The key to success in teaching is a desire to see students succeed and be able to survive and operate in their world, after high school, as well as a dedication by the teacher to see that every single child achieves that goal.
However, if I had to pick out one single thing that will make the whole realm of teaching easier, more enjoyable, more successful, more rewarding, and more worthwhile, it would be the area of classroom management. It is in this area that minutes are lost to tardies, conversation, misplaced textbooks, reprimands, roll call, homework collection, etc.
Therefore, many valuable minutes of actual instructional time are lost every day, and over a school year, it actually becomes days of lost time. The question I will attempt to answer here is “How can I set up my classroom so that every single minute of the hour the students are in here, will be used for instruction, so that students are learning something new every single day they step into my class?’
The answer to this question involves organizing time and materials before instruction begins. It also involves carefully planning strategies for managing the students, so that they put forth their very best efforts during instruction. It has been proven that students who work to capacity usually learn more and learn faster than students who only intermittently attend to the lesson, so my goal is to present strategies to encourage students to work to capacity!
The following techniques have been used by master teachers and I have observed them in action, borrowed them, and used them in my classroom at the rural school setting. They work! However, they take a few more hours in order to prepare for the first day of school, and a few more hours on the part of the instructor. You cannot follow these techniques unless you, as a teacher, are willing to put in the extra time too prepare, organize, grade papers, and follow through with every single one of them! Again, I say, “They do work in the classroom, and are effective, and make your school year run beautifully.” Try them one year, make some adjustments for yourself and your students, and see if you are not using every minute of instructional time to the maximum!
However, if I had to pick out one single thing that will make the whole realm of teaching easier, more enjoyable, more successful, more rewarding, and more worthwhile, it would be the area of classroom management. It is in this area that minutes are lost to tardies, conversation, misplaced textbooks, reprimands, roll call, homework collection, etc.
Therefore, many valuable minutes of actual instructional time are lost every day, and over a school year, it actually becomes days of lost time. The question I will attempt to answer here is “How can I set up my classroom so that every single minute of the hour the students are in here, will be used for instruction, so that students are learning something new every single day they step into my class?’
The answer to this question involves organizing time and materials before instruction begins. It also involves carefully planning strategies for managing the students, so that they put forth their very best efforts during instruction. It has been proven that students who work to capacity usually learn more and learn faster than students who only intermittently attend to the lesson, so my goal is to present strategies to encourage students to work to capacity!
The following techniques have been used by master teachers and I have observed them in action, borrowed them, and used them in my classroom at the rural school setting. They work! However, they take a few more hours in order to prepare for the first day of school, and a few more hours on the part of the instructor. You cannot follow these techniques unless you, as a teacher, are willing to put in the extra time too prepare, organize, grade papers, and follow through with every single one of them! Again, I say, “They do work in the classroom, and are effective, and make your school year run beautifully.” Try them one year, make some adjustments for yourself and your students, and see if you are not using every minute of instructional time to the maximum!
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