bell to bell, and they need to be active often. If you speak for 30 minutes straight, of course they’ll get frustrated quickly. Chunk up the lecture instead: give three minutes of a Power Point, then have students quiz a partner on it. Continue with the presentation, then have them answer a question in pairs. There are many ways to do this. The key is to make them interact with the information often with multi-modalities.
This is merely a taste. Tools for Teaching* by Fred Jones and *The First Days of School* by Harry Wong go into greater detail. I highly recommend both books. Consistency is key: if you are consistent in implementing these pillars, you won’t feel as helpless at the end of the day.
