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CREATING OPEN, PROFESSIONALLY
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
EST 213
Lecture 21
 A primary factor involves the level of openness chosen.
We can chose a teacher –student relationship
characterized by:
1) Almost complete openness, in which we share a wide
range of personal concerns and values with students
2) Openness related to our reactions to and feelings
about the school environment, with limited sharing of
aspects reflecting our out-of-school life.
3) An almost exclusive focus on a role-bound
relationship; that is, we share no personal feelings or
reactions, but merely perform our instructional duties
 At the same time, they need us to be interested
enough in them and open enough with our own
values to share our ideas with them and
engage them in discussions.
 In addition to letting students know us as
people, we can model a degree of openness to
our students‟ verbal expressions of concerns
and feelings in our classroom.
APPROPRIATE DIALOGUE WITH STUDENTS
 Although decisions teachers make
concerning relationships with students vary
depending on the age, the basic themes
related to teacher student relationships are
similar across grade levels
 One important question is how open and
involved a teacher wishes to be with
students
 However, you should avoid becoming
overly involved in student‟s interests or
activities outside of school, particularly if
you are a secondary teacher.
 Students need to know that we have
interesting lives apart from them and that
we find life stimulating and challenging in
some ways that are different from theirs.
SYSTEMATICALLY BUILDING BETTER
RELATIONSHIPS
We can express our interest in and concern for
students by:
1) Monitoring the quality of our relationships with
students, with a focus on maintaining a high rate
of positive statements;
2) Creating opportunities for personal discussions
with them; and
3) Demonstrating our interest in activities that are
important to them
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MAINTAIN A HIGH RATIO OF POSITIVE TO NEGATIVE
STATEMENTS
 Children are sensitive to praise and criticism
given by adults. Unfortunately many teachers
find disruptive behaviours to be more noticeable.
And respond to it more frequently than to on-task
behaviour.
 Frequent negative remarks by the teacher are
usually accompanied by student‟s‟ dislike for
school.
 Though we often believe that critical remarks will
improve students‟ behaviour, research suggests
that the opposite is true.
CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR PERSONAL DISCUSSIONS
 Demonstrating Interest in Students‟ Activities
 Eating Lunch with Students
 Arranging Interviews
 Sending Letters and Notes to Students
 Using a suggestion box
 Joining in School and Community Events
 Joining in Playground Games
 Making Birthday Cards
 Introducing New Students to Adults in the School
 Being Aware of Issues Related to Sexual Harassment
CREATING POSITIVE PEER
RELATIONSHIPS
 Peers play an important role in determining the quality
of the learning environment.
 Research indicates that time spent creating a positive
peer group can eliminate much misbehaviour and can
provide a classroom climate that enhances students
achievement.
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COMMUNICATING HIGH EXPECTATIONS
 How teachers communicate their expectations about
how well students will do in the classrooms is an
important factor in teacher-student relationships.
 School effectiveness research has consistently pointed
to teachers‟ high expectations of students‟ performance
as a key factor associated with students‟ achievement.
 In a variety of ways we tend to communicate to some
students that they are bright, capable, and responsible,
while other students receive the message that they are
dull, incapable, and irresponsible.
USING EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS
 Communication Skills for Confronting Inappropriate or
Disruptive Behaviour:
1) Deal in the present.
2) Talk directly to students rather than about them.
3) Speak Courteously
4) Make eye contact and be aware of nonverbal
messages
5) Take responsibility for statement by using the personal
pronoun I.
ACQUAINTANCE ACTIVITIES
 The Name Chain
A name chain is the most effective method for helping
students learn each other‟s names. Explain to the
students that each person will be asked to say his or
her first name and tell the group one thing about himself
or herself (something they like to do, something
interesting that happened to them, how they are
feeling).
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 What’s in a Name?
This activity is excellent as a first-acquaintance activity
or as an activity following a name chain. Students are
placed in groups of five or six. Briefly lead a discussion
on the value of names. Ask students to tell these facts
about heir names.
1) State their full name.
2) How did they get their name? eg: Were they named for
someone? Does the name represent a family heritage
or nationality?
3) Do they have any nicknames? Who calls them by this
name? Do they like the nickname(s)?
 Know your classmates
Each student will need a ditto sheet entitled „Know Your
Classmates‟ and a pencil or pen. Ask students to find a
person in the class who fits each description listed on
the sheet and to obtain the person‟s signature on the
line in front of the description. To encourage students to
interact with numerous peers, inform them that they
cannot have the same person sign their sheet more
than twice. (Fig 4.2)
ACTIVITIES FOR ESTABLISHING A
COHESIVE, SUPPORTIVE GROUP
Class History
- Development of a class history or year book. Four to six
students are chosen either by the teacher or by their
peers to write the history, and all students are
encouraged to contribute ideas.
- Every month the history writers meet and decide what
events, assemblies and new lessons, and so on they
wish to incorporate into their class history. It can also
include poems, addresses and phone numbers,
autograph page, a page about students thoughts on the
year, letter written to the students by the teacher etc.
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4) Do people change their name in any way? Eg: Is it
often shortened and so on? How do they feel about
this?
5) Do they like their name? If not, what name would they
prefer?
6) What do they want used in the class?
After all groups have finished, one student in each
group can volunteer to introduce each member of the
small group to the entire class. They do so by giving the
name each student wants to be called in the class
 Interviews
Interviews are excellent means for students to become
better acquainted with each other. The activity will often
foster new friendships and feelings of self-importance.
Lack of information about others is often a major barrier
to establishing new friendships.
We can use interviews in the classroom in many ways.
One method involves introducing the interviewing
process by having students list 10 questions that would
help them know a classmate better.
 Photo Album
Whenever a special event occurs, capture the
moment in a photograph. Students can become
actively involved by learning to use a camera.
Pictures taken by students can be accompanied by
written statements and put on the bulletin board
until replaced by a picture and description of a new
event. The old material can then be placed in the
class photo album and some written material can
be incorporated into the class history.
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 Special Days
Creating special days allow students to have some
influence over their environment while enhancing a
sense of group identity.
Special days might include a day on which everyone
wears the same colour, a day for dressing up, listen to
related music on such days ( such as 1950s day) etc.
 Parents are delighted to hear that their youngsters
are performing well and they expect to be informed
immediately when a problem arise.
 Effective teachers accept the important role parents
play in student‟s lives and implement methods for
communicating positively with parents.
 Methods for Obtaining Parental Support
There are many approaches to developing parental support
for student achievement and positive classroom behaviours.
An Introductory letter
Perhaps the easiest approach for making initial contacts is to
send a letter to each student‟s parent(s). The letter will
include information that you will want to present personally to
students, and is best to send so that it arrives one or two
days after school begins. Introduce yourself in letter, state
your interest in developing positive teacher-parent contacts
and invite so that you can get opportunity to meet and
discuss the school year
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W ORKING WITH PARENTS
 Parents are the most important and influential
adults in students‟ lives. Even at the secondary
level, parents‟ attitudes toward school
dramatically affect students‟ feelings and
behaviour.
 With few exceptions, parents want to know
about their children‟s progress and to have
them be successful in school.
Keeping Parents Informed
- Importance of early contacts
- Obtaining parental support is facilitated by making
parents familiar with the teacher‟s instructional goals
and classroom methods as soon as possible.
- Parents are no different from children or teachers. They
are more likely to feel positive about and support issues
they clearly understand and have had the opportunity to
discuss.
 The Initial Meeting
It is very important to try to meet parents as soon as
possible. Have an evening where parents can visit their
child‟s classroom(s) and discuss the teacher‟s approach
to instruction and classroom management.
It is sometimes necessary to arrange an alternate meeting
time for parents who are unable to attend or
uncomfortable to attend evening sessions.
Information about the times that are convenient can be
obtained by requesting in the initial letter sent to parents
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 Follow –up
Do not wait too long before reinforcing the ideas presented in
the orientation meeting.
Another follow up activity involves sending positive notes to
parents about improvements or achievements their children
have made in the specific areas discussed during the
orientation meeting.
All parents care about their children and want them to be
successful in school, therefore it is important to keep parents
continually informed about their child‟s progress in your
class.
1) Greet the parent in a pleasant manner. It is more
difficult for parents to remain critical and aggressive if
you seem glad to see them.
2) Use active listening to defuse the parent‟s emotions.
Becoming defensive or initially arguing will usually only
intensify the parent‟s emotions. Phrases like “I can see
your concern” help the parent feel that you understand.
It helps parents to calm down and replace angry or
frightened feelings with more positive and productive
ones.
3) Look genuinely interested and listen carefully.
7) Ask the parent whether the student is aware of the
problem. Because the student is the most important
person involved it is important to clarify how she or he
feels about the issue being raised by parent. Question
helps the issue of student‟s responsibility for any
problem that may exist
8) Be honest. When confronted by parents, it is easy to
understate the seriousness of a problem or accept too
much responsibility for a problem that is largely
something the child must work on.
9) Emphasize specific data. If a parent angrily states that
his daughter did well in math last year but is having
difficulty this year, the most logical and effective
approach is to examine data on the student‟s math.
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DEALING EFFECTIVELY WITH PARENTS’
CRITICISM AND CONFRONTATIONS
 Anyone who has taught for several years has had
to deal with an angry or critical parent. Many
teachers state that, along with classroom discipline,
this type of confrontation is perhaps the least
desirable aspect of teaching.
 Although there is no foolproof method for dealing
with an angry parent, there are several strategies
that can be used to cope with such situations in an
effective, professional manner.
4) Present a calm, professional manner. Stand erect, look
at the parent, and remain calm. Just as students
respond more effectively to teachers who remain calm
and in charge during a crisis, parents need the structure
provided by a calm response.
5) Ask the parent what he or she wishes to accomplish. “ I
appreciate your concern. What would you like to
accomplish with our discussion today?”
6) Set a time limit if necessary. If your time is limited, it is
important to inform the parent. Do by stating “I have 20
minutes before I have to be back with my class. Let‟s
see how far we can get in solving the problem in that
time. If we need more time I will be glad to schedule a
conference as soon as possible”.
10) Tell the parent specifically what will be done to deal
with the problem. Parents have a right to know what
the teacher will do to alleviate a difficulty.
Furthermore, critical parents can often become strong
supporters if they learn that they will be listened to,
shown data, and presented with a plan. If the parents‟
worry was not justified, the plan may involve a follow-up
to examine the results of the current programme.
If, however, the parent highlighted an area that required
attention, developing a plan shows respect for the
parent‟s concern and competence on your part.
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Source:
Jones,V.F.& Jones, S.J. (1998).Comprehensive Classroom
Management:Creating Communities of Support and Solving
Problems(5th).Allyn &Bacon.USA