Classroom Management Simplified

Elizabeth Breaux, Elizabeth Breaux

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781138470590
• eBook ISBN: 9781317927075
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The tips in this book are accompanied by typical classroom scenarios and step-by-step instructions on how to implement them. Also included are actual dialogues to use with your students.

Part I

Procedures for Teachers

In Part I we discuss important procedures for teachers. In addition to an explanation of each procedure there is a section titled “Tips” that explains how to implement that procedure. Also included with each procedure is a typical classroom scenario followed by examples of effective implementation and ineffective implementation.

Read each scenario carefully and remember to laugh as you recognize yourself and some of your peers in these hypothetical cases. Remember that it is only when we can laugh at our own mistakes that we truly grow as professionals. If you are a veteran teacher, you’ve accrued years of laughable (and in some cases embarrassing) memories, some of which you wish you could erase. But don’t forget that they were all valuable tools in the learning process. If you are a new teacher, be aware that you will be creating some laughable moments that will be remembered for years to come! Don’t be so hard on yourself, however. We veterans only pretend that we have never made mistakes.

Procedure 1 for Teachers:

Organize Any Disorganization

If I Survive

I’m certain that I placed it there

I’m looking for it everywhere

Behind the doors and under chairs

Beneath the floor and in the air.

One day I will get organized

Next year sounds good (if I survive)

A better plan I must contrive

I’ll do it tomorrow, if I’m alive!

Elizabeth Breaux

“A place for everything, and everything in its place.” Who said that? Was it my mother, my grandmother, Galileo, Copernicus? Does it really matter? It’s so ingenious yet so basic. Live by it in the classroom, and life will be much less stressful.

An organized environment is a breeding ground for learning. We teachers therefore must become masters of organization if we are to become the masters of our classrooms. Learning cannot take place in a chaotic atmosphere. The bottom line is that if we are disorganized, we cannot command organization from our students. If the teacher is disorganized, the students will follow suit. Ultimately, learning will suffer dramatically. The good news is that the reverse is also true. Students really do love an organized learning environment, but it’s up to the teacher to get the organizational ball rolling.

Organization begins long before the students arrive and continues long after they have “left the building.” Don’t leave the building until you organize your classroom!

Tips for Becoming Organized

Determine the amount of physical space you have and how to best organize that space for maximum efficiency.

Arrange your own personal space first. Remember, you live there.

Create rooms and/or stations within your classroom.

Color-code everything.

Create bins for everything. Bins should be clearly labeled.

Create and display charts for everything: conduct chart, extra points chart, tardy chart, and so on. Make certain to assign numbers to students. Names should never be written on the charts.

Label and/or color-code shelves, cubbyholes, and so on, by class (if you teach more than one class) and then by the materials that are stored there. Students then know what is off limits to them and what is not. They also know where items “live” in the classroom.

Create supply boxes for your students. (More on this in Procedure 6 in Part II.) This works for all grade levels. Fill a small plastic box with necessary classroom supplies (pen, pencil, scissors, glue, ruler, eraser, crayons, compass, protractor, highlighter, calculator, etc.). Place one box in each desk. Write the name of every student who sits at that desk (if you teach more than one class) on the box. When students arrive, familiarize them with the supply boxes. Tell them that they are responsible for checking the box daily and telling the teacher immediately if anything is missing. This, of course, means that the student in the last class “accidentally” left with something that belongs in the box. The teacher then can retrieve the missing item. (The teacher will receive a reimbursement of sorts for the cost of the supplies because the students’ supply lists include all or most of the items that are in the boxes. As students bring in their supplies, the teacher can collect and stockpile those items as replacements for the remainder of the year. There is usually a certain amount left over at the end of the year that is sufficient for creating the boxes for the next year.)

Assign one student per row or group as the materials supervisor and show these students where everything lives. (See Procedure 7 in Part II.)

Determine a space and/or place for everything. Don’t deviate from this procedure. If an item is taken from its place, it must be returned to its place. No questions asked!

Classroom Scenario

At this middle school the school day consists of six one-hour class periods. Students switch classes each hour. Teachers are given one planning period, but the remaining five class periods can be quite hectic, with one class rushing out as another rushes in.

Teacher A

Teacher A signals to her class at 8:58 that the bell will ring in two minutes. She instructs the students to place all materials in the supply boxes. She motions to the materials supervisors to collect the materials and put them in their proper places. She reminds all the students to clear and collect all trash from their spaces. The teacher walks to the door and opens it. The bell rings, and the teacher quickly dismisses each row, beginning with the ones in which all the students have reorganized their spaces and returned all materials to their proper places. The students exit in an orderly fashion. An onlooker would notice that the room is impeccably neat, organized, and ready for the next class to enter (because rows are not dismissed until everything is in place). Miraculously, the teacher had nothing to do with returning the room to its original order (other than training the students to do it for her).

Teacher B

The bells rings, and Teacher B is caught “off guard.” Students are still in groups, and materials are scattered about. There is no obvious procedure for returning materials. Students begin frantically gathering their personal belongings and rushing out of the room. The teacher orders the students not to leave until all the materials have been returned, but few obey the teacher’s “command.” Desks are out of order, and supplies are everywhere. The students are racing to their next classes, and the teacher is frazzled. Unfortunately, another class is arriving, only to be greeted by this mass display of chaos.

The fact is that an organized classroom is free of chaos, and the teacher is basically stress-free. Which classroom would you choose?

Procedure 2 for Teachers:

Plan Well

What Do They Do?

Good teachers love to teach us

There is no doubt about it

They know just how to make a point

And never do they shout it.

They count the minutes till we come

And hate it when we leave

Teaching is their life, we’re sure

From it there’s no reprieve.

We wonder what they really do

When all of us go home

They must just wait around at school

Feeling so alone.

We’re sure that they don’t eat or sleep

Or shop or cook or sew

What do they do while we’re at home?

We’d really like to know!

Elizabeth Breaux

We plan for tomorrow! That’s what we do. There truly is no reprieve. If we’re not te...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• About the Author
• Foreword
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Part I Procedures for Teachers
• Part II Procedures for Teachers and Their Students
• Conclusion