Classroom Management Part 2

Even the best run classroom will inevitably give rise to the occasional behavior problem. If it is one student causing the problem and it's relatively minor, I would pose a short discussion question about the material from that day to the class and have them talk about it in small groups, and then, as discretely as possible, talk to the problem student one-on-one and tell them that I need them to stop whatever the problem behavior was. At this stage, I won't make threats or talk about consequences. By keeping it individual, I won't interrupt the flow of the class and give opportunity for further distractions.

Motivation Part 2

In my last post on motivation, I touched on the idea of dogmatism, stating that I would encourage my students to not think dogmatically. I will have to present myself to students as an authority figure, but not someone whose word is to be taken without question or thought. Some students may already be disposed to non-dogmatic thinking, and will take it upon themselves to question me when I say something they disagree with. I will give these questions full and fair consideration, even re-directing the flow of the class to acknowledge the validity of their contention. By setting this example, other students will pick up on the idea and begin to raise questions when they are skeptical of something in the classroom, and when they do I will continue to encourage their independent thought by fairly considering what they have to say, and even conceding that I am mistaken if that's the case.

The classroom environment is critical to motivation, and peers play a large role in composing the classroom. With few exceptions, I will know little to nothing about my students before the year begins, and most often it will be nothing. I will begin the year with them sitting in traditional rows with random assigned seats for a few weeks, until I begin to get a feel for their personalities. After that, I will seemingly randomly re-assign seats, but I will carefully consider how the students personalities and levels of development will work together or not work together. By placing students in the best possible peer surroundings, they will be more motivated and also learn more because of the role of the more knowledgeable peer.

Motivational Factors

When I think about motivational factors in the classroom, my thoughts inevitably lead me to one fact: in a relatively short amount of time, I will spend in excess of 40 hours a week trying to motivate adolescents to engage themselves mentally in learning material that they frequently find difficult, often find boring, and that they may believe to be useless, irrelevant, or otherwise not worth their time. There are two aspects of the classroom that I have at my disposal to manipulate in order to make the curriculum appealing to students and appear worth learning: the material being presented, and the person presenting it (me).

As far as the material is concerned, most students recognize the inevitability that, however dull or difficult they may find a subject, they must get an acceptable grade in the class, even if for no other reason than to avoid taking it again. Thus, I will have to make the material mentally accessible to them. The best way I can think of to do this is to consider the learning theories, specifically developmental theories. If I consider DLT as much as possible, the curriculum will be presented in a manner that begins very concrete and gradually gets more abstract, yet still returns to concrete examples. At a basic level, the varying modes of representation will motivate most students to give the subject their attention.

Students' relationship with and perception of their teacher is another important factor of motivation. As a teacher, I will be a representation of authority to my students, and my interactions with them will affect their notions of dogmatism both in my class and in the future. I will avoid making the students' goal in the class gaining my approval, encouraging them instead to aim for comprehension. I don't want to be perceived as an arbitrator of knowledge but as a more knowledgeable peer who they also want to respect.