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Unit Five focused on classroom management which involves organizing the lessons of the class and ensuring that the teacher is friendly, has a good demeanor, and is able to maintain discipline. Important aspects of classroom management are eye contact and gestures that help maintain an active relationship with the students, modulating the voice to create and hold interest and adapt to the specific nature of a class, and using student's names. How students are grouped is also important. Groups sizes can range from individual students to the entire class and each type of grouping has particular advantages and potential problems. Group size and type will depend on the size and nature of the class. Classroom arrangement was covered next, and again, the most appropriate way to arrange a class will depend on the nature of the students and the type of activity. Classroom arrangements can vary from orderly rows to separate positions. The other critical ingredient in classroom arrangement is the teacher's position: the teacher should stand in order to lecture and be more dominant and should sit in order to distance himself or herself from the class and allow the students to work on their own. The teacher may also move around the room to provide assistance. When writing on the board it is important to minimize the disconnect created by turning one's back to the students and this can be mitigated by being prepared, perhaps even writing the content on the board prior to the beginning of class. Giving individual attention is also a useful technique. It is important to do this in the most useful manner possible by avoiding excessive focus on any individual or type of student and giving equal treatment to all students. Of course, often, it is productive to not force a student who wishes to remains silent to participate. It is also important to balance teacher talking time (TTT) and student talking time (STT). The basic rule is to keep the TTT simple and direct. When giving instructions the teacher must attract the student's attention, and again, it is good to keep the instructions simple, consistent, and use visual clues. In a successful class there will be good rapport between the students and the teacher. The teacher must be aware of student relationships when establishing seating. Likewise, it is important to maintain discipline, though the teacher will only have partial control over this as the institution itself will be more or less interested in discipline and the teacher should avoid creating a stressful environment by being overly disciplinary. This seemed to be a very useful lesson as classroom management is very important and something that I know is a weakness for my own part.
