When I first started substituting teaching, I was absolutely petrified. Let’s face it, students often get excited when a substitute takes the place of their regular teacher. How would I keep control of the classroom? Many of my friends are teachers and they said don’t worry about it you’re great with kids simply be yourself and you’ll do fine. Do fine? What does that mean? We want the students to like us and work with us. We do not want to be too strict, but yet gain a students trust, while not letting them walk all over you. Simply thinking about how to manage and discipline students in the classroom creates a lot of unnecessary anxiety for new teachers.
While searching through lengthy and extremely scholarly articles on classroom management, somehow I found this one. It is a simple article which contains 10 tips for classroom discipline and management. Melissa Kelly, the author, provides tips on a few different areas including; fairness is the key, stopping disruption with a bit of humor and also starting fresh everyday.
Fairness is the key is important because students know what it and isn’t fair when if comes to discipline. You don’t want to always seem to be picking on the student who cause you the biggest headache during the day, most often that student is reacting to something that one of your otherwise quieter students has said or done. So make sure that all parties involved get an equal type of punishment.
Stopping disruption with a bit of humor is so important. Humor is such a great way to get students back on track with the lesson at hand. I think you have to incorporate some type of humor into the subjects you teach. Sometimes disruptions often occur when students are just not into that particular subject that day or they have an extra burst of energy left over from lunch. So stop the lesson, have a laugh by telling a few jokes, read the comics aloud and then get the students back on track. Always keep in mind that there is a...