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Classroom management Classroom management is an area in which I have had a lot of learning experience both from my own studies and from this online course. It is an area which I find very interesting in how both the teacher and students have major roles within the classroom. Classroom management is central to the smooth running of any lesson and much of classroom management is down to good planning. In this article I will discuss the main issues relating to classroom management which I think are; a positive learning environment, the teacher?s role, the physical classroom space and dealing with behavioural issues. Creating a positive environment for learning is essential to the effective running and overall happiness of students and teachers. This is done simply by a teacher getting to know his/her students, maintaining a good rapport with them and using positive reinforcement (which will focus on good/positive behaviour rather than bad/negative behaviour). The teacher should engage students in interesting and challenging activities to keep them involved and energised. An engaged student is less likely to cause discipline issues, again showing the importance of an interesting and enjoyable lesson. Before beginning the course; a short set of rules, learning and behavioural expectations need to be set and established by the students and maintained throughout the lessons. The main area of importance for the teacher is being a good communicator. This means that use of voice, gestures, eye contact, facial expressions and non verbal cues are all highly important when teaching as students are aware of the fact that the teacher is interested, monitoring the class and again trying to maintain a positive atmosphere. In order for the teacher to avoid discipline problems, they should always be consistent and fair, always be on time, prepared for the lesson and never get angry and shout. These will all aid the positive classroom climate. Physical classroom space is an important part of classroom management. It is important for all students to be able to see the teacher, the board, and have contact with other students for pair/group work. Students may be seated in different arrangements to accommodate this and also should be often allowed to move around the class, not working with the same student all the time for pair work. The teacher should be able to see all students and should move around while teaching, monitoring and helping student when completing a task. Classrooms need to be managed effectively in order for learning to take place which is the main goal for students and teachers. If too much time is wasted trying to maintain order in the classroom, then little else will be done as regards learning. This also ties in with the positive environment whereby students who hear behaviour being corrected constantly will more likely develop a negative opinion of the class and will be less likely to learn effectively. Dealing with problem behaviour problems will differ greatly in all situations taking into account; the students involves and their own background, if the students actually want to learn english, their goals for being in the class, respect, what did the student do to cause problems. In many cases these can be dealt with by keeping calm, immediately talking to the student after class focusing on their behaviour not the student and simply reminding them of the rules and reprimand if necessary. Children respond very well to behavioural strategies and incentives for example student of the week, star charts, rewards for good behaviour. These all work well to motivate children to behave appropriately, but also their work ethic improves as some children are highly competitive in that they will do as much as they can to win the student of the week prize. Classroom management describes the smooth running of a class without disruptive behaviour. It has a lot to do with a mutual respect from students and teachers, discipline from the teacher, interest, motivation, what kind of climate in created in the classroom and interest in lessons. All of these factors that I have mentioned need to be taken into account in order to maintain an efficient learning environment.
