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Madison Davis

Lori Cory

EDU 218

March 24, 2020

Classroom Management

Classroom management can greatly impact how the classroom is spent for the rest of the year.

Classroom management is all about being able to effectively control the classroom, and develop

responsibility within my students. Strategies such as color coding folders and notebooks, allowing

students to make learning goals, and using assertive behavior all create a successful classroom

management plan. With a successful classroom management plan, the students can learn much easier with

more efficiency.

From the research and strategies I have seen, I will be an authoritative teacher when I manage my

classroom. This style of management will allow for my students to feel comfortable in a structured

environment. I want to incorporate different strategies that allow my students to be able to manage

themselves, especially because the age group I want to teach, will need different tools to help manage

their own lives. I also have learned that to have a classroom where effective learning takes place, students

need to understand the different boundaries, expectations, and responsibilities that I will have for them.

Along with this style of teaching, I want to use other strategies to help create a beneficial management

plan.

One strategy that I know will be effective for my students own management, is to have them

color code their folders and notebooks. This is a strategy I use for my own classes, and have been using

since I was in elementary school. Teachers give students the responsibility to students to come prepared

to class because they can identify what exactly they need to bring. This also creates less confusion for the

students since the color coding system allows a color to be matched with a subject (Eredics). For this

strategy I would assign my class as a certain color, so that the folder and notebook corresponded with my
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class. When students are changing classes all they have to look for is blue and then there is less confusion.

Giving a student a planner could also create more responsibility and help the student organize their own

life (5 Classroom Management...) A planner can very easily be integrated into a classroom routine

because the last five minutes of the class could be dedicated to writing down any homework due for my

class. I want to use these two strategies in my classroom management plan because of the level of

organization my students would have and how it would increase the level of responsibility my students

had (5 Classroom Management...)

A daily routine and a daily agenda posted for the whole class to see are easy ways to manage a

classroom. A daily agenda allows for students to feel more comfortable when they know what is going to

happen that day. While telling a student that there will be a test in the following days, allowing for the

student to see and then know what else is going to happen on that same day makes the classroom run

more efficiently (Mr. Tufts, Nevada Middle School, November 2019). I can easily implement this into my

day, because I would be preparing the lesson and could walk to the white board and write the daily

schedule While the content for each day could change, the routine for each day should never change. A

daily routine makes the changing of subjects or classrooms much easier and less stressful for the teacher

(EDU218, March 2020). The students have the expectations that they should be sitting in their seat

working on the problem on the board, and this gives the teacher time to take attendance, and smoothly

transition from one class to another. The routine could be that we have the daily math problem, then

notes, and then individual or small group work time. Each day the students have an idea of what is going

to occur in the classroom which creates less chaos and more order. Another classroom management

strategy that could become a part of the daily routine, is the morning sponge, which allows the student to

do something quietly before the class starts, but allows them to smoothly integrate into the school mindset

(5 Classroom Management...) This is another way to give the teacher time to work quietly with a student,

take attendance, or even finish preparations for the lesson. My students could start on the daily problem

for the day, while I took attendance because they would all be in their seats. Or I could have the students
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finishing up an assignment or I could even be working one on one with a student during this morning

sponge time.

While these strategies are still extremely useful for classroom management, there are other

beneficial ways to make a classroom run effectively that involve the content the students are learning.

One strategy is to provide flexible learning goals, this shows the student that the teacher wants to

cooperate and gets the student involved with their own learning (Ascd). The student can make goals for

themselves which allows them to be responsible and gives them something to work towards. I especially

want to use this strategy because goals make students accountable, and they become more focused with

their learning. Another strategy that falls in close relation to allowing students to make goals about their

learning, is to make the learning relevant (EDU218, March 2020). If every student is actively interested in

the lesson, then the teacher does not need to use any classroom management strategies because the class

is following all rules and directions. A student will become more interested once the content they are

learning is relevant, they also become more interested and want to continue learning. This strategy

becomes beneficial for both parties inside the classroom, the teacher and students. As a teacher it is

extremely important to try new things (EDU218, March 2020). These new things could be a different way

to teach a subject, or could be a new project for the students. Trying new things allows for the students to

become engaged because this could be a change from their daily routine. However trying new things

could also mean trying different strategies to manage the classroom because not all strategies are going to

work for every class.

An assertive behavior is a strategy that gives the teacher the ability to enforce rules and certain

behavior and allows the students to understand and respect the teacher (Ascd). This strategy focuses more

on the teacher’s initial reactions and how to create a more dominant figure when dealing with a student’s

infraction, such as keeping a distance from the student, using appropriate tone of voice. I feel that this

strategy is one that I will be using quite often in my classroom to make sure my students understand who

is in charge because I will be working with students in the middle and high school who do not always

have the same regard for teachers as the younger students. However even though these students may not
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always respect students they will react to positive behavior from a teacher. Equitable and positive

behavior gives the student confirmation that they are using the correct behaviors, and do not need to

change them (Ascd). A teacher who gives positive affirmations and behavior shows the students they

have followed the routine and allows for the teacher to easily manage the classroom. I want to make sure

this is used during my time in the classroom because my students will need to have positive consequences

for their behaviors. Such as giving the students five minutes of free time for their good behavior with a

sub, or rewarding the class with different activites . Managing a classroom usually relates to negative

actions, however students will react better to positive reinforcement and continue with those positive

actions.

The strategies that are extremely successful for effectively managing a classroom. I can easily

implement these strategies because I have seen them inside the classroom. These will also impact how

smoothly the rest of the year is. I know that I can use these skills and strategies to make the classroom a

place for beneficial learning.

Works Cited

“5 Essential Classroom Management Strategies to Keep Your Inclusive Class Running

Smoothly.” Reading Rockets, 10 Dec. 2019, www.readingrockets.org/article/5-essential-

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classroom-management-strategies-keep-your-inclusive-class-running-smoothly.

Ascd. “The Key to Classroom Management.” The Key to Classroom Management - Educational

Leadership, www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept03/vol61/num01/The-

Key-to-Classroom-Management.aspx.