About Matthew Hiebert Expertise education, study strategies, pedagogy, sustainable education, hidden curriculum,
classroom
management, science, math, learning materials
Experience Extensive experience teaching at the elementary/jr. secondary level, including experience at prestigious international schools; recent work has been as pedagogy specialist and education project coordinator for teacher training projects in east and southeast Asia, and in Latin America
Question Thanks for taking my question:
I have no problem controlling individual students, but when the entire class starts acting badly, I have a problem controlling them, and they know that and they take full advantage of that -- since I can't punish everyone (by sending them all to the Dean's office). What do you recommend ?
Answer Hi, Sorry for my slow response. Hope I can help you.
It takes time to develop good classroom management, especially if you're working with large groups of kids, and especially if there are a few kids in that group that set the others off!
Classroom management is easiest if you work proactively. Rather than waiting for misbehavior and then punishing it, there are a lot of things you can do to make sure misbehavior doesn't happen in the first place, or to at least reduce it.
What made the biggest difference for me when I started teaching was to introduce routines and procedures for getting things done. Students are most likely to misbehave when they are bored, so if you can find efficient procedures to reduce down time, you're halfway there. Introduce and practice procedures for efficiently passing out papers, collecting work, lining up, coming into the classroom etc. Make note of when students misbehave and ask yourself how you can eliminate those situations. I had rules in my classroom, but I relied much more on procedures than on rules.
It's also very important to make expectations clear. If students don't know what is expected, or if they don't know how to start, you'll have problems... so make sure the tasks and behavior guidelines are clear. If someone is off-task, don't just let it slide, go over to them and help them to get back on track. Ask if they are having trouble; ask if they need to be moved to an area of the classroom where there are no distractions... etc.
Rather than sending a child to the Dean's office (which should be only a last resort), try to handle things in-house as much as you can. Sending the child to another adult undermines your own authority to some extent. Of course, if a child is a real problem, sometimes you just need them "out of there", but there are other options, such as having a private chat with the child in the hallway, or speaking with them after class, or moving the child to a private seat away from their peers. Try to "make the punishment fit the crime" if you can, rather than arbitrary punishments like extra homework, detention or the like. Also, use peer pressure to your advantage. With young children it works well to ask the class, "could someone please remind Jonny (or whoever) what is the procedure for asking a question in our classroom?"
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, keep the students engaged. If the students are interested, and if they are eager to work on the tasks you give them, they are far less likely to misbehave. Try to keep things fresh, avoid lecture style teaching, look for ways to involve students, either orally, through games, having them demonstrate something, or using hands on materials. If you can get them interested management becomes much easier.
