Classroom Management Part 2

I want my classroom to be a great environment, and ideally there wouldn't be any students in my class that misbehave. However, we all know that that is not the case in today's world. Way back in the old days teachers had the right to discipline their students however they please. Unfortunately now teachers get in trouble for almost anything, so I will need to have ways to deal with a student who misbehaves in my class.

If a student in my class misbehaves I will need to do a few things. First I do not want to embarrass that student in front of the whole class, so I figure I can either slip him a note asking him to stay after class, or talk to him about staying after class during a period of down time.

I also want to get to know my students little better than the average teacher does. So if I do have a student who is in my classroom after school I want to figure out what is going on in their personal life that might be causing them to goof off in class.

I should probably also have some sort of verbal warning for my students just in case they goof off in class, and continue to do so even after a warning. I know at my high school you could just call the office and send problem students to their dean, but I do not always want to resort to that policy if I have a misbehaving student in my class. Maybe I could have a certain word that my students would know mean business right away if I said it to them.

I'm sure there are more ways that I can deal with a student who might misbehave in my classroom, but for now I want to focus on only a few until I get the swing of having my own class down. I don't want to embarrass my students in front of their peers, but I do want to get to know them more. By doing so I will be more aware if there is something causing that specific student to act up in my class. I want to be able to reach out to my students and hopefully create an environment that doesn't give them a reason to goof off in class. If I am able to do so, then hopefully I won't have too many problems in my classroom.

Motivation

We all know that kids need to be motivated to want to go to school, and to want to learn. without motivation they will probably not care about their learning or put much effort into the process. Therefore, I will need to do quite a few things in order to motivate my students. First of all I want my classroom to be welcoming and professional. In order to accomplish those things though, I feel like I need to treat my students like adults as much as possible. I understand that not all situations will allow for that, but when possible I would really like to give them some responsibility in order to motivate them in my classroom. I also want to motivate my students by making sure the content I teach to them is relevant to their future. No one likes feeling like they are learning things they will never use again in their future, so I do not want my students to feel like that either. This also goes along with not wasting my students time in the classroom. If my kids feel like their time is being wasted, they probably will not want to learn what I am trying to teach. I will also have high expectations for my students since I plan on teaching Psychology, and it is not an easy subject to grasp and understand. Hopefully by not wasting my students time and having high expectations for them they will be motivated to come to class and learn something new every day. Another example of motivating my students would be by not shooting down their ideas. I want my students to feel like they can share all of their ideas that come to mind. I will try to find ways to direct their wrong answers to correct ones, in hopes that my students will not become discouraged from sharing their ideas with the class. A final way I will motivate my students in my classroom is by motivating myself. If I am not motivated everyday to teach my class and further my students learning, then why would my students be motivated to learn anything from me? Hopefully if I am successful at my job I will be able to motivate my students in multiple ways each day. I can motivate them by either using one of the examples I have already talked about, or by using a number of other motivational factors I have learned about.