Classroom Management is Like a Box of Chocolates...

By this point, I’ve done some teaching. It’s been challenging, because no matter how much I seem to prepare, the most difficult part to master is the classroom management. My mentor teacher mentioned to me that once I get a good handle on managing my classroom, all the rest of the parts seem to fall into place rather easily. There’s a lot going on that you simply don’t think about until you’re actually trying to improve the things that you do in front of the class that help keep the students engaged.

One thing I quickly came to realize is that middle school students only have a 10-15 minute attention span. Once I get them working on something, I only have a short window of time in which they can work independently on one thing before they begin to grow restless and noisy. Obviously this makes certain longer activities, such as 30 minutes of Silent Sustained Reading much more difficult, since the students grow bored of whatever they are doing far before the activity is complete. A way that I’ve learned to get around this is to break up an activity 10-15 minutes into it and refocus the students by asking them questions as a class to check for understanding, or reiterating the directions of a section that I notice them struggling with in my observation as I walk around checking their work over their shoulders. Optimally, this will also help influence the way I structure my lessons in the class, since I know I need to segment them into small bite-sized chunks for the students to take in small doses before they change focus and reset their attention spans.

It can be tough to get a class back under control once I’ve lost it. Part of the challenge is asserting myself as just as important a teacher as the mentor teacher I’m learning from. I’m attempting to get across to the students that I’m not just a substitute; I have the same authority as their other teacher, and I deserve the same level of respect and obedience. This has been a challenge, but In working with them each day, I know they are starting to treat me better. Some of the ways I think I’ve managed to procure their trust and respect is that I’ve been around long enough to begin to know and share their interests and different personalities. I try to greet them all at the door, and I ask them how their day is going. From my classes, I’ve learned that this is a fairly effective strategy, especially when you know that some of the students possibly haven’t had any adult in their life take an interest in them personally, that day.

My mentor teacher summarized her stance on classroom management as “creating an environment where all students can feel safe and secure both physically and emotionally.” Secondary school is a tumultuous time for students. They need to feel that they are someplace where they are safe. If I am in control of my classroom, the students, on some level, know that they are safe there. If I lose control of the class, the students will turn towards the next person who can give them the sense of safety that they crave, and this is usually the class clown or an outspoken student. Once that happens, it becomes extremely difficult to gain that control back.

It’s a struggle, each day, but I’m learning as I go, and I believe I’m developing strategies and techniques that are working. Hopefully things will have gelled between the students and I by the time I take complete control of the classroom for several weeks while I solo teach.