While working as an educator is an enriching career, almost every teacher out there wishes they could manage their classrooms more efficiently. Instead, you may be blessed with a classroom of loud and unruly kids. Indeed, you cannot teach a class if you cannot manage your classroom. As intimidating as that is, there are various ways and tricks you can use to manage your students, even as a new teacher. Teacher resources and supplies are not your only significant concern as a new educator in the industry as you will also need to uncover efficient strategies to manage your students best.
Set The Tone Early
Make sure that your students are lined up, ready to go before they come in. Make sure that they are quiet and not out of control because they will bring the same energy into the classroom. Set the expectation outside and tell them to come in quietly, if they are not, send them back out until they cooperate.
Writing down everything they are going to need for the duration of the class helps so that when they come in, your students know what they need. It is almost guaranteed that one of the students will ask, “ what do we need?”, so point to the board.
Greet Students At The Door Everyday
Greet every single one of your students at the door, every single day. The power in this is magical when it comes to student management inside the classroom. You can greet them verbally, or by using different handshakes, it shows them that you respect them and you are glad that they are there.
Minimize Interruptions
Every period has a set amount of time allocated to it, and as a teacher, you want to utilize that time as much as possible to cover the day’s syllabus. From the beginning of the class, you want to make sure that your students know that if work is not covered during class time, you will take time from their lunchtime or recess time. Immediately that will keep them quiet and allow you to teach.
Sometimes interruptions come from students needing to use the restroom and need your permission to leave the classroom. Instead of putting up their hands to verbally ask your permission, have hand signals to indicate a comment, a question or crossing fingers to ask for the restroom. You can then nod back at them to signal a ‘yes’, or shake your head as a ‘no’, without interrupting the flow of the lesson, and the attention of the rest of the class.
Managing The ‘Class Clown’
First, you have to remember that students and people are the way they are for a reason, although we may not always know what the reason is, 90% of the time it means there is an issue at home. This behaviour persists typically in older students than the younger ones because younger kids are afraid of getting into trouble.
As hard as the situation is, handle it with care and some level of compassion. Find anything to compliment the student every day, and try to change their mood. Finding alone time to talk to the student may be helpful, to avoid them acting out in front of their peers.
