What works for classroom management varies greatly from teacher to teacher.  It also changes from teacher to class and from teacher to year.  The point is, there are not fast and hard rules (specific ones anyway), that work for everybody, all of the time.  Teaching is largely about the interplay and relationship between people.  That is highly dynamic, so the structure must be flexible, yet rooted strongly in a correct philosophy, in order to be effective.

In this episode that’s what we discuss…how to create policies that are effective.  We discuss what key element that all effective teachers have in their approaches to teaching.  It is my belief that the common element between all effective teachers is that they create an atmosphere and have rules that are rooted in serving the collective purpose of the classroom.  Teachers that struggle continually, who have little to no control over their classes, or that have such a tight control that students only behave out of fear or coercion, seem to have policies that serve their own immediate interests and pet peeves. 

There is plenty of room in how a class is organized to allow for pet peeves, personality variance, and even off-task behavior, while still serving the purpose of the class.  But, that purpose must be well defined.

In this episode we discuss how to establish quality best practices and classroom procedures rooted in the idea of, “serving our purpose.”