CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
Natalie Russell
California State University, Chico
EDTE 265
Dr. David Teja
November 12, 2023
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As a teacher, I need to establish my guidelines and expectations in my class starting on
day one. This includes what they should expect of me as a teacher, what I expect of them as
students, the rules of the classroom, and how we can all best succeed together. I want these
guidelines to be crystal clear for my students so there is no confusion or potential
miscommunication between myself and students and or parents. For example, I will allow
retakes on any and all tests that I give my students, however the highest grade they can get on
a retake is 85%. If that is not clearly communicated at the beginning of class, a student might
get frustrated after a retake test receiving only 85% even if they technically got every answer
correctly. All of my rules and expectations would not only be communicated in the classroom
but also given to them on a syllabus so that way they can bring home this copy to their
parents/guardians at home.
Not only do I need to set expectations for my students, I also need to be able to set
expectations for myself. My personal teaching motto is to stay flexible. With flexibility comes
preparedness, because you can’t be flexible with your lesson plan without being prepared to
potentially switch things up. I need to have a strong skeleton of how my class should run for
each day but with wiggle room to move things around or switch things up if I deem necessary. I
need to make sure my teaching is catered towards my specific classroom, practices I use for
one classroom might be super successful and utter failure in another and I need to be prepared
for that possibility. For example, socratic seminars are a very common practice in many classes
that I would love to incorporate in my classroom. However if I have a relatively quieter or shyer
group of students, I would need to find another discussion based practice in order to get
students more talkative and engaged.
Now that I have established rules for not only the students but myself as well, it’s time to
move on to how to work with students who do not follow those classroom guidelines. As the
teacher I need to remain calm, in control, and not show my potential frustration. Students who
lash out, typically are doing these actions to get reactions from their peers or the teacher, if I
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give them the reaction that they are looking for, that’s when I, as the teacher, start to lose
control of the classroom. I believe every student deserves a second chance. If a student has a
small disturbance I will not bring too much attention to it. I might go stand near their desk and
give them a little more eye contact in class, two successful methods I have seen in my
classroom observations. If their behaviors continue, I will try to quietly and quickly talk to the
student in private and ask them to not continue these behaviors. A private conversation is
preferred to avoid any potential embarrassment which may trigger even more rule breaking. If
that’s not plausible I will calmly and quickly ask them to stop their behaviors in front of the
classroom.
If none of these steps have proven successful, I will calmly ask the student to stay after
class. In that after-class pow-wow, I will inform the student that they were not only disrupting
their own learning, but their peers’ learning and my instruction and this behavior is unacceptable
in my classroom. I will be clear to inform them that if their behavior continues then further
actions would be taken, whether that’s detnation, a trip to the principal’s office, etc. A parent-
teacher conference would also be a step to explore if a student has continuous disruptive
behavior.
Of course there will be the rare occasion where a student is continually determined to
disrupt classroom time, but with the steps I listed above it is my goal to never get to that point. I
just need to make sure I am prepared for any situation, flexible and able to switch around lesson
plans if necessary, and to stay calm and in control of my classroom. I also need to make sure to
establish the expectations of my classroom starting on day one to make sure there is no
misunderstanding from the students as to what is expected of them.
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Works Cited
Matt. (2023, July 19). The Ultimate Classroom Management Checklist - back to school.
TeamTom Education. https://teamtomeducation.com/classroom-management-checklist-
back-to-school/
Mulvahill, E. (2018, February 27). What is classroom management?. We Are Teachers.
https://www.weareteachers.com/what-is-classroom-management/
Terada, Y. (2019, February 27). The key to effective classroom management. Edutopia.
https://www.edutopia.org/article/key-effective-classroom-management
