Classroom management

You can have all the grand educational philosophies in the world and all the educational qualifications and resources you could possibly dream of,

but unless you can manage your classroom well,

you cannot be a successful teacher

and sadly, your children cannot be successful learners!

1) Find a teacher who truly is a good classroom manager and observe lessons, noting every single tip you can to try out later for yourself. After all, copying is a form of flattery and no one has discovered all the best tips yet! Good teachers always endeavour to be good learners too!

2) It is hard for a weak teacher to improve, when that weak teacher blindly looks at a good classroom manager or listens to a speaker on a course and arrogantly says, "I already do that!" Please don't be that sort of teacher! Always be open minded about the necessity to improve your teaching skills.

A good classroom manager:

has classroom seating set out to the advantage of all children, probably grouped. Too much class teaching only accommodates the needs of a few of the class. Group work accommodates more. The teacher's desk is re sited near the back of the room, thus freeing a prime learning space. When the teacher is at the desk, there is a good supervisory view and the children do not know when the teacher is watching!

has a clean chalk board on which there is evidence of clear writing that is of a similar style and quality to that which is in the children's reading books. The board is never overloaded and the teacher uses different coloured chalks to highlight sections.

has clean, crisp charts organised in subject or interest areas, so that children have easy reference to any words they might need. The lettering is clear and of a similar style to that in the children's reading books. The charts are dated when put up, so the teacher can be sure not to leave them up for too long.

has an area set aside for a Book Nook, where there is seating for the children away from general classroom activities and where it is conducive to getting lost in the pages of an interesting book. The books here are displayed facing outwards, so the front cover tempts possible readers and the current class story is read with imagination and expressively around a story corner display. This class story book is always on display in the Book Nook, ready for anyone to re read the last chapter or skip ahead to see what happens next, keeping what he finds out a secret from the others of course!.

is well prepared for the lesson with a plan that includes a well focused beginning, that is crisp and alert and invokes the pupils attention, a middle which is interesting and offers different activities set at an appropriate level for the various attainments of the children and an end which gives time to reflect and summarise and plan. Has resources ready for the lesson, with back up resources for those children who work more quickly, or slowly than others. Does everything to quietly and enthusiastically inspires interest in the children from the moment the lesson starts until the time it winds down to a satisfactory end.

encourages the children to take a pride in all that they do, both in school and out, in their written work, their reading, their manners, their helpfulness, their respect for people and property.

uses her voice as a conductor conducts his orchestra...holding the children's attention and controlling the volume, so that the children are confident and attentive.

constantly gives praise for all sorts of achievement, so everyone has a chance to feel proud and shows pride in her pupils too. Walks around showing care about things and is always on the look out for interesting things to share with her class.

takes time to help her pupils, to improve her classroom so that the walls work for her, and to improve her teaching skills. Her day goes far too quickly for her.

inspires, by the way she presents each topic, a trust in what is being taught, as well as in how it is being taught. Inspires a love of learning and the pupils feel she really likes them, which she does!

What would you score this teacher out of 10?

I would say 10 out of 10!

Promote this teacher, who needs to be a role model for all other teachers to follow!

A poor classroom manager:

sets the classroom out as it has always been without thinking if there could be a better way. Has chairs all over the place and always more or less facing the front as most of the work is done from copying exercises from the chalkboard. The teacher's desk is piled with dusty books and papers, and takes up a prime learning space at the front, where children queu and block the siteline of the others.

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never cleans the chalkboard well. There is rarely a definition between the dust and the chalk work, and the writing is scribbled anyhow and the board overloaded, so the children don't know where they are, but that's their problem!

has no charts at all, thinks they are a waste of time and if any are up, they are old, dirty and torn and stuck anywhere. The lettering is not in sinc with the reading ages of the children and the teacher never refers to them in class time so, in fact, no one notices them anyway.

does not believe in all this Book Nook nonsense! Has a few tatty, miserable looking old books somewhere amongst a pile of something, or squashed high in a cupboard that's unreachable by the children, even if they knew they were there. Says the children can read in their seats, there is no need for them to move about just to have a read! What's wrong with the books that have been in their desks all this time, that were given out to them at the beginning of the term? Rarely reads a class story, and when she does it is read without imagination and the book is snapped shut at the end of the lesson and locked in an overflowing drawer. If it cannot be touched by the children, it will not get lost!

does not plan lessons, as there is always the text book for the children to do the next exercise following the one they did yesterday.Why tire yourself trying to think up something inspiring if people are paid to write perfectly good exercises in text books for children to work from? It was good enough in the old days so why not now?The children can sit down, open the page and get on with it straight away... and in silence. At the end, and as the clock ticks to the lesson close time, children are told brusquely to close their books and pack away. Thank goodness that's over!

couldn't care less about what the children do as long as they don't bother her with noise and silly questions...and out of school? That's nothing to do with her!

gives orders, shouts often, even at individuals when the rest of the class is quietly working, so everyone is then disrupted. Any speaking to the class is done in a monotone and without introduction or expression or summing up.

arrives at school looking to find fault and criticise. Walks around like a factory inspector ready to pounce on anything that can be moaned about. Whinges and nags about school, parents, education officers and life in general!

begrudges time spent on school. Arrives late, clock watches and goes home to forget about her day, which always goes too slowly for her.

does nothing to make the children feel anything other than school and learning are something to dread and hate.Well school's not a holiday is it? Pupils always feel she doesn't like them and probably they are right!

What would you score this teacher out of 10?

I would say 0 out of 10!

Dismiss this teacher, who is doing far too much harm to our future generation and must be dreadful to work with!

Show me WOW!

inspirational teaching using limited resources.