The effective teacher emphasizes prevention rather than remediation in classroom management. The teacher systematically approaches teaching by planning and preparing well in advance; setting expectations and teaching the procedures, routines and standards of behavior at the start of school and reteaches as necessary; and maintains these through prompt and consistent reinforcement of appropriate behavior and by providing appropriate, well-prepared lessons and activities that engage the learners. See "Effective Classroom Management and Instruction: An Exploration of Models" Final Report, Evertson et al, 1985, ERIC:ED 271 422 for a complete discussion of this topic.
Effective classroom managers:
1. Plan classroom procedures and rules carefully and in detail.
2. Systematically teach students procedures and expected behaviors.
3. Monitor student work and behavior closely.
4. Deal with inappropriate behavior quickly and consistently.
5. Organize instruction to maximize student task engagement and success.
6. Communicate directions and expectations clearly.
At the end of a class period/teaching day, it is important to analyze and reflect on the lesson if improvement as a teacher is to occur.
Analysis and reflection vis a vis a discipline plan:
1. Is it working? [for all but a few?]
2. Why isn't it working? [review the plan]
3. Have you really implemented the plan with consistency?
4. Have you consulted with counselor, parents, administrator?
5. Do you need to modify the plan? For all? For some individuals?
6. Is it time to announce, "This isn't working, so ..." [Then develop with the class or announce a new rule/plan.]
ON MOTIVATION
The teacher's role: to enable others to learn...to develop attitudes toward learning...work on attitudes and the learning will smooth out.
When you get up in the morning, do you want to run 10 miles? Do a dozen hard calculus problems? Kids don't always want to do what you give them to do.
How do you handle the kid who says, "I don't want to do it?" [QUIETLY] Tell him he doesn't have to do it...just sit quietly so others can work...they'll get bored and join in later. Or, "ok, you can read something else...but tell me, how are you going to get this concept if you don't do the assignment?"
What is the most frustrating thing from the teacher's point of view? Wasting time, goofing off, stalling, not doing the work.
You will be paid as a teacher to cause children to learn. Yet Madeline hunter says that no one can motivate another person. Certainly no one can force another to learn. What can we do?
You can set the stage so that a pupil will go to work. What are the conditions that encourage learning?
1. Attractive, enriched environment.
2. Material at a level that challenges but can be understood.
3. Teach to individual learning styles.
4. Use appropriate model of teaching for the purpose.
5. Praise, prompt, and leave [get all pupils started quickly and provide prompt seatwork assistance as needed...then move on quickly].
6. Clear expectations and consistent class control.
7. Madeline Hunter's 6 variables of motivation: feeling Tone, Reward, Interest, level of Concern, Knowledge of results, and Success (TRICKS).
8. Make learning intrinsically interesting to students by relating lesson content to the student's life.
9. Vividness of the presentation...novel or different approaches in the readiness part of the lesson.
10. Vary the lesson presentations, use a variety of audio-visual approaches to keep teaching from going stale.
11. The bottom line in motivation is meaning/understanding.
This list of a dozen variables that you can use to set the stage for student self-motivation includes, of course, nearly everything you've studied about teaching, doesn't it? Not a bad check list if things aren't going right. Go to Developing a Discipline Plan for you