Classroom Management Strategies
Classroom management is an important aspect in teaching students. For those who manage adults, being an effective people manager is important also. Although the intended audience of this post is classroom teachers, many of these strategies can be used to manage adults, also.
Here are some strategies that I have used in my classroom to
manage student behavior:
- Stand at the classroom door greeting and talking to students as they enter into the classroom. This can alert you to any student issues before the students enter your classroom. If you notice that a student is having an issue, talk with them and try to get it resolved or diffuse it before it becomes a larger issue.
- Constantly monitor and circulate around the room as a way to be proactive in your classroom management. As mentioned earlier, becoming aware of an issue before it becomes an even bigger issue will cut down on management issues.
- Circulating around the room will also help you use the concept of proximity. Proximity is a non-verbal cue to get students’ attention. Just standing beside students when they are talking or misbehaving goes a long way into curbing the behavior.
- Other non-verbal cues are:
o
The mean
teacher evil eye: Do not fear if you haven’t mastered your mean teacher
evil eye, keep working on it and it will come.
Soon you will glaring with the best of them.
o
Using an attention
getting signal:
§
Clap a pattern and have the students clap it
back
§
Have a call and response: You say, “class,
class, class,” and the students say “yes, yes, yes”
- Rewarding positive behavior is a powerful way to manage classroom behavior. Many times kids act out because they want attention. When they see that students get attention because of positive behaviors, it is likely that they will begin exhibiting positive behaviors.
Have you tried any of
these strategies? What other methods have you found helpful in classroom
management?
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