Classroom management for the 21st Century

Scholarship and certificate programme

Workshop 2

Agenda for today:

• Classroom procedures• Managing classroom procedures and transition times• Developing your own classroom procedures • Teacher time management• Explanation of homework 1• Introduction to communication• Non-verbal communication activities• Explanation of homework 2• Break• Creativity and Flow• A spot of blue-sky thinking

Classroom procedures:

Health warning: You can’t deliver long instructions for every single classroom procedure (and you shouldn’t have to!)

• Organisational and administrative parts of the school day

• Unavoidable but add nothing to academic learning and can waste a huge amount of time and energy

• Like classroom rules, procedures are most effective when implemented in discussion with students

Classroom procedures:

• Beginning and ending a lesson• Transitions between activities• Interruptions• Resources and equipment: getting them out and

putting them away• Moving around the classroom/school• Group work• Teacher-led discussions• Setting out a piece of work• Homework: giving it out/handing it in

Homework 1!

• Continue your reflective journal, reflecting on the classroom procedures you use and those that need to be made clearer to students

Time management strategies for teachers

http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Finding-Documents-Organising-Students-Giving-Instructions-6084418/

More strategies...

• Cut down displacement activities• Sometimes ‘good enough’ is enough• Know yourself• Manage your marking• Say NO!• Deal with stress

An Introduction to Communication• Communication: “the imparting or exchanging

of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium” The Oxford English Dictionary

• The classroom is a social setting• Whole-class teaching stretches our normal

social skills to the extreme• Behaviour is an important form of

communication, perhaps more so than the words we speak

Behaviour as non-verbal communication:• Head and body posture

• Facial expression• Gaze• Hand movements• Interpersonal distance• Intonation• Pace of speech• Dress

TEACHER: Right lead in quietly. (The teacher remains outside the door and as the pupils enter they begin to talk noisily but not in an unruly way. When most have entered she follows, picking her way through those who are removing jackets, getting out books and chatting. As she does so, she repeats her instructions above their noise.)

TEACHER: Can you sit down please… OK sit down please. (Before reaching her table at the front of the room she turns towards the main body of the class.)

TEACHER: Would you please sit down and would you please take your jackets off because you’re going to be (she turns and walks to the front) you’re going to be too hot otherwise. (She continues to her table and looks around the room.)

Are you receiving me?! Taken from The Psychology of Teaching and Learning in the Primary School (2004), Whitebread (Ed)

TEACHER: Right, could I have everyone’s attention? Thanks. (Waits a few seconds.)

TEACHER: Everyone’s attention. (Looks in the direction of those not attending.)

TEACHER: I need everyone’s attention…. Thanks. (for the benefit of child who is still not listening.)

A more authoritative approach:

The teacher stands inside the room as pupils enter, keeping an eye on what’s happening, then calmly makes her way to her table, allowing the class time to settle before using a raised voice to make herself heard above any remaining noise:

Homework 2!

• Filming of your classroom teaching to observe non-verbal communication taking place

The Case for Creativity

Motivation and Creativity:

Intrinsic motivation: motivation that is driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself, and exists within the individual rather than relying on any external pressure.

Extrinsic motivation: motivation that comes from outside of the individual. Common extrinsic motivations are rewards like money and grades, coercion and threat of punishment.

Wikipedia

Motivation and Creativity:

Students are likely to be intrinsically motivated if they:

• Attribute their educational results to factors under their own control (e.g. the effort used)

• Believe they can be effective agents in reaching desired goals (i.e. the results are not determined by luck)

• Are interested in mastering a topic, rather than just rote-learning to achieve good grades

Flow:

‘The state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it…for the sheer sake of doing it. ‘

A concept proposed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi:

Flow:

Factors that promote flow:

• A challenging activity that requires skill and attention• The merging of action and awareness• The loss of self-consciousness• Clear goals and immediate feedback• Concentration on the task at hand• A sense of personal control over the activity• A balance between ability and challenge• The transformation of time

Motivation and Creativity:

Creativity: producing something new that is novel and of value.

Flow, creativity and motivation are linked:

Creativity increases enjoyment

Enjoyment allows you to achieve Flow

Students who experience Flow when undertaking work are intrinsically motivated to persevere

A spot of blue-sky thinking...

Homework reminder

• Continue your reflective journal, reflecting on the classroom procedures you employ and those that need to be made more explicit to students

• Some of you will be filmed in your classrooms