First Entry: Large Group Management and Discipline

The Big Five*

1. Rules: Establish and teach classroom rules to communicate expectations for behavior.
2. Routines: Build structure and establish routines to help guide students in a wide variety of situations. New teachers deserve better. It is time for teacher prep programs to focus on classroom management so that first-year teachers are prepared on day one to head off potential disruption before it starts.
3. Praise: Reinforce positive behavior using praise and other means.
4. Misbehavior: Consistently impose consequences for misbehavior.
5. Engagement: Foster and maintain student engagement by teaching interesting lessons that include opportunities for active student participation.

Based on these strategies which are so strongly supported by research, we would like to ask you to choose one of the following situations and develop a short solution for it. 






1. An authoritarian teacher who has few teaching tools uses a contradictory speech in an attempt to maintain the discipline of the class.

2- A pre-service teacher in her practicum whose class is out of control.

* Taken from: Greenberg, J (2014) Training our future teachers: classroom management.  NCTQ’s Teacher Advisory Group. Source: http://www.nctq.org/dmsView/Future_Teachers_Classroom_Management_NCTQ_Report

Second Entry: Lesson Plan and Class Objectives

Thinking as a teacher, what do you think is missing in these two situations?

Third Entry: The "Being a teacher" awareness

Let us now you opinion about the next statement!

"Becoming an effective teacher involves considerably more than accumulating skills and strategies. Without tying teaching and management decisions to personal beliefs about teaching, learning, and development, a teacher will have only the bricks.(...) Being successful in today’s classroom environment goes beyond taking on fragmented techniques for managing instruction, keeping students on-task, and handling student behavior. It requires that the teacher remain fluid and able to move in many directions, rather than stuck only being able to move in one direction as situations occur. Effective teaching is much more than a compilation of skills and strategies. It is a deliberate philosophical and ethical code of conduct." (Larrivee, 2000)

Larrivee, B (2000) Transforming Teaching Practice: becoming the critically reflective teacher. Reflective Practice, 
                     1(3), Department of Learning, Literacy and Culture, California State University.