Classroom Management Quickies Mistakes New Teachers Often Make, So Don't
New teachers often:
· Have not figured out what exactly they want and don't want - a root cause of much of what follows. · Overpraise students for doing what is expected. · Don't know the difference between praise and acknowledgement and when each is appropriate. · Fail to do effective long-range and daily planning. · Spend too much time with one student or one group and not monitoring the entire class. · Begin a new activity before gaining the students' attention. · Talk too fast, and are sometimes shrill. · Use a voice level that is always either too loud or too soft. · Stand too long in one place (the feet of clay syndrome). · Sit too long while teaching (the posterior of clay syndrome). · Overemphasize the negative. · Do not require students to raise hands and be acknowledged before responding. · Are way too serious and not much fun. · Are way too much fun and not serious. · Fall into a rut by using the same teaching strategy or combination of strategies day after day. · Tend to talk to and interact with only half the class (usually their favorites, and usually on the right). · Collect and return student papers before assigning students something to do. · Interrupt students while they are on task. · Use "SHHHH" as a means of quieting students (one of the most annoying and ineffective behaviors). · Overuse verbal efforts to stop inappropriate student behavior - talk alone accomplishes little. · Settle for less rather than demand more. · Use threats to control the class (short term, produces results; long term, backfires). · Use global praise inappropriately. · Verbally reprimand students across the classroom (get close and personal if possible). · Interact with only a "chosen few" students rather than spreading interactions around to all students. · Do not intervene quickly enough during inappropriate student behavior. · Do not learn and use student names in an effective way (kids pick up quickly on this and respond in kind). · Read student papers only for correct answers and not for process and student thinking. · Ask global questions that nobody likely will answer. · Fail to do appropriate comprehension checks to see if students understand the content as it is taught. · Use poorly worded, ambiguous questions. · Try to talk over student noise (never, ever, do this, because when you do, you lose and they win). · Are consistently inconsistent. · Will do anything to be liked by students. · Permit students to be inattentive to an educationally useful media presentation (this happens a lot). · Introduce too many topics simultaneously (usually the result of poor planning). · Take too much time to give verbal directions for an activity (an inability to focus and explain effectively). · Take too much time for an activity (usually the result of poor planning). · Are nervous, uptight, and anxious (if this is persistent, you need help). · Overuse punishment for classroom misbehavior - going to an extreme when other consequences work better.