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Texas ISD School Guide
Texas ISD School Guide







Articles for Teachers

Classroom Management Strategies
By:Joe Coleman

Being a teacher it is very important to have strong classroom management skills. I personally believe in a very proactive approach to classroom management. This means you should be stopping classroom management issues BEFORE they start. This is the best way to maintain an efficient and effective classroom. Even when teachers employ proactive techniques minor issues can still eventually occur. This article is about how to deal with these minor distractions in the most effective way possible.

Some common minor disruptions that teachers face are talking, writing or passing notes, and minor roughhousing. Usually teachers deal with these incidents in two common ways. Some teachers do not want to get the reputation of a disciplinarian so they choose to just ignore the behavior. Obviously there are some serious issues associated with this approach. When you ignore the behavior it likely will not go away but become more persistent. The worse case scenario is that it can even escalate.

Other teachers choose to be extremely strict and react harshly to any minor occurrence of misbehavior. This reaction also has many problems. The teacher becomes a negative person in the students' lives and can even lead to them starting to develop negative feelings about education and learning. The severity of the teacher's response can also cause an even greater distraction to the classroom environment. If a teacher stops the class every time one or two students misbehave then the class will be off task a lot.

This leads to the question that if these two approaches are not ideal then what should a teacher do? The best solution is to handle minor classroom management problems without disrupting the class. This means handling the problem without stopping the lesson. Experts commonly refer to this as the Law of Least Intervention.

What this means is that the teacher takes steps that require the least amount of time and offer the least amount of disruption. The teacher will start with the method that requires the least distraction and then escalate the intervention as appropriate.

When this approach is employed the teacher maximizes time and remains on task while managing the classroom. Obviously when students are on task it is less likely that they will disrupt the classroom.

There is more to classroom management as well. Below I have provided a review of a resource that I have used to help with classroom management so that I can manage the classroom effectively and not let disruptions impact student learning. I highly recommend that you read it.

Remember, any intervention you make should take the least amount of effort, time, and create the least amount of unpleasant feelings. When this is achieved your classroom will be in the best position to be effective and promote student learning at the highest level.

Classroom management does no have to be stressful. Click here to read a review of a resource that will help you achieve successful classroom management with ease http://surviveinclassroomreview.blogspot.com/.


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