Managing the Classroom
Engaging Students in Learning
Indicator 12 - Classroom Management UETS 3b.
Effective teachers establish stable and predictable environments, decreasing the amount of behavior management required during instructional time. Time spent on managing student behavior decreases academic learning time.
IDEAS/SUGGESTIONS:
- Establish classroom rules and consequences. Inform students of these rules and consequences. Have students acknowledge that they understand and agree to the class rules and consequences. Posting the Rules and Consequences is important for easy reference to what has been established.
- Set and teach clear expectations and practice them. What does it look like and sound like? Provide examples and non-examples.
- Address behavior that diverts student attention from an academic task.
- Be certain your interventions stop the specific disruptive behavior permanently so you can avoid switching abruptly back and forth between instruction and discipline.
- Whenever possible, apply management procedures for prevention, rather than punishment.
- Reinforce appropriate behavior by providing a model.
- Give explicit explanations of expectations that are interwoven in the delivery of instruction.
- Preplan classroom strategies to accommodate all contingencies so you can avoid being caught off-guard by student behavior.
- Be consistent in your application of rules and consequences.
- Vary the activities and be cognizant of learners’ attention spans. Student engagement decreases disruptive or off-task behaviors.