Whether you're a first-year teacher or a seasoned pro, effective classroom management is a critical piece of any successful classroom. Share what works.
Classroom management for older students
So, I work in an inner-urban school. We are at about 98% poverty level. We have close to 800 students in our building from 6th - 8th grade. Any ideas on classroom management. Let me tell you about our student population. About 20% of them are serious behavioral issues. They fight on a regular basis, they run up and down the halls during class, many student leave other classes and bang on doors or poke their heads into classes where they don't belong, they are diagnosed with a variety of conditions that go untreated. We regularly have students that leave the building in handcuffs. They take and sell drugs. I've had a student in rehab this year. This is not your average student population. The other 80% of the students range from very engaged, to just don't care. How do you deal with this type of student population. I don't have a single class out of 5 that doesn't have some serious behavioral issues such as swearing at me and each other, talking constantly and loudly, total lack of respect for authority. What do any of you do who may teach in a similar environment?
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Next Schools That Work
Hi Siq,
Thanks for posting this great question. I'll be featuring it in this week's newsletter, and I hope we get some good advice from teachers in a similar situation. But I also wanted to let you know that our next Schools That Work is focusing on this very subject. It will be published in two weeks so please check back. -- Lora, exec. producer, Edutopia.org
Lora, did you publish the
Lora, did you publish the response to this??? If so, where can I find it?
Hi, I feel there are many
Hi,
I feel there are many ways for better classroom management. Make your students sit in a group of 5. Tell them to exchange notes and work together. Take a not of students who are working and behaving in the right manner. If any student misbehaves in the group, make sure you give them some kind of punishment. Or the best thing would be to have a parents teacher's meet where you can discuss the problems of every student in detail.
Find the students'
Find the students' weaknesses, then take advantage of that and change your teaching styles to a certain type to make certain you can take on the classroom and inspire students to learn at the same time. Make sure you are also respectful and attentive to all students. Make your classroom a room available for communication, for free advice from you on anything they have problems with, and they should also have the opportunity to work together. Group them together yourself, don't let them choose their own groups.
I totally empathize with you,
I totally empathize with you, as I teach in Baltimore City. One strategy that has worked well is to constantly change up. I often have two or three activities as a backup, and always give them a tangible project. Often this is like a worksheet based on a reading but always includes implicit skills rather than explicit ones that force them to think about, relate to and interpret meaning. Art projects have also worked very well.
At the end of the day it's going to come to relationship and whether they trust you and what you are teaching them. Good luck and keep reaching out to them. Remember, its still early in the year.