Skip to main content

Never Let Them See You Sweat!

You may not remember those commercials from the 80s.  Some of you are probably not old enough to remember them.  So as a refresher, here is one of them.


The same ideas apply in the classroom.  When it comes to classroom management, the longer you keep your cool the better.  Just like a great white shark is able smell blood in water from three miles away, students can sense when a teacher has lost control or doesn't care.

So how do you keep this from occurring?


  1. Be prepared.  This doesn't just mean writing down lesson plans and making copies.  It also doesn't mean get out the script for the lesson and have it handy.  You do want to have your materials ready ahead of time, not the morning of the lesson.  What if something happens and you are unable to get everything ready that morning?  You are running late, the copier breaks down, etc.  Another aspect of being prepared involves planning for your transitions.  Know how you are going to move from one activity to another.  Know what call backs you plan to use throughout the day.  How are you going to have students respond to questions throughout the day or class.  
  2. Respond appropriately.  When a student does something to upset you, yelling and throwing a fit does you no good and actually empowers the student to do it again.  Often times the best way to redirect is by calmly responding in a way that shows respect for the students yet still demonstrates that you are in control of the classroom.  You might get angry, but you don't need to take it out on the students.  Don't "climb the ladder" with a student.  There is no need escalate a situation beyond what is necessary.  Going back and forth in a tug of war with a student never works out well for you.  Teachers often forget they are the adult and will respond like a child would.  
  3. Leave the sarcasm at home.  No matter what age the student is, sarcasm is never an appropriate response.  It is not funny and it will not score you points with the other students in the class.   It demeans the child. If anything, it demonstrates for the other students that it is acceptable to put down and bully others.  
  4. Love your job.  Even if you are having a bad day, or don't like situations at work, always display a love for your job to the students.  Most teachers say they got into teaching because they want to make a difference in the lives of kids.  Do your daily actions show that?  They should, if they don't please rethink why you get in the car and go to work each day.  If you don't want to go to work each day, the students know and they will respond appropriately.  
These are just a few ideas to help you become a more effective teacher.  There are many more that could be added to the list, but this is a start.  Feel free to leave a comment and add to the list.  
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do you need a Philosophy of Education?

When we first start out in education we often think that we know what we're doing. We think that we don't need any help and that everything that we need to know we learned in our education classes. It only takes about three days into the job to realize that our college education did not fully prepare us for every single student that we're going to face. It didn't truly prepare us for how we really should deliver a lesson when we have students on five different levels along with multiple types of disruptions. It didn't prepare us to handle all the routines, all the the daily tasks, all the decisions that we have to make.  This isn't intended to disparage any university program, but just an acknowledgement that there is now way for them to fully prepare you for every student and situation you will face.  Experience is the only true way to learn how to handle all of these different types of situations.  So how do we make up for that information gap? That is a chall...
1 comment
Read more

4 Tools for Creating Instruction Video

Many educators are plunging into creating digital resources as part of their districts plan to continue instruction while school facilities are closed for the remainder of the school year.  If you have not explored this before now, there are several options available to you in a variety of prices and skillset. The tools we suggest will be free or inexpensive and only focus on creating videos that you can share with students later.  There are options for live video conferencing and some of these tools are designed for that, but we are only focusing on video recording.  This type of learning model would best be classified as asynchronous because you are allowing students to work at different times.  This may be the best option since some of your students may have siblings and limited use of technology at their house. Before we get started, please check with your district to see if there are any restrictions on which tools you may use.  There is a possibility that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Monday Minute for January 14

This morning I wanted to share a quit tip for those struggling integrate technology into the classroom.  It is very basic and should be the mantra of tech in your classroom. Don't let the technology drive the lesson. What I mean is the technology should not be what drives your lesson.  The content should always shine above the tech.  The content should always be your primary focus during instruction.  What do you want the students to learn?  How will you know they have learned it? The tech tool should be as ubiquitous as textbooks, pencil and paper and should be thought of in that manner.  After you decide what you are going to teach, next you decide which tool would be will help you to best accomplish that. PIXNIO So what if you are told you need to integrate technology into the classroom and you haven't really done much of that in the past?  Maybe you have a class set of devices you have been told you are going to use in your room and you are feeling...
Post a Comment
Read more