Classroom Management: Finding the Right Balance

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Iris1001

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Hi, everyone!

I hope you're all doing well and staying safe. I was wondering if you could give me some advice. I feel like I need to take more professional development courses on classroom management and dealing with difficult students.

I've always been known as the overly-sweet teacher, one that has a hard time putting her foot down. Even in my personal life, I've always had trouble asserting myself. I guess it was just how I was raised. :(

But I want to change all that. I want to be able to control a classroom and efficiently manage the atmosphere. Are there any good books or PD seminars that can help me? Your advice will also be appreciated so much. Thank you in advance. :)
 
The First Days of School and The Classroom Management Book by Harry Wong are fantastic.
I also learned a ton from Teaching with Love and Logic, which gets recommended around this forum pretty regularly.
The other one I really liked as a new teacher was Tools for Teaching by Fred Jones, which covers a pretty broad range of topics. I disagree with some of it now, but it's definitely a solid starting point.
 
miss-m said:
The First Days of School and The Classroom Management Book by Harry Wong are fantastic.
I also learned a ton from Teaching with Love and Logic, which gets recommended around this forum pretty regularly.
The other one I really liked as a new teacher was Tools for Teaching by Fred Jones, which covers a pretty broad range of topics. I disagree with some of it now, but it's definitely a solid starting point.
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Thank you so much. :)
 
Iris1001 said:
Hi, everyone!

I hope you're all doing well and staying safe. I was wondering if you could give me some advice. I feel like I need to take more professional development courses on classroom management and dealing with difficult students.

I've always been known as the overly-sweet teacher, one that has a hard time putting her foot down. Even in my personal life, I've always had trouble asserting myself. I guess it was just how I was raised. :(

But I want to change all that. I want to be able to control a classroom and efficiently manage the atmosphere. Are there any good books or PD seminars that can help me? Your advice will also be appreciated so much. Thank you in advance. :)
Click to expand...


Books

Tools For Teaching Fred Jones
Smart Classroom Management Michael Linsin

Seminars

https://courses.fredjones.com/
 
I feel your pain. Fourth year in and I still struggle with this. Students tell me that even when I think I look mad, I don’t! I wonder if I will ever get beyond being too nice. This was an issue when I owned my own company in a previous life...people tended to take advantage. If you find the secret to change let me know!
 
This isn't up to teachers. This is up to the voters.

The teacher could be more assertive and then students who arbitrarily decide they don't like the teacher will disobey the teacher anyway. And then because school board trustees were elected on limitations of suspensions the teacher will have to deal with those students the next day.

We need a cultural shift away from this "do you like your teachers" crap and toward a teaching equivalent of the army's "we salute the rank, not the man" approach.
 
Camel13 said:
I feel your pain. Fourth year in and I still struggle with this. Students tell me that even when I think I look mad, I don’t! I wonder if I will ever get beyond being too nice. This was an issue when I owned my own company in a previous life...people tended to take advantage. If you find the secret to change let me know!
Click to expand...

I have this same issue, and I know it really is my personality to be super nice. I have started to just double down on this and embrace it as part of who I am. I have immense patience, and I feel like kids generally feel safe in my classroom because of that.
That said, never underestimate the power of direct eye contact. If a student is acting like a jerk, stare at that kid quietly. I find that the kid usually ends up feeling uncomfortable with that and they stop doing whatever they were doing. It doesn't work with every student, but it works most of the time for me. Maybe I'm lucky and have a good population of kids, but see if it works for you.
 
GeetGeet said:
If a student is acting like a jerk, stare at that kid quietly.
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That... sounds like it has a lot of potential to be taken the wrong way if the teacher is a guy.

Or be enjoyed a little too much if the teacher is a gal.
 
You know I thought that I am very confident teacher but once there were a terrible situation with one of the students and I started to search some books that could help.
Succeeding With Difficult Students by Lee Canter - the name of the book. sure recommend
 
I feel most times a teacher is going to need to find their own groove when it comes to managing their classroom. Different teachers are made up different, just as students. I had the privilege/misfortune of teaching in a setting with hardly any administrative assistance and it really did force me to learn how to handle things on my own.
Depending on the age I might suggest an approach that works for me, that is student's all want to be treated like an adult so I try to tap into that. I lay it out that if we ever have problems I will give the student the chance to work it out with me as an adult would. If we are unable to work things out like adults then that is when it becomes necessary to bring in either parents or admin.
 
Hi guys!

A very interesting discussion here. It is an age-old problem, the tension that arises between being a “friendly and welcoming” teacher, while also being able to put your foot down without coming across as overly aggressive and losing students’ trust.

I think some people are being too hard on themselves! There are often factors outside of the classroom that influence misbehavior, so the cards are stacked against you from the beginning. Generally, I find that teachers who establish a bond of trust and compassion with their students (while still enforcing professional limits), often get the outcomes they are looking for.


What do you guys think about this? I’m attending a webinar on Thursday about this topic. The main speaker will be talking about trust and compassion in the online classroom. Hopefully it’s interesting (and will help me improve my practice) - here is the link in case anyone else wants to join: https://info.luminpdf.com/webinar
 
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