Are You A New Teacher Looking To Better Manage Your Classroom? Tips For You

When you are just beginning your career as an educator, you may feel nervous and excited in equal measure. One of the things that you may be most nervous about is managing your classroom. After all, keeping order in your classroom while also making students feel heard and comfortable can be a tricky balancing act. However, there are several strategies that you can employ and use to properly manage your classroom. Learn a few tips and strategies to help you in your classroom management, and then, you can feel more confident going into your first day as a professional educator. 

Develop Clear and Simple Rules

If you want students in your classroom to do well, and you want them to follow the rules that you have set out, you need those rules to be clear and simple. Convoluted language, unclear expectations, and even having too many rules will only serve to confuse and confound your students. This, in turn, will lead to disobedience and potentially even chaos in the classroom. 

When you are developing the list of rules for your classroom, think long and hard about what guidelines and rules are the most important to you and your ability to educate your students. For example, "be respectful" may be one of your top priorities, both in terms of your students' behavior towards you and towards each other. "No gum chewing" or other such specific rules may not be as important, and you might want to leave them off of your final list. Be specific in choosing rules that help to maintain order in your classroom and help to create a wonderful learning environment. 

Have Established Consequences for Misbehavior

Once you have your classroom rules decided, you will also want to think about the consequences or punishments you will want to have in your classroom for misbehavior. It is not enough to have rules. You also need to enforce them. 

For each rule, have a clear consequence (or series of consequences). Talking over someone in class is a good example. If a student speaks while another person (you or a called upon student) is speaking, you may first give them a verbal warning. Then, if they do it again, you might ask them to move to a different seat (to separate them from the person they are talking to). A third offense could then be sitting alone in a separate area of the classroom. Or, you could also progress to detention, a trip to the office, or the like. 

Don't Forget to Give Praise

You do not want to focus all of your attention on students causing problems or on misbehavior. This will create a negative classroom environment which will not necessarily foster learning or positive relationships between yourself and your students. Instead, you want to foster a positive learning environment by giving your students plenty of praise and positive feedback. 

When your students are well-behaved, comment on how well they are doing. If they provide a good comment in a classroom discussion, tell them so. Always take the opportunity to acknowledge positive behavior, especially in students who might have caused disruptions or issues at other times. 

Now that you know a few ideas to help you with your classroom management, you can feel more confident as you prepare for your first day as a new teacher. For more information on using classroom management materials in your classroom, contact your local educational supplies store. 

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