STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

We teachers aspire to be effective and efficient and we want our learners to learn all the lessons we are imparting to them but sometimes or most of the times this is not the reality. We are facing with learners with different problems, attitudes and family background and yet we aspire to unite them or make them move and think as one. This is too ambitious on our part. Will this become a reality or will we achieve even just a portion of our dream?

Learning takes place in an environment where there is respect, trust and love and these feelings are not earned overnight. The teacher should prove his worth and should show genuine care and love to all the learners entrusted to him. Here are some suggestions for a neophyte teacher to become effective and efficient and at the same time carved a special portion in the hearts of his learners.

* Show genuine care to learners by making positive phone calls or texts to their families. Make it a habit to share to the learners’ family the achievements of their children. Don’t just make a phone call to the learners’ family in telling them about the disciplinary problems or failing grades that they incurred.

* We want our learners to be respectful, honest and good citizens of our country and this can be achieved by demonstrating the behavior we want to see by inviting somebody in our classroom, a friend, a vendor, a mother, a co teacher etc. Talk to the visitors with the right tone, eye contact and with courteous words for the learners to emulate.

* Studying is not an easy task. Seating, listening, discussing and solving problems the whole day make a learner uneasy and sometimes bored. To make them welcome hard work it is a must that they should be given a time to celebrate it. A free time, a simple party for them to realize that hard work pays.

* Individual work is good but there are activities calling for a group work and this is where the challenge started. Don’t expect a quiet group activities, this is where you can observe the real attitudes of the learners. It is important that a teacher should suggest a contract among group wherein their jobs, positions and expectations are written to be signed by them.

* An engaging curriculum is really needed by a 21st learner because of its exposure to different interactive media. A teacher using the conventional method in teaching will be facing with many behavioral problems because his learners will be bored. The teacher should make the lessons engaging and this will save him from too much work in lecturing and discussing. The learners work by themselves and the teacher acts as the facilitator. This just required more time in preparing the materials but it will be beneficial to the learners.

* The learners learned from their teachers and the teachers learned from their learners. The teachers become better as years passed by because of the experiences garnered throughout the years of teaching. The learners should be train to express themselves and to say how they feel towards the topic being discussed, they should not accept all the lessons from the teacher without sharing their thoughts about it. In practicing this, the teacher is creating a friendly atmosphere wherein learners are empowered but not being rude to their teachers.

* Learners come and go but it will be better if we build relationships, it is a lifelong relationship because we are living in the same community, same country and same planet. We cannot take the possibility of rubbing elbows to these young learners now in the future and it is better that in their younger years you were one of the teacher whom he had a good relationship that he had cherished and had shared to his family and friends. The power of a teacher is limitless. There is a saying that a teacher can make or break a person, which one do you like? It’s your choice.