Classroom management is far more important than it seems. It starts from the beginning of the year and if rules, routines, and expectation are not established from the start, it is very challenging to manage a classroom. I have worked a lot with smaller children so learning classroom management for intermediate grade was quite an adjustment for me. Over the four lessons I taught, I learned that you need to have a louder voice when you are teaching older students. The most important classroom management strategy I learned when I was in this practicum was pausing and waiting for the students to be quiet and to have their attention before giving instructions. When doing this, the students are fully paying attention and can understand the instructions that are being given. Another important aspect of classroom management that I learned was asking students to repeat what the instructions are before allowing them to go to work. Then following that up with writing the instructions on the board so they can refer back to it when they are working. Asking questions and the type of questions are important, because questions need to be asked in a way that allows for more than a one worded answer, or that could lead to discussions. Another management technique I learned that was very helpful was having the children hold up their thumbs to show if they understand, or that they are finished what they were working on. This is an easy way to see how the students are doing without asking, “who is finished.” It allows for the students to remain quiet and not have the students call out. Circulating the classroom while the students are working is not only a classroom management strategy, but it allows for the teacher to see where the students are at, and to get to know them and help them work through their thoughts. It also allows the teacher to redirect conversations that are beginning to be discussed, or to make sure everyone is quietly working. Another important strategy I learned was to listen to the noise level and if it is peaking to redirect the students before it gets too loud to hand. Noise is another thing I learned about on this practicum, noise doesn’t always mean students aren’t working, something they are bouncing ideas off each other and working through their thoughts. That is where circulation comes into play, when circulating the teacher can listen to the conversations occurring and redirect if needed. Breaking instructions down into chunks for students seemed to be helpful as well, especially when reading books. I found it helpful to all the students to have time to write down their thoughts and to discuss them with their neighbours before trying to give them instructions. One last thing that I took away from this practicum was that it is important to get to know the students in your classroom so you can learn how they learn or when they are asking a question that might not be urgent. When teaching my last lesson, a student put his hand up before I had started giving instructions and instead of allowing him to ask the question, I simply asked whether it was urgent and needed to be answered right now or if it could wait until after instructions were given. The student said it was not urgent and that it could wait, this allowed for me to continue with my lesson without an even bigger distraction.
