Reflection #10: Classroom Management

          Although “Classroom Management" has almost as many meanings as there are people who use the term, let's agree that “classroom management” is the means employed to maintain a disruption –free environment. When viewed in the light of this definition, teacher behavior takes on a different aspect:

·       It requires planning which attempts to prevent disruption.

·       It requires strategies to minimize disruption when it does occur.

·       It absolutely mandates that teacher behavior not contribute to the escalation of the disturbance .

          There are three moments in a class period which most frequently allow for or actually encourage disruption. For all of these situations, pre-planning may ameliorate the conditions that encourage disruption

·       The first of these moments is at the very beginning of the class period when the teacher, preparing to begin the class, must deal with multifarious demands on time and attention.

·        The second is the point of transition from one class activity to a different one.

·        Finally, a similar moment occurs when the class is coming to closure, frequently, prematurely.

            Unfortunately, not even the best planning in the world can always prevent class disruption.  When such deterrents to learning  occur, you must quickly minimize the effects of the behavior, always using the most private and least destructive means possible to accomplish this goal.

·       If one student becomes disruptive, others may act out in reaction to either that student's behavior or to the teacher's manner.  Such a problem can spread like wildfire. Deal with the situation as privately as possible to minimize the disruptive student's need to save face.  If you handle the situation too publicly or with too forceful a manner, you may escalate a minor problem into a suspension-worthy offense.

·       Further, you risk inciting strong reactions from other students in class who may quickly formulate opinions about the rightness or wrongness of your response. Under conditions of disruption, a class of kids resembles a collection of Roman citizens at a gladiatorial combat.  They will take sides and vociferously offer opinion about the performance of the combatants. Take serious confrontation out of the public arena of the classroom.

          Handling disruptions is almost an art form.  There are no neat and tidy methods to learn.  There are just some guiding principles to utilize and lots of personal good will, people skills, and the determination to do right by the majority of the students who are in the class to learn. One of the big questions is when to remove a student from the class.  The answer is I think, to remove the student when the student's presence in the room robs the other students.  Frequently the teacher's ego gets in the way of that proposition.  Experienced teachers will frequently recount a number of times that they have been most reluctant to drop a student or to suspend the culprit from class.  Many teachers,(rescuer-types that we are,) tend, even after years of experience to the contrary, to hang on far too long. We go the last mile; we go the last half-mile; we go the last foot and the last inch, and then we sometimes give in only when someone else points out that we have almost ruined a class and short-changed them. The very love of the kids, the rescuer personality, and the "fixer" complex that takes one into the profession joyfully also can cause us to delay taking action when necessary.

        Be heartened by the knowledge that every new teacher (and many experienced ones) go through this, albeit less frequently as time goes on, and your interaction with your classes will become more sure as time goes by.  For starters, just try to remember that you are the boss, that you must safeguard the welfare of all the students in class, and that, chances are, you have better judgment than anybody else in class, and whether you do or not, it's your responsibility to do the best you can for the most students there.