Making Sure I Maintain Classroom Management!

            Wow! It’s hard to believe the semester is just about over and in about one month, I will officially begin my journey as a student teacher at Elizabethtown! This semester has flown by! As I began reading for my last weekly writing, I found the subject to be appropriate and critical, especially because I will soon be entering the classroom. I also feel that it is something many student teachers struggle with…classroom management. I was exposed to a minimal amount of this during my micro-teaching experience. Some of the boys in the back of the classroom were talkative as I was teaching. I found that proximity control, simply walking around the classroom as I taught, got the boys to straighten up and quit talking while I was teaching.

          One of the most important concepts that have been stressed by my professors this semester is to establish classroom expectations, procedures, and consequences on the first day. I have created three corresponding posters with my protocols on them to use during student teaching. I also plan to create a seating chart for the first few weeks. The seating chart will help me learn names as well manage my classroom more effectively. While I am generally an easy person to get along with, I want to stress to my students that misbehavior will not be tolerated. If students follow the rules set in place and maintain good behavior, my classes will run smoothly and learning will be more enjoyable for everyone!

          One main idea that Newcomb states in Methods of Teaching Agriculture is that classroom atmospheres are created and evolved. Good classroom management comes with practice and implementation. I know that as a student teacher, and even as a beginning teacher, I will experience some issues of student misbehavior. I will learn how to deal with situations as they arise. Like the old saying goes, practice makes perfect. One thing I can do to ensure my classroom management skills start off on the right foot is to firmly implement my expectations, procedures, and consequences on the first day.

           Another thing I can do to improve and maintain classroom management is to keep students interested in engaged. When students are generally uninterested in subject matter or disengaged from the material, they tend to behave in an undesirable way. This was evident through my micro-teaching experience as well. My students became bored with PowerPoint presentations and worksheets. They were excited to create posters and practice using turkey calls, which is understandable. I know that some class days will have more variety than others, and some content will be more interesting than other days. However, I must ensure to keep students engaged and interested in my classes to the best of my ability.

            As I look ahead to the near future of student teaching, I am not generally worried about classroom management. I will start out strong and firm with my students and make sure we are both on the same page when it comes to proper behavior. I must show confidence when I teach, address issues directly as they arise, be attentive, and learn to forgive and forget. I am certain that at some point in time, I will come across issues with student misbehavior. While I will get better at resolving issues as they arise, I feel adequately prepared at the moment. Role playing by fellow students in lab, micro teaching, and discussions about classroom management in my methods course have prepared me for the real thing. I will continue to read and learn more about how to best manage classroom behavior as my student teaching experience nears!