Deepen!

Classroom is a complex interaction of students, teachers and learning

materials. A competent teacher should have the skills in managing instruction,
classroom environment, time, and discipline in order to impart knowledge and skills to
students.

Introduction
Should teachers still worry about students who chew gum? What should
teachers do about those students whose cell phones ring in class? How should
teachers react when they hear students using offensive language?

Teachers wonder what to do about these and the countless other learner
behaviors that they witness each school day. Are these the issues that should concern
them or should they focus exclusively on the more serious problems confronting the
students?

Classroom management is the business of getting students to do what teachers

want them to do. If the teacher is good at it, a lot of things get done and students
enjoy coming to class.

Many teachers are unsure of how to define a class that is well-disciplined

because today's discipline issues are neither simple nor self-evident. For example,
teachers may want the students to be engaged in active learning, but those classroom
activities can appear chaotic. They also struggle with new issues such as cyber bullies
and online cheating.

Even though educators may not always be in agreement about the exact
definition of a well-disciplined classroom, most of them certainly know when things
are not going well. Misconduct referral notices are remarkably uniform in the types of
behaviors that teachers and administrators do not find acceptable.

The room itself is appealing in a well-disciplined room. Many teachers still teach
in cramped and overcrowded rooms without enough basic materials and certainly not
expensive equipment such as interactive whiteboards and LCD projectors. Despite
these restrictions, effective teachers can manage to create an environment where
students focus on learning. Teachers can arrange desks to encourage collaboration as
well as independent work, minimize traffic-flow problems, and make sure materials
are readily available. Walls could be used to stimulate student engagement with
displays of students' learning output.

Consider some ways in which you might incorporate in your future planning of
student engagements. At the end of this chapter you are expected to explore possible
approaches to solve problems of the 21st century classroom using good management
skills.

Managing the Classroom Well Is Important In Teaching and Learning Situations

 A knowledgeable teacher may fail in teaching due to inability to work effectively
with students. Students may be entertaining each other during class time, talking
aloud or walking around aimlessly in the classroom. What can be done to help
students learn in these situations?

Here are some tips in order to manage the classroom well:

1. Set Rules and Procedures That Students Are Expected to Follow
The teacher must communicate the rules clearly to the students. Clear
communication entails a clear discussion of every rule and its rationale. A final
critical strategy is to find out if students understand the rules and commit to
abide by them. Class rules, procedures, and notice of upcoming activities are
posted in convenient places to help students stay on track. Students follow
class routines for daily chores without nagging. In a well-disciplined class,
students understand what they are expected to achieve each day and how they
are to go about them.
2. Let Students Actively Engage in the Pursuit of Knowledge
Active learning generates a much higher noise level than the silent
classrooms of the past. There is movement, laughter and noise. Students are up
and out of their seats while engaged in a variety of interesting activities that
encourage thought and discovery. They do more talking than the teacher on
most classroom learning experiences.

3. Lead Students to Take Responsibility for Their Learning

In a well-disciplined class, teachers may lead students, but they do not
coerce them into good behaviour through threats of dire punishment. Teachers
encourage s the importance of choosing good behaviour over the short-term
term thrills of bad behaviour. In an orderly class, self-directed students not only
encourage each other, but they also work with their teachers to achieve
academic and behaviour goals that they themselves have established.
Successful teachers employ a variety of strategies to promote responsible
decision-making and create self-reliant students.

4. Respect Everyone
Teachers and students treat each other with obvious respect. This is
evident in such nonverbal interactions as body language and tone of voice as
well as in what students and teachers say to each other. Students speak with
confidence because they feel their opinions are valued. Students in a well-
disciplined class also respect their classmates. They have been taught to
appreciate each other's unique contributions to the class as well as appropriate
ways to resolve conflicts. There is a general sense of togetherness and steadfast
courtesy.

Classroom Management Techniques

How do teachers manage the first days of the new school year to set the stage
for the entire year? Here are some classroom management techniques:

Management of Instruction
This refers to the smooth flow of the instructional processes. Smoothness
involves circulating to facilitate students' cooperation and discussion as they work in
small groups.
 1. Maintain smoothness of instruction and avoid jarring breaks within the activity
flow.
2. Manage transition from one activity to another, from subject or from lesson to
recess and 'give clear signals.
3. Maintain group focus during the lesson so that all students in the class stay
involved in the lesson even if the teacher calls on only one student.
4. Maintain a group focus during a seatwork by circulating to see how they are
doing.
5. Develop withitness and be aware of student's behaviour at all time.
6. Develop overlapping skills and be prepared for all scenarios in the classroom.

Management of Discipline
This refers to the means of preventing misbehaviour from occurring or the
manner responding to behavioural problems in order to reduce their recurrence in the
future.
1. Start the year right with a clear, specific plan for introducing the student to
classroom rules.
2. Set few class rules for the students to follow.
3. Create an atmosphere where there is respect to one another.
4. Apply the principle of least intervention for routine classroom behaviour
problem. Create varied interesting lessons to make students pay attention to
class discussion and students do not engage in activities that disrupt class
discussion.
5. Manage serious behaviour problems through applied behaviour analysis.
6. Prevent serious behaviour problem and remove the causes of misbehaviour.
7. Formally develop the desired behaviour by teaching (not telling) the behaviours.

Management of Relationship
This refers to emotional climate and communications affecting learning
conditions.
1. Maintain positive climate characteristics which allow students to choose a
variety of activities to achieve common goals.
2. Develop sense of interdependence, common bonds, defined group expectations
and relationship qualities that enhance wholesome emotional climate.
3. Develop communication characteristics that promote wholesome classroom
relationship like positive constructive conversations aimed at understanding on
another's point of view.
4. Render different forms of assistance by providing class meetings or students to
have an opportunity to examine the ideas and feelings that influence value
judgement.

Management of Physical Environment

This refers to the organization of the learning environment, supplies, and
materials.
1. Organize supplies and materials for activities that occur frequently in most
readily available accessible place, and must be governed by the simplest
procedure.
2. Rules must go with territory and insist on respect for them. Expectations
regarding beginning and end of class behaviour must be clearly expressed.
3. Avoid interruptions during class program.
 4. Arrange the physical setting and maximize visibility and accessibility. Students'
desks are separated in rows facing toward the chalkboard and away from the
window.
5. Materials and equipment stations are available in sufficient quantities and are
located to minimize congestion in traffic lanes.
6. Bulletin boards and wall spaces are used to display student work and
complement current class activities.
7. Set explicit procedures for getting materials from and returning them to
designated classroom locations.

Management of Time
This refers to the organization and use of allocated time in the classroom.
1. Make good use of all classroom time.
2. Start teaching at the beginning of the period and end on time.
3. Establish routine procedures.
4. Minimize time spent on discipline and prevent interruptions.
5. Teach lessons that are so interesting, engaging, and relevant to student's
interest.
6. Maintain momentum through avoidance of interruptions or slowdown like
phone calls, knocks on the door and other disturbance.

Management of Routines
This refers to the established activities or procedures that are repeatedly done.
1. Teach pupils to learn how to form various grouping and return to standard
arrangement with minimum confusion.
2. Do not use the first few minutes of the class session to collect materials when
students are potentially most alert to instruction.
3. "Overlapping- technique is used for collection and distribution of materials. It
refers to the teacher's ability to attend to the task at, hand and at the same
time prevent an extraneous situation from getting out of control.
4. Prepare for transition by planning distinct types and sequences of teacher-pupil
activity e.g. checking homework assignment, presentation of new material,
giving assignment, monitoring seatwork. Transitions should be quick and quiet.