Basics of Classroom Management – a recipe to self- leadership in the classroom?
Isn’t that the dream? A book full of classroom management recipes for challenging situations in your class? Just look it up, implement and tada! All goes well.
Only, often enough, it doesn’t.
Classroom management at Guide and Lead is understood as a part of the self- leadership of any teacher in their respective classroom. Classroom management therefore is NOT understood as a ready-made set of strategies, but rather as an agile way to accommodate and foster learning in an environment that meets both the needs of the students and of the teacher.
Even though we do not want to encourage you to use any ready-made “recipes”, we still compare classroom management, in a metaphorical sense, to cooking: The best cooking only occurs when certain ingredients and variables work together harmoniously. It is first the cook him/herself that must take the responsibility, initiative, creativity and courage to set the stage (for the pot).
In cooking, as well as in your class, it is essential to take in the needs of those who will be served.
Something most like:
Connect the students using something they like, find connecting metaphors when you address disruption (e.g. cooking, football, car making) and explain your needs along these lines. Choose activities that will make sure of progress in learning but at the same time help the students to engage in leading their own learning.
Avoiding what is disliked:
Avoid things they dislike or re-package the things they dislike in a way that they do not immediately feel it – just as you wouldn’t highlight the often-disliked spices you may have used in your cooking when you are sure that the person is still going to like the taste of the dish. Try to find ways around direct confrontation by starting with what they truly like. Help them to find an interest in exploring challenging, and maybe less likeable, content or activities.
Adding your own way:
Using your own ways means adding a part of you into your cooking. It makes it so much easier for students to connect with someone who is really there as a person and not just in the position of a teacher. Make sure you let your personality shine in your classroom, providing an impression that the students can relate to when you request them to do something. Do not forget to show them why you have chosen to be a teacher of this particular subject. If they feel you love it, surely, they will.
Balance ingredients:
Balance your ingredients. Make sure that you add the right number of tasks, challenges and feedback into your lessons. Do not over-spice. Keep tasks simple (but not unchallenging) and doable. Make sure you give enough time to finish tasks and add just the right amount of materials. When handing out worksheets, make sure you reflect from a student perspective whether this will really be useful and meet the learning needs of the students.
Consider offering options:
As some of your guests who join you in a meal have different tastes and appetites, your students also might be at different levels in their learning and therefore in need of different offerings. Stay connected to these needs and make sure you can accommodate different learners.
Encourage high level students on taking more challenging tasks, support them by giving them the space to explore more on their own. Invite them to help you in your teaching, present them with different materials than the rest of the class.
Have a special eye out for the students who are struggling. Ask them how you can support, pair them in groups with other students of their own level when working on the basic concepts and pair them later with stronger students when exercising, repeating or working on a project. Make sure everyone has the chance to progress from where they are.
Setting the environment:
As we say, we eat as much with our eyes as we do with our mouth, make sure that you have established the right setting in your classroom. Coming prepared to class, on time, greeting, smiling etc. All of this helps students to settle more easily and to connect with you and your lesson.
A recipe has no soul. You, as the cook, must bring soul to the recipe.
Do not try to copy strategies of others. Find your own strategies for this specific class with these specific needs.
What are some possible needs of students in your classroom?
Here are some of the answers of teachers during a Guide and Lead classroom management training in Sharjah, UAE
To try to really understand what needs your students may have, it is very important to try to see things from their perspective. As teachers, it is very useful to keep this as a constant reflection, especially if you see that disruptive behavior occurs.
Here part one ends, please look out for part two which will look at the needs of teachers too….
hi loved to read it as a school head would like to mention this in staff meeting.but I have one more concern if we all can share any idea or activity through which we can make it easier for teachers to understand.
Thanks for valuable thoughts.
Thanks Rachna, very pleased that you can see this is useful to you and your team. We certainly need to support teachers to understand this way of thinking and working through practical examples and activities.
A commonly used example would be to invest some time in creating ‘essential agreements’ together with the students. Through this dialogue students and the teacher have the chance to express their own needs in a balanced way and, based on this, a set of commitments can be created that all will promise to work hard to stick to. Regularly referring to this agreement, and reviewing it as and when people’s needs change is also a good idea for the teacher to do.
Dear Rachna, thank you for your comment. I would also love to refer you to the second part of this post, which looks at the dimensions of meeting the needs of teachers as well. Looking forward to hearing what your thoughts are on this perspective.
Hi, love this. Still I feel that our students are so much of not ready for this because of the way many are brought up in their homes. But yes, still we need to try and see beyond their behaviour, see the human in need.
Thank you Marietta, for sharing your thoughts. I think it is true that there are challenging situations also because of the way children are being brought up in their homes. I think this is related to the exchange with Elisabeth below, changes in society require changes to an aged system of formal education.
Hello, I often feel overwhelmed in my classroom when so many different children show so.many different needs. I mean they do bring a whole lot of unmet needs from their homes to my classroom and I struggle in trying to balance these needs with the learning needs they also have and my own needs of teaching a curriculum and a planned lesson. I know you are right but at the same time it is so little time we have with the children. I mean there is only so much you can do in 45 minutes.
What is your take in this?
Hi Elisabeth, thank you so much for bringing on these valuable thoughts. I can hear from you that you wish to do meet all the needs but feel it is a bit too much. I can strongly relate to this as I hear many teachers these days telling me the same. And quite honestly I see it as one of many signs that our school system and the dehumanization that come with it, just does not serve anymore the requirement of our societies and those of the children. It is simply not possible to fully meet all the needs in such a structure and it is about time that we make some noise about questioning a system that forces teachers AND students into such a battle. Sure enough that is a big debate and we are quite busy voicing our pain points. As here space is limited, I invite you to subscribe to the blog as we are discussing more of the challenges and possible solutions to this in later post. You are very welcome to join the debate here and also across our social media channels. Thank you again.
Thank you so much for this. Speaking from my heart. It is all about the authenticity of the connection with the children. When they know you truly love them AND your subject, they will learn anything with ease. Thank you for this timely reminder.
Thank you Beverly for sharing your thoughts, that is so true.
Thank you so much to provide me now with something I can refer teachers to, when they send me students out of their classrooms. This happens at my school all the time and my counseling office will be misused by these teachers that show no responsiblity to their own cooking nor to the students they serve.
It is a nice feeling to see that my approach is not totally alien. Thank you and waiting for part 2!
Hi Trevor, I see that you feel frustrated by some teachers and would wish them to take on more responsibility in their classroom. I am happy to hear that you find this post useful in order to make sure that these teachers will understand your needs and requests. Maybe it might be helpful to you as well to examine what the needs for the teachers are, when they send students out of their classroom. For me it sounds more like a call for help as they do not seem to be feel confident enough to deal with challenging situations by themselves? I love your passion for students and feel grateful that you are there for them. Thank you.
It says “basic” but this is not basic at all. It is the essence of what is teaching all about. I wish all teachers -young and old- would rethink and adjust themselves to this approach.
I admire your cooking!
Thank you, Raneej. I appreciate your feedback.
Hello that is a different one, intrigued by the picture I even more love the approach you explain here. As principal of a Christian school I feel that is something that goes well along with our visionary statement and ethics. I would love to see this put in practice. It is so much easier to run for the simple recipes of punishment and reward sometimes. Please add an article to where to start to make this a whole school philosophy. Do you offer trainings in Oregon?
Hi Lindsey, great to hear from you. We are discussing here at Guide and Lead to actually get our an entire series on how to apply this kind of approach at classrooms and schools. So it is nice to hear your encouragement to actually do so. So far we do not offer trainings in the US, but depending on your needs we can talk about this, just please send us an emailemail. Also we can offer distance web based training, if you like. I would love to support you and your school.
Love the connection to cooking. I often felt rather like a juggler. So this is an interesting perspective. Love that you push on the responsibility of the teacher as the cook.
This article will go into the reading list for our weekly newsletter. Thanks.
Hi Sebastian, thanks for your comment. Yes I think juggling has a lot of metaphoric connections to teaching as well. Maybe we can explore that at another time ;-).
Hello, at first I thought, ohh no, not another one who adds to the advisory noise. I am glad that you took a different take and will happily share it with my new colleagues at school. Thank you and waiting for part two!
Hi Isabel, Thank you for your feedback. Great that you find it useful.