California School Counselor - Summer 2008 - (Page HRS3)

THE FOUR KEYS TO EFFECTIVE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT BY ALLEN N. MENDLER, RICHARD L. CURWIN, AND BRIAN MENDLER Unruly student behavior is the top reason given by most teachers who leave the profession early, so possessing effective classroom management skills is essential. To gain control of a chaotic learning environment, teachers will benefit by using the four keys that drive all effective behavior management strategies. Key #1: Building a Sense of Community Wise educators know managing classroom behavior is much easier when students feel positively connected to their teacher. There are three ways to connect with students each day that take little time, but yield big results: • Personal connections create and sustain an atmosphere of trust and learning. Showing interest in your students daily positively affects the classroom experience. Academic connections encourage success in content areas, and students are far more apt to behave when they believe that their efforts will lead to success. Social connections are about creating environments in which students encourage each other, and involving students in the decisionmaking process for rules and consequences. • Energize ourselves. Remembering why we teach, discovering what we love about what we teach, and recalling what our favorite teachers did that made us enjoy a course can be rejuvenating. Energize the evaluation process. Too often, students who are discipline or motivation “problems” cover their feelings of inadequacy by giving up or acting out. We must use evaluation as a tool to assess competence without destroying desire. • • • Key #3: Developing Responsibility in Students Effective behavior management is about teaching students to do the right thing in the absence of authority. Responsibility-based classrooms involve students in decision making so they become better able to independently plan a course of action toward improved behavior. Students usually act irresponsibly when they lack awareness of their own bad behavior, and either can’t or won’t see the connection between their choices and the consequences. Sometimes the student is poor at planning and acts in a disorganized way. Learning responsibility requires these skills be taught and modeled. Key #4: Making and Keeping Students Safe Keeping students physically and emotionally safe requires effective leadership and active adult visibility. The value of safety in learning must be emphasized along with rules and consequences. A school climate needs to be fostered that creates intolerance for hurtful, bullying behavior. Both adult and student support must be established for victims, and everyone must learn how to effectively defuse inappropriate behavior. When teachers implement effective classroom strategies disruptive behavior is minimized and the learning potential of each student increases. © 2007 by Solution Tree. For permission to reprint this article, please contact Solution Tree at pubs@solution-tree.com. Key #2: Motivating Resistant Learners The relationship between discipline and motivation is strong, direct, and cannot be ignored. There are four main ways to motivate resistant youth that are also effective with all other students: • Welcome and include all students. The more that students feel cared about and listened to, the more likely they are to keep trying. Energize the curriculum. Crafting enticing openings, asking focused questions, and then legitimizing all answers (even guesses) can make even the most unmotivated student want to learn. • P e e k i n s i d e m a n y o f o u r re s o u rc e s a t w w w. s o l u t i o n - t re e . c o m 3 http://www.go.solution-tree.com/NR1

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of California School Counselor - Summer 2008

California School Counselor - Summer 2008 Contents Presidential Perspectives Jackie’s Jottings Executive Director’s Report Cyberbullying and Equal Access Northern California Conference Highlights Book Review Making a Difference One Family at a Time An AB 1802 Success Story Legislative Update CASC Members Honor Assemblywoman Linda Sanchez Pics, Clicks and Technics Calendar Index to Advertisers

California School Counselor - Summer 2008

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