Art Of Teaching

What Is Management?

Management is a goal-directed program. It coordinates joint endeavours towards fulfilment of certain pre – decided aims. It is working with and through others to effectively achieve the purposes of association.

Management as a process: The stages

There are people who consider that management is a procedure in which certain phases can be documented:

• PLANNING: At this stage short- and long-term objectives are set and how they will be achieved is planned.
• ORGANIZATION: Here we have to determine in detail the technique to influence the objectives framed before. In other words, the structure that will establish the foundation is created.
• LEAD: The third stage is to lead. It is very important for a teacher to have a direction and motivation, in such a way that it is possible to attain the objectives.
• CONTROL: The teacher scrutinizes whether the planning is valued and the objectives are met. For this they must have the freedom to make certain alterations and instructions if the rules are not followed.

Classroom Requirements And Procedures:

Teacher should be vigilant thorough lesson planning using engaging tutor strategies that inspire pupil curiosity, contribution, and participation.

Teacher should have shaped class necessities, classroom procedures, and room organization and presence that is encouraging to create a safe and organized learning environment.

Teacher needs to deliberate on student centered teaching approaches like small group activities, buddies, competitive games, student led board deliberations, individual and group projects, experiments, and replications.

 Teacher may please use any stratagem as suitable for their subject taught and grade level.

Before considering any of these appealing approaches, teacher must create a classroom with strict classroom necessities and measures.

Teacher needs to be tough, but not mean.

Teacher needs to be kind, not nice.

Teacher needs to be well planned and well organized.

Teacher should never ever try to talk over a noisy class. Teacher needs to be smart enough to divide and conquer. If possible, teacher should separate those students who disregard and disturb the learning process.

My experience tells to create a classroom atmosphere where kids feel safe, confident, and respected. I did this by treating every child with respect and kindness and requiring the same from my students.

I tell them my expectations. I share what the consequences are & make them manageable for me, because it is of greatest need for me to follow through on what I say.

When a rule is broken, the consequence is already identified. We don’t have to argue about it. I don’t have to consider what the appropriate response is. We just deal with the consequence and move on.

Two important things happen because of this: 1) Students understand I will always do what I say and rarely break rules. 2) There are no hard feelings about me being a disciplinarian as they know I am carrying out the rules of the classroom upon which we had already agreed.

Teachers need framing their interactions positively. Never call attention of students to task like “Pay Attention”. However, praise students who are right on board like “Thank you Aditya and Deepa for taking out your pens and already putting dates on your notebook pages”. It serves as a great reminder of what the students need to be doing, and they love to hear praise and therefore follow.

Teachers need to be very enthusiastic about their topic. When you love teaching something, the students will recognize your positive energy and be more inclusive. However, in your enthusiasm, don’t be loud. The louder the kids are, the lower your voice should be. They will then automatically quieten down to hear you.

I also approve honesty with your students, even when it is embarrassing to you. I detest deceitfulness, and it is the most difficult thing for me to deal with behaviour-wise with my students. I tell them I will be truthful with them, and I always am. I tell them when I don’t know the answer or when a lesson is going badly and I will try a new approach in the next class. I say when I’m not feeling well and need them to be low key. When you are human with your class, it is easier for them to relate to you and to be humans. We put a lot of pressure on students these days, and they appreciate knowing they need not be unfailing.  They should understand that we are all there to learn together.

Start off your period—-Start with a small exercise depending on the age group of the students.

For example, in my class, I would start with an exercise as I knew this will bring the focus of the students back on the task in the classroom instead of their minds being focused on what had happened during the break time.

You can start with an interesting catchword from your topic being taught. This will get the learner’s attention. If you have a teenage group of learners try to relate your catchword to a trending subject in the news or on the social media.

This usually generates a type of conversation between the students and you have their attention. Even in a mathematics class, you can find a way to link the topic in some way to something relatable on social media.

NEVER DO THIS:

Never have any type of bias towards or against any student.
Never judge any student as it can have very deep consequences. I still have a complex sometimes because of what my mathematics teacher said when I was a student and I have literally hated mathematics all my life.
Never motivate the students by comparing them with other students and through examples of their classmates.

Never punish them in a humiliating manner or by using mockery.
Teach them that it is alright to be wrong and to say no.

The best classroom management plans are those built around students and which show respect for the students. Every student is a person and not a set of actions. Every student is unique and the style that work for one may not work for another.

An example of what I mean is about a student I had when I was teaching X grade English. This boy had the habit of using swearwords frequently. After executing several behaviour alterations actions (rewards/punishments), it did not change and still continued. I told him to call his mother. He looked shattered and treaded from the room. I met her and apprised her of the situation. I was literally shocked when she started to talk with few curse loaded sentences. She said, “I’ll talk to that little m…f…er later.” I understood the situation. I told that would not be necessary, that I just wanted her to know that we were dealing with it at school level. I acknowledged that with the language he experienced at home he had possibly become insensitive to it. He agreed. He also accepted that it was still unsuitable to use the same in school. He agreed to try to not use swearwords in class. We worked out a signal that I would give him when he slipped in his usage. I gave that signal a lot the next several days. Each time, he would say “Sorry” and that would be it. The other students saw that his “rule breaking” was being addressed even though he was not getting the punishments often given for this type of wrong doing schoolwide. By mid-term he had become aware of the usage before he said anything and the behaviour was decreasing daily and slowly it was extinguished.

Thus, I as a teacher understood that the boy’s problem wasn’t a lack of respect for the rules, a hatred of school, or a deep-seated anger issue. He just had not developed the skill to self-monitor his behaviour. The best classroom management plans embrace rudiments of education and progress in them.

I End My Blog With My Experiences:

I have answered this question in my response on how do you motivate students. I thoroughly recorded highlights from my 31-year career in education of what I measured the most important things I learned on how to manage and motivate a classroom. It is how I was effective, and what worked for me.

I have spent a vocation teaching the most demanding students I feel. I have taught many students who resisted learning, were difficult learners, or had behavioural problems that interfered with their learning.

The foundation of teaching is relationship. Create a linking with each student that lets them know you appreciate them, and that you care. Give each student unconditional positive affection in your interactions as best as you can.

When a student makes a mistake behaviourally or academically ensure that through your walk and your talk and your silence that when they make a mistake it is only a mistake and you are only correcting a behaviour and never devaluing them as a person. Never make it personal in your improvement of their errors. Let them sense how much you value and revere them as a human being.

Never judge the potential of a student. Ensure that you have conditions for success. Ask yourself whether you are on their instructional level and not the other way round.

Break down lessons into simpler components. Teach from their interests. Give them choices. I found that if I told a student to complete a task many resisted but if I said they can do them in any order they liked, this choice and freedom would be enough to get them to do all the tasks.

Nothing is more motivating than success. Ensure that your students are making real progress, and they will see it and get excited about their own learning. I taught hundreds of students who were years behind in reading compared to  their grade level. I would try to improve the reading skills of  almost all my students  regardless of their pass success in one academic year. It would take about 3 months for the student to notice but suddenly they begin to see how they are  starting to read so much better. Nothing motivates like success.

One of the most predominant weaknesses of teachers is to constantly say don’t do this, don’t do that. Let them know the rules, remind, then act. Direct your penalties to a single student who is at fault , not the group. I love to tell my students I’ll solve every problem in the world, but one problem at a time.

Make learning easy keeping in mind things such as instructional level, interests etc., but also environment, who they’re around, distractions, assignments, difficulty level. Know your student’s attention extents and anxiety heights and plan accordingly. Some students can take an hour of forceful instruction, some only 15 minutes.

The most effective behavioural intervention to resort to calling the parent, and asking for help. Let the parent know about their child and ask for help. I have found that almost all parents/guardians want their child to do well and will cooperate willingly. If you have the support of the parents, your job is done, if you don’t, you have to seek other ways and means.

Teachers need to be authentic and honest in their approach. They should be kind when they need to be kind, and tough when they need to be tough. No one respects a teacher who allows discourteous behaviour and disorder to go on in a classroom.

The students must interact correctly with each other and this is a higher concept than learning an academic. It is the foundation for everything that will take place. Everyone must treat each other with respect. I shut my classroom down if a student is rude to another student or me and act like I have all the time in the world to deal with this and stop teaching. A mistake many teachers make is to try to ignore bad behaviour, and the next thing you know no one is learning, no one can teach, and nobody is having any fun.

The most problematic student wants you to think their parent/ guardian does not care. It is not true.  The more disruptive the student, the more convincing they are that you are the problem and their parent/guardian does not care. Don’t be fooled. They do care. What upsets a parent is not knowing over a long period of time that their child is not learning and is a problem.

Arrange your instruction to maximize as much active learning as possible. Talk to the group just enough to explain a concept and give instructions for them to do something— active learning not passive. You can talk and talk, but when a student is trying to do a problem and is stuck in the middle and says how do I do this, that is a teachable moment. You have the student’s interest and full attention. This moment when the child is struggling and asks for help is the greatest single teachable moment you will have.

Walk around the classroom don’t sit. Closeness to the student and movement by walking around is a great tool. It increases your student’s attention span and on task behaviour because you are actually seeing what they do, and it increases adaptive behaviour because you are right there. It also increases students who will ask for help. Many students I have observed don’t want to bother a teacher who is sitting and especially one who is working on something at their desk. They just will not ask or bother you. Be on your feet and walk around always moving.

As a principal on observation, you can go into a classroom and just watch how many students are engaged doing something versus listening to the teacher talk and this will in a glance show you how effective the classroom is.

I can’t tell you how many classrooms I’ve seen where the teacher is lecturing, and the students are talking to a buddy, sharpening a pencil, reading a book, looking at a phone, on WhatsApp, asleep, so forth. In a glance you know what kind of instruction is going on.

I’ve also seen the classrooms where a pin would drop and echo it was so quiet and there seemed to be an atmosphere of fear. That is not how you motivate learners. A student cannot improve behaviourally and academically if the student is too scared to show you who they are or ask for help or give honest feedback.

Teach from the heart and  love what you do

Students love to be recognized and they love to teach. Engage students who know the concept to help you with other students. They love it and will fight for the honour.

Figure out what philosophy you teach from. I firmly believe that people are good and good people want to be successful and contribute. Parents want their child to do well.

What works for one may very well not work for another. I’ve just scratched the surface. That’s what makes teaching so interesting. I was never bored.

Every teacher, the finest of teachers, the most knowledgeable of teachers can have a bad day, in a classroom and by chance if any supervisor walked in on at that moment it would be very uncomfortable.  But as teachers we need to step back from our bad days and a bad classroom experience and ask ourselves where we went wrong. We need to go back the next day with our plan of corrected action and try again and not give up so easily.

 Interaction with people is complicated. We need to do our best and let it go. The sum total of our efforts over decades will be amazing, trust me.