The meaning of classroom management is the skill of organizing and managing a class whilst maintaining a friendly relaxed manner and maintaining discipline.

I am going to begin by sharing my experiences of being on the receiving end of classroom management and stating what I found effective and what I didn't find effective.

I think as a teacher you have to adapt to the level and age of the students you are teaching. When I was in first school I was treated very differently to when I was in high school. During middle school and high school especially, we could analyze and estimate what our limits would be with certain teachers. I found that the teachers who maintained discipline from the beginning had a lot more control over a class as opposed to a teacher who didn't. I found that if a teacher made a lesson interesting and kept me captivated it showed in my work. If a teacher was boring and did not maintain discipline I would switch off and start whispering to my friends as I new I could get away with it, this was an ineffective manner to conduct a lesson with.

I think in high schools especially if you treat your students like adults, inspire confidence in them whilst still maintaining authority you are more likely to get good results from them.

Some key factors of classroom management are as follows:-

Eye contact - this is an important key because if you don't look the students in the eye when speaking to them, it may show a lack of confidence in yourself hence you are more likely to have problems with discipline. On the other hand if you are glaring at the students all the time it may make them feel uncomfortable, and therefore have an effect on their work if they feel like they are being watched all the time. So as teachers we must maintain a balanced level of eye contact.

Gestures - are good for explaining methods and trying to get a point across. I think the more visual you can be the better it is for maintaining the attention of your students. It can also help with keeping a good pace to lessons.

Voice - it is important to have variety in the voice when lecturing a class of students, it is more interesting to listen to a teacher who is choral than a teacher who speaks in monotonous form. You can adapt the manner of your voice to suit various factors, for example: ability of the students you are teaching, age of students, to gain control of a class, size of a class etc… your voice should overall stay natural and approachable.

Classroom arrangement - is very important in the sense that when you pair students up you may feel it is better to put a weak student with a strong student. You need to be able to use your own judgment in these situations. I think it is also a good idea to keep moving students around so they can interact with different people and not just their best friends.

Overall, I think as teachers we must be able to differentiate when to be firm and when to leave the students alone, we must be flexible and be able to mould into a role according to the activity and situation without being domineering or leaving the students uncertain.

Laurie Pollitt