1. Classroom Management By: Amber Seguin

2. Hello Practicum Students, Whether this is your first or second practicum there are a few things every potential student teacher should be aware of, the most important being classroom management skills. In this powerpoint I will share some tips and what-not-to-do’s when dealing with student behavior.

3. First Things First It is very important when you get to your classroom on the first day to ask your co-op teacher what disciplinary actions are taken in class and what procedures he or she will allow you to go through with on your own.

4. A Pitfall A big mistake is to not ask about discipline and then you have no authority in the classroom and the students lose respect for you and more often than not they will push you because they understand you cannot discipline them.

5. Assert Yourself At first you may be nervous about being in front of so many students and that is ok, don’t let them see that you are afraid. Assert yourself, state who you are and why you are there. Be positive and confident in yourself. If you don’t take yourself seriously as a teacher you can’t expect the students to take you seriously either.

6. Helpful Hints If your teacher doesn’t already have one, implement a seating chart so you know names of students and can avoid chatter problems. Use a step by step form of discipline, remind the student the behavior is unacceptable, then reprimand and the use the procedures you and your co-op teacher discussed.

7. Failure to plan is planning to fail Always be prepared, have your lesson plans done and review them with your co-op teacher to be sure of appropriateness and skill level. Have all worksheets and handouts ready and the night before you teach a lesson go over the lesson with some friends and be sure to pace the lesson appropriately. If the lesson is too slow you lose students, if it is too fast students take advantage of free time.

8. There’s One in Every Crowd In every classroom you will have one child (if not more) that will destroy the image you had of how the class would go. There are several types of these students: If you are in an inclusion class you need to be aware of which students have IEP’s and which students have been noted for bad behavior.

9. You Never Know In my inclusion class I had a child that normal behaved decently, he had an IEP and it was his first semester outside of a special education classroom. Everything went fine until he had a bit of a breakdown. I had no clue what to do in this situation so at first I let my co-op teacher handle it. At first she was able to calm him down, then he relapsed and she gave me total control. I was terrified, I didn’t know what was wrong with the student but I knew everyone was waiting for me to do something.

10. I first tried to engage him in the class activity, he refused and began to tear his pencil to shreds. Meanwhile the rest of the class was getting off task. I addressed the rest of the class and got them back on track with the activity and coaxed the boy into joining in, he was reluctant but finally came around. He calmed down and then class was dismissed.

11. The Point? The point is you never know what is going to happen but you have to be prepared to keep calm and remind the students that some behavior is inappropriate. If you have a situation like this be calm and speak directly to the student and bring up the consequences of acting inappropriately.

12. Rapport is Important It is important to create a relationship with each student and understand how they learn, behave, and why. By creating rapport with students they are more likely to work with you and you both gain more out of the experience.

13. You Can’t Manage Them All There will always be a few students that are difficult just for the sake of it. If you create rapport with most of the students they will help reel in the rest of the class and keep them in line, making it a bit less stressful for you. Again, communicate with your co-op teacher with what is acceptable and what classroom rules are and which students are likely to be problems. By knowing this information early on you have a better chance of stopping bad behavior before it gets out of hand.

14. Good Luck! Good luck with your practicum and your journey to becoming a secondary education teacher! Remember this is all about experience, the more you experience the better prepared you’ll be if situations arise again later on in you career. If you have questions ask your instructor, or you co- op teacher, they are here to help you succeed. It may be overwhelming at first but you’ll get into the swing of things!

15. Don’t forget to walk around the classroom, it helps keep students on track and prevents behavior issues!