CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

HOW CREATIVE ARE YOU AS A TEACHER?
     Have you ever exhausted your energy in one or two hours long as you spend your time with your class? Did you experience to flee quickly, escaping from all sorts of outward behaviors shown by your bully students? I was in this circumstance when I started to teach in secondary school which was exclusive for boys. Oh my! They were towering over me so that I had to wear 3 inches-high heeled shoes. I was just like in a rampage whenever I got inside the room filled with young boys who used to vandalize at the toilets and on their chairs. See. My first encounter with a group of students twenty years ago was dramatic enough to regret why I had to be a teacher. I should have ended as a nurse or a policewoman but not as a teacher! Well to make the story short, I have loved teaching as a profession despite of everything. It only means to say that a teacher has to undergo through the hole of a needle before the so-called success in teaching profession can be determined and enjoyed.
     Focusing on one of the main components of teaching, which is discipline, is very essential for a new comer or veteran teacher. Discipline is the foremost key to education and it is not excusable for any teacher to ignore this tenet of education. No teacher can teach a lesson effectively in the midst of an unruly class, and no students can ever learn well if they don’t pay attention and don’t do what is supposed to be done to make learning possible by all means. What I would like to emphasize here is the management of the class-its surroundings, its human factors, its psychology and its materials and tools. Therefore, the classroom manager is the teacher himself or herself. As a manger, he or she directs, controls, organizes and implements discipline in a more conducive and permissible standard. Remember that even if you understand that students have different levels of discipline stages or strokes, it is still not easy to establish the desired set of rules and let the administrators and parents understand it. Well, it is a normal school scenario.
     As I stayed long in teaching, I learned many styles through experimentation done with different groups of learners. Whatever discipline approach that is working smoothly with a certain group of students may not have the same effects when the same disciplinary strategy is implemented in another class. For example, a slow learner class needs reminders most of the time even when they are just simply passing the papers. However, a smart class shows active retention of what you want, and it is easy to manage them. Truly, different folks need different strokes.
     To design your discipline composition is best achieved when you know the type of class that you manage. Knowing them by names is good, but it is better to know their backgrounds so that you will know how to handle them accordingly and uniquely. Although you have a general set of rules, it is imperative that you have to be specific and fair based on the background of your students and based on what your students do. A fair teacher is encouraging the virtue of a just society,
     When you give your reminders, do not imply to them that you are reprimanding or scolding them. These reminders are addressed to the whole class. It is better to give reminders on the very first days of classes, normally during the orientation. Tell them about your guidelines and constantly remind them the whole year round. This is a preventive measure to suspend any aggravated and serious disciplinary problems. On the other hand, if there is a need to direct the reminders to one or two students, you may set a conference after the class. Never insult any student even if you are at the height of your anger. It is because you are the mentor and you need to show to them that you are an adult. In this case, you will gain respect as you deserve as a teacher who is many steps ahead of them.
     Now, what about in the case of giving warnings? Warning is the corresponding non-verbal or verbal action given to a student in a concealed manner. In my class, if I saw a student sleeping, I just moved in and gave him a slight tap to make him awake at that time. He would straighten up, being aware that I saw him. In some cases of students who are sleeping in the middle of a class discussion, the students may have problems during that time or some health problems may be the cause why they sleep in the class. Sometimes, this occurs due to teacher’s factor also. These signs of inattentiveness are indicative of a student’s disciplinary behavior and every behavior that a student manifests has a root. Therefore, after the class, I talked to my student to seek the cause of sleeping at the class. I would like to point out clearly that WARNING is effective especially when you communicate it to your students clearly. Never implement a disciplinary measure which is not within your set of rules. In addition, always encourage your students to try and work out again until they become better.
     What about sending the students to the office? This is the last recourse. Sending a student to a guidance counselor or principal due to outward behavior isn’t a good way to save your profession. What I mean is that, only major cases must be referred to the office. A guidance counselor and the principal are not the prefects of discipline. They are there only to guide and facilitate administrative functions. You as the classroom manager should know how to handle the classroom related problems. However, it is also good to seek advice from your guidance counselor and principal whenever it is necessary.
     In conclusion, classroom management is intertwined with discipline. Creative teachers have creative ways how to deal with classroom outward behaviors.