Help Your Students BLOOM!

Classroom management is important to establish a peaceful learning environment.

Classroom Expectations

Teachers must establish clear student expectations in the beginning of the school year. One of the teacher's at IES thought of the beginning of the school year as the most important time to communicate classroom expectations.

The Follow Through

A part of establishing classroom expectations is following through with the set expectations. Hold students accountable for not following the expectations and don't let students get away with not upholding the expectations. If a teacher lets students get away with not upholding the classroom expectations then the teacher will lose the class's respect. The classroom environment could become unruly and out of control. Minimal learning would occur in an environment such as the one described.

Positive Feedback

Teachers must also give their students positive feedback. Positive feedback doesn't mean that a teacher tells a student "Great job today Jimmy!" but positive feedback means that the teacher is giving the student what they need to know to succeed. For example, if a student completes a math problem then a teacher could say "I really like the method you used to solve that problem!". This form of positive feedback is much greater than a pat on the back. This form of positive feedback really lets the student know where they went right and what they did well. It is specific to the student not the job performed. Another teacher at IES in Sweden mentioned that this form of positive feedback is difficult for teachers to perfect. After about twenty years of teaching, the teacher at IES feels that he has a good grasp on constructing positive feedback that helps the students in his classroom.

Student Accountability

Lastly, teachers must hold students accountable for their learning. It is okay to let students know why they need to learn something. It is okay to let students make mistakes in the classroom. It is okay to tell students the importance of completing their assignments. There couldn't be a more perfect place to make mistakes than in the classroom. After all, how many people have learned from their mistakes? The classroom environment should be a safe place to make mistakes. Still, hold students accountable from learning from their mistakes. Follow up with questions and discussions. Provide students rubrics and goals to work towards. Without rubrics and goals students don't know what to learn, why they are learning it, or where to start. Rubrics, goals, and allowing mistakes helps students learn.

These pertinent classroom management skills can improve a classroom environment.

#classroomenvironment #positivelearningenvironment