Classroom Management

Rose A. Janada Lecturer at Arar Community College for Girls

Northern Borders University

Today We Will Discuss• Your first day of class: - Today-We-Will List - Classroom Policy - Establishing Expectations - Lecturer- Student relationship • Classroom Management: - Tips to control the classroom - Handling students’ excuses• Final Lesson: No As for just showing up!

Your First Day of Class

• Your first day of class is crucial : - It sets the tone for the entire course. - The impression you make will last the entire semester. Most students will make up their minds about the course and the instructor during that first class period.

Today-We-Will List

• It’s a road map. • It let students know what will be covered on

that day. • It keeps the instructor on task.• It reminds students that they are accountable

for the day’s material whether they are present in class or not.

• It reinforces expectation and encourages students to assume responsibility.

Classroom PolicySet clear rules regarding : - Attendance and punctuality - Civility and manners - Misbehaviors - Cell phone use - Participation - Assignments

Establishing Expectations

• Be very clear. • Establish criteria for each assignment and put them in writing. (discuss your grading process) • You must clearly tell students what you expect them to do and how the assignment should look when they turn it in.

Why ? • Conveying this information on the first day

allows students to plan their time and prioritize their various obligations.

• Clear expectations and consistent application of consequences will sustain the efficient yet friendly classroom environment that you wish to create

Lecturer-Student relationship

Friendly but Not Their Friend!

• Teachers now interact with their students in a variety of contexts, many of them informal and some of them purely social. These new roles blur the line between being friendly toward students and being a friend of students.

• All faculty need to know how to build supportive and positive, but businesslike, relationships with students.

• What we need is to build respectful relationships

Building a relationship: Tips• Professional attire of lecturers. • Professional language

is a must. • Well manners. • Keeping the distance.

Building a relationship: Tips

• Always remember that all electronic communications can go public at any time.

Classroom Management

• How do you manage your class? • Do you have a “philosophy” ?

• How do you avoid losing control?

Tips to control the classroom• Smile.• Learn students’ names.• Try to look comfortable with students.• Make eye contact with students.• Move around the classroom.• Prepare very, very well.• Make sure every aid you will need is ready.• Come on time.

Tips to control the classroom• Signal nonverbally.• Make eye contact.• Ignore mildly negative behaviors. • Discuss very negative behaviors in private.• Control over-participators. • Set participation rules. • Vary your methods and techniques.• Make a point of getting to know disruptive

students during breaks or after class.

Handling students’ excuses

• Model trust. • Lightening rarely strikes twice. • Take it out of your hands.• Preempt problems. • Don’t take it personally (Students lie for themselves, not against us)

• Establish a policy on excuses ahead of time.

- To reduce the number of excuses you will get.- To take you out of the position of having

to decide on a case-by-case basis.• Your policy should help you judge with

firmness and finesse.

A General Rule of Thumb

• Taking a firm, consistent, rational and caring approach to excuses that incorporates a ‘trust, but verify’ policy.

• Treat every excuse as genuine, but in fairness to the entire class, required that it be accompanied by supporting documentation.

No As for just showing up!

Lets get this straight: Students don’t get an A for just showing up. They have to be extraordinary to get

an A.

• Students’ expectations for top marks, whether they earned them or not, unfortunately can be coupled with foolish tendencies on the part of some teachers to play the role of the avuncular professor.

• The kindly avuncular professor is easily deluded to think that “encouraging” students with exaggerated praise and slight grade inflation will be helpful.

• Give grades that would reflect students’ performance as people.

• Grade the side of them that was good, and the (unacknowledged) part that was not so good.

• Help students reflect: Why indeed did you get an A-? You got an A- because you did well enough in the class to get an A-, but not well enough for an A.

You do not get an A in life for just showing up and complying or even for

cooperating. You get an A for adding to the experience, for

giving, for risking, for showing enthusiasm, for adding life.