Classroom Management

A classroom may be a place of exploration and discovery, but it needs structure in order to ensure student safety and provide an avenue for students to demonstrate responsibility and respectfulness.

When establishing classroom rules, I would begin the first day of school by having the students involved in a discussion about appropriate classroom behaviours and how they should look.  I would chart these rules under three specific headings: “To be safe, responsible and respectful”. And these rules would consist of “listening to the teacher”, “following instructions”, “waiting for your turn to share”, etc. Once the list of expected behaviours was established, I would post the rules around the classroom and constantly refer back to the list in order to have consistency within my classroom. 

The rules will be agreed upon by both the teacher and students, and the consequences will be laid out with a sample situation. If a student breaks the rules, I believe in the “three strikes, you’re out” rule. The first time a student breaks a rule, they will have to spend their recess time or choice time with me making up the work they missed out on. The second time, the student has to write a note home to mom/dad explain what rule they broke, why they did and what they are going to do in the future. By the third time, I will take the student out of the room and have him/her visit the principal.  If the behaviour continues, a plan will be established between me and the principal to ensure we provide the student with the proper consequences to their actions. In my experiences, I have encountered a class where all the students seem to have issues with the rules, so I introduced a tally game called “Teacher vs. Students”.  A rule for the day was written on the board and the kids had to show they could follow it.  When I caught them following the rule, the students got the tally, but if they were not I got the tally. If the students won, they received a treat. I found that the students had to regulate themselves and it worked sometimes.

I have found that some students get bored and fidgety and require breaks. I would provide students with “brain breaks” like yoga, Simon Says and other activities in order to provide rest periods and reengage them in the lesson. I would also limit carpet time/discussion time because students tend to drift off and will not participate in the activity. 

Routines will be established also within the first few days of school and will become second nature to our daily classroom life.  Things like calendar, agenda, schedule and attendance will be always be the first activities of the day. As well students will have jobs that they can help me with and will teach them about responsibility.

For classroom design, I will create seating arrangements that would try to accommodate a healthy learning environment for all students.  Materials for the classroom will be organized, clearly displayed and accessible to students so that they can retrieve the items when needed. The use of those materials will be demonstrated so that the students will know how to respectfully handle the material.

Classroom management encompasses a lot of different aspects of the classroom but I believe that students should have examples provided for them and constant reminders so that they can demonstrate safety, responsibility and respect.