Psych

Managing Learning Environments

Cluster 13

Classroom Management

Techniques used to maintain a healthy learning, environment, relatively free of behavior problems.

Goal of Classroom Management

Access to Learning- everyone needs to know how to participate in class activities

More time for Learning

Respectful and Caring Relationships/Feeling Safe

Self-Management- Teaching students how to be self-regulated

Routines and Procedures

Describe how activities are accomplished in classrooms

Not necessarily written down

Ways to get things done

Routines and Procedures

Taking Attendance

Student Movement- enter/exit, bathroom

Housekeeping- storage, plant care

How to collect assignments/turn in homework

How to get teacher’s attention

Talk among students

Rules

Statements specifying expected and forbidden behaviors.

Consider: what kind of atmosphere do you want?, what student behaviors will help you teach effectively?, what limits do students need?

Must be consistent with school rules

Planning Spaces for Learning

Note the fixed features like computers and sinks

Create easy access to materials and organized way of storing

Make sure you can see all of your students and that they can see all instructional things

Work areas should be quiet and separate from activity areas

Managing Problems by Preventing Them

Withitness- awareness of everything happening in the classroom

Overlapping- supervising several activities at once

Group Focus- all students should have something to do during a lesson

Movement Management- smooth transitions, appropriate and flexible pace, variety

Cluster 12 Motivation in Learning and Teaching

Coping with Anxiety

Many students deal with anxiety in school for a variety of reasons.

What can teachers do to help?

Use competition carefully

Monitor activities to make sure no student being put under undue pressure

Make sure all students have a reasonable chance of succeeding

Avoid situations in which highly anxious will have to perform in front of groups

Give anxious students practice in speaking before smaller groups

Make sure all instructions are clear- uncertainty can lead to anxiety

Write instructions on the board- not just orally

Check understanding- “How are you going to do #1?”

 If doing something new, model how to do it.

Avoid unnecessary time pressure

Give occasional take-home tests

Consider the class time allowed for a given test/assignment.

Remove some of the pressures from major tests

Teach test-taking skills, give practice tests and study guides

Avoid basing most of report card grade on 1 test

Use various forms of assessments- presentations, portfolios, projects.

Teach self- regulation strategies

Before test: encourage students to see the test as an important task that they have the ability to prepare for.

During: remind students the test is important but not overly important. Slow down, stay relaxed.

After: focus on controllable things- like study strategies, effort, careful reading of questions and relaxation techniques.

Managing Learning Environments

Cluster 13

Classroom Management

Techniques used to maintain a healthy learning, environment, relatively free of behavior problems.

Goal of Classroom Management

Access to Learning- everyone needs to know how to participate in class activities

More time for Learning

Respectful and Caring Relationships/Feeling Safe

Self-Management- Teaching students how to be self-regulated

Routines and Procedures

Describe how activities are accomplished in classrooms

Not necessarily written down

Ways to get things done

Routines and Procedures

Taking Attendance

Student Movement- enter/exit, bathroom

Housekeeping- storage, plant care

How to collect assignments/turn in homework

How to get teacher’s attention

Talk among students

Rules

Statements specifying expected and forbidden behaviors.

Consider: what kind of atmosphere do you want?, what student behaviors will help you teach effectively?, what limits do students need?

Must be consistent with school rules

Planning Spaces for Learning

Note the fixed features like computers and sinks

Create easy access to materials and organized way of storing

Make sure you can see all of your students and that they can see all instructional things

Work areas should be quiet and separate from activity areas

Managing Problems by Preventing Them

Withitness- awareness of everything happening in the classroom

Overlapping- supervising several activities at once

Group Focus- all students should have something to do during a lesson

Movement Management- smooth transitions, appropriate and flexible pace, variety