As part of your classroom management plan should be some ongoing review. You should be reviewing your procedures, rules, layout and philosophy routinely. What and how often you review can be placed into two categories: annual and periodic. Not only that, but the way you review them can also be categorized by the type of review: refresh and improve.
All four components of your management plan that I mentioned earlier would naturally need to be reviewed annually for improvement. But some of them need periodic review for refreshing. Your procedures may need to be periodically refreshed and practiced with your students. This is more likely to be needed after an extended break and how much time you devote to this will largely depend on how deeply you ingrained the procedure originally. If you didn't spend as much time rehearsing it initially, the likelihood of a strong habit being formed is slim.
Your classroom layout, or some components of it need to be reviewed and adjusted throughout the year. Some aspects of it you can leave alone all year, but seating arrangements, charts and desk layouts need to be adjusted to fit the instruction and tasks at hand.
If your rules are broad enough and written well enough at the beginning of the year, you may not have to improve them throughout the school year. What you may need to do is remind students of the rules and the consequences associated with failing to follow them. You must also consistently follow those consequences from the time they are established. I strongly discourage adding or modifying rules mid-year, but suggest that be handled only at the beginning of the year.
Finally, your philosophy. This needs to be reviewed and revised annually. It also needs to be reviewed at least once a quarter. Not for revision, but as a reminder of why you are a teacher and what your purpose is in the classroom. Without these continual reminders, you will easily lose site of your purpose as you are bombarded with distractions and obstacles.
Thank you for reading The Cluttered Desk. You can find me on Twitter @jasonbengs. Please feel free to comment on the post and share your ideas with me. You can also leave a response on The Cluttered Desk Flipgrid page if you would like to leave a comment on this or any other post or podcast episode by going to https://flipgrid.com/03fa4e01 If you found any value in this post, please share it with others.
All four components of your management plan that I mentioned earlier would naturally need to be reviewed annually for improvement. But some of them need periodic review for refreshing. Your procedures may need to be periodically refreshed and practiced with your students. This is more likely to be needed after an extended break and how much time you devote to this will largely depend on how deeply you ingrained the procedure originally. If you didn't spend as much time rehearsing it initially, the likelihood of a strong habit being formed is slim.
Your classroom layout, or some components of it need to be reviewed and adjusted throughout the year. Some aspects of it you can leave alone all year, but seating arrangements, charts and desk layouts need to be adjusted to fit the instruction and tasks at hand.
If your rules are broad enough and written well enough at the beginning of the year, you may not have to improve them throughout the school year. What you may need to do is remind students of the rules and the consequences associated with failing to follow them. You must also consistently follow those consequences from the time they are established. I strongly discourage adding or modifying rules mid-year, but suggest that be handled only at the beginning of the year.
Finally, your philosophy. This needs to be reviewed and revised annually. It also needs to be reviewed at least once a quarter. Not for revision, but as a reminder of why you are a teacher and what your purpose is in the classroom. Without these continual reminders, you will easily lose site of your purpose as you are bombarded with distractions and obstacles.
Thank you for reading The Cluttered Desk. You can find me on Twitter @jasonbengs. Please feel free to comment on the post and share your ideas with me. You can also leave a response on The Cluttered Desk Flipgrid page if you would like to leave a comment on this or any other post or podcast episode by going to https://flipgrid.com/03fa4e01 If you found any value in this post, please share it with others.
Comments
Post a Comment