Classroom Management Tips - 1

Part I: Increase Student Motivation

Let's start with what classroom management is not.

Classroom management is not about creating elaborate systems of rewards and punishments. Instead, effective classroom management is about keeping all of your students actively involved in all of your lessons.

In this manner the teacher is addressing classroom management issues "before" they arise...the teacher is being pro-active rather than re-active.

However, it is difficult to keep students actively involved if they are bored or uninterested in the topic.

That's why student boredom is one of the two biggest factors contributing to classroom management issues.

And, that is why it is the teacher's job to spark student interest and increase student motivation to learn.

How?

The best way to do this is by making connections between what the students are learning and what is going on in their own lives...in other words,

Find out what is important to them.

“Internet – Privacy Invasion” but before they read I had all the students make a list of things that today's youth does on Internet. After the students generated their lists we then discuss the connections between these things and privacy issues with these things.

The bottom line is, if you can get the students to "want" to learn then everything else becomes much easier.

Another way teachers can go about increasing motivation to learn is with simple critical thinking questions. For example, in a lesson on

Cyber Law, I start the lesson with the following critical thinking

Question:
"Do you think the Internet is being misused?"

This critical thinking question usually turns into a heated discussion and it is at this point that I introduce the topic of Cyber Law. The students are then eager to learn what laws were enforced by the Govt. and why they were imposed.

A third way to increase motivation to learn is with video. Of course, this seems obvious, but many teachers show video at the wrong point in the lesson...they save it for the end.

Video should not be shown at the end of the lesson in an "if you're good we'll get to it" sort of way.

Instead, short video clips should be used at the beginning of lessons to spark student interest and pique curiosity.

Ok, so let's recap. Classroom management issues are directly related to student boredom. Therefore, the teacher needs to increase student motivation to learn.

Three ways teachers can accomplish this are:

1. Make connections between content and the student's own interests.
2. Use critical thinking questions to spark heated discussions.
3. Use of video at the beginning of the lesson to pique interest and curiosity.