SLC | S21W2: Effective Classroom Management
Greetings, dear friends it's the second week of the Steemit Learning Challenge for season 21, and I'm delighted to be part of this contest organized here by the brilliant teachers. Indeed, the role of a teacher in any setting can never be looked down upon, and that is why we consider the most important in our community for growth.
Today I want to write my opinion on the topic Effective Classroom Management. After going through the course, I saw that Effective Classroom Management is what every teacher needs to enable him to pass the information or knowledge he or she wishes to pass to the students efficiently. Based on that I would love to share my entry by attempting the below questions.
| 1. To the best of your knowledge, what is effective classroom management, and what does it have to do with planning, implementing, evaluating learning, and utilizing resources optimally? Explain the relationship of each of these points using your language. (2.5 points) |
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Effective classroom management is a very important aspect of learning that can never be looked down upon because it serves as the key towards achieving success in passing the message or knowledge to your students as a teacher.
Every teacher must have an effective classroom management for him or her to be able to pass the required knowledge to those concern and this has overtime being seen in the planning, implementation, evaluating learning, and utilizing resources optimally.
Let's talk about effective classroom management in terms of academic planning. The first step towards having an effective classroom management is planning, before a teacher goes to the classroom, he or she must have planned his or her self.
Now when we talk about planning we are referring to organising your Lesson note and lesson plan. You will already have the topic you wish to discuss and how long you may take to have this discussion and also the method you will use to make these discussions to enable the students also get the information you are trying to pass.
Having discussed planning with regards to effective classroom management, let's also discuss implementation with regards to that as well. Implementation simply means carrying out your plans in the class. If you have planned to teach a particular subject, when you come to the class all you do is to teach that course you have planned and also use the method you have also planned.
Implementation becomes easier when you have plan on ground already. You will just follow the lay down instructions you have already and do the needful. So that is what implementation means in this regards.
Another thing to look at based on the above question is evaluating learning. Now after your teaching, you don't just leave the class as there are many who may have not gotten anything from all you have taught so to know the level at which the students understand the information you have passed to them, you will need to evaluate them by asking series of questions with regards to the course and possibly give a classwork to test their level of understanding.
Evaluation is an important aspect of learning since it helps you as a teacher to know they level of understanding of the students you have just taught. So doing this also helps in an effective classroom management.
Lastly based on the question above is utilizing resources optimally. Now it is important you know that there are limited resources for teachers and one of the most limited resources we have is time. So how then do we effectively use this time is what we will be talking about here.
As a teacher it is your core responsibility to schedule your time beautifully well so that it can accommodate your teaching, discussion with your students, evaluation and others. When you have been able to organise your timing in this manner then you won't have any issue in managing your classroom because you won't have issues entering other teachers period of teaching.
| 2. How do you go about creating a classroom atmosphere that supports the learning process?, he explanation you give is based on personal experience that did. (2 points) |
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Creating a classroom atmosphere that supports the learning process is essential when it comes to effectively passing knowledge to others. Personally as a teacher, when I step into the classroom, I don't start with teaching the topic of the day directly instead I have a little chat with the students to know their state of mind so that I will know how to deliver my lecture.
Here in Nigeria, especially in the higher institution where I teach, I have a time frame of about 1 hour to deliver my lecture for the day so what I do is firstly draft out my schedule which will cover that 1 hour and then work with it until the end.
Firstly, I give 5 minutes grace to those who are late comers to the class and those who wishes to use the rest room or other related things. Also I use another 10 minutes to have a chat with my students to bring their minds back to the classroom.
Immediately I have their attention, I go ahead to start my lecture which sometimes take just 30 minutes then I use 10 minutes after the lecture to discuss with the students as the ask their questions and I also ask mine. Lastly I use the remaining part of the time to evaluate them by giving them classwork and homework task which will keep them busy and will help them go back to their book when they finally go back home.
Now with the above steps and format, you will agree with me that their is no space in the learning process in my classroom that is not fun because all the time are well spent and their will be nothing like boredom to the students. If you plan your classes this way then you will have an effective classroom for learning.
| 3. According to your experience and observations, what factors can hinder effective classroom management? Explain why these things are a hindrance. (2.5) |
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There are many factors that can hinder effective classroom management and I will be talking about a few of them based on my personal experience so read through it.
Method of Teaching: One of the major ways or factors that hinders effective classroom management is the method of teaching applied by the teacher. In every classroom, for the students to pay complete attention and also remain organised while teaching is going on, the teacher must use a good teaching methodology.
When the method of teaching is poor, the students will not pay attention and that will lead to noise making in the classroom. So every teacher must learn to apply the needed method which will help the students to concentrate and learn effectively.
Lack of facilities & equipment: Another thing that can hinder an effective classroom management is the lack or facilities and equipment for learning. Here in Nigeria, students and teachers are faced with this issues very well because if you go into our classes you will notice that building have become bad, without fans or light to aid effective learning.
You can imagine students who are learning in an environment that the weather is very hot. They won't be able to learn anything tangible because they heat in the class is enough to make them uncomfortable. Other facilities like the science devices for practicals are also major hindrances as many students may never have the opportunity to see these devices because they are not present in the school.
Absence of trained Teachers: Not everyone that goes to the higher institution is qualified to teach and that is the main reason why we have teaching schools to help shape and model our teachers for the task ahead.
When you don't have qualified or trained teachers then managing the class won't be possible because they may not know the strategy to use and teach the students. I have seen a situation where the teacher was good and very educated but the way to deliver the course was a very big problem to him.
So in summary, based on personal experience the most things I have encountered that hinders effective classroom management are Method of Teaching, Lack of facilities & equipment and Absence of trained Teachers.
| 4. Effective classroom management has a relationship with the Learning Contract? What do you think about this, explain comprehensively according to your thoughts. (2 points) |
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Indeed there is a relationship between effective classroom management and learning contract. As discussed in our previous course, learning contract has to do with the lay down rules which will enable you have an effective class with your students and it sometimes always introduce at the beginning of the introduction of any course or reminded anytime the classes are going on.
Effective classroom management on the other hand is the plans, implementation, evaluation and use of limited resources in a perfect way that you as a teacher pass the information or knowledge you wish to pass without any form of distraction.
So as you can see both learning contract and effective classroom management are geared towards same thing and that is to effectively pass down the knowledge from the staff to the students. We put all the things necessary in place to ensure that we have an effective classroom.
When you have a learning contract before you start your lecture as a teacher your classroom is expected to be very effective as you may have lay down some guide which the students will have to follow to ensure that they have the best of the knowledge you are trying to pass.
Similarly, when you have an effective classroom management, you will be able to deliver your lecture in a concise manner since you have everything planned.
| 5. Participants are expected to include all photos that are their own and not sourced from other parties (1 Point). |
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I have also used my pictures in this post which shows the originality of the post. I'm a class teacher in the college of education hence most times I have time with my students to have heart to heart discussion when I don't have lectures with them.
I have also explain above how I manage my limited time allocated to me as a lecturer and how effectively I use it always.
I want to finally invite a few friends of mine @josepha, @suboohi and @dove11 to also share their participation in this contest if they haven't done that yet.