EXPECTATIONS
Classroom management is key to a successful classroom. For me it would start with expectations for the classroom and for the learning that will be taking place. Recently I co-created a Slam Poetry unit for a grade 6/7 class for my practicum. One of the integral parts of the unit was to co-create the expectations for the unit. There were expectations that the students decided were important to them and there were expectations that I felt were important for the success of the learning.
Creating these expectations with the class made it clear what was expected of them during the lessons. This is an integral part of classroom management and having them posted made it a good visual reference for when there need to be a reminder.
Timeline
Posting the timeline of events is also a helpful classroom management technique. Students like to know what is going on when. Using flip chart and posting the timeline of events in the classroom as a visual reminder I feel helped students by lowering their anxiety and fear of the unknown.
ORGANIZATION
People usually function better when they are organized. When you are no organized anxiety can take hold and impact learning in a negative way. Especially when trying something new. For the unit I created a Graphic Organizer for each student. Students used these to keep information they were learning organized which I found made each lesson run smoother.
NO SUPRISES
Surprises can be unavoidable and a powerful tool as life is not always predictable, but for lessons when you can provide clear assessment criteria it takes the guess work out of what the teacher is expecting from the students. For the unit I created a rubric of assessment that was given out with the graphic organizer to each student so they would know what the expected outcomes for the unit were. In my experience this also provides the ‘why’ to ‘why are were learning this’ that is more often than not being asked by students today.
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