1. Classroom Management Essentials

• Your attitude underpins everything you do. It determines the way you speak to students, the type of activities and tasks you offer them, the amount of time you allocate to building relationships with them, and everything else. Student behavior is more often a cry for help than a personal attack. I you can feel empathy, you will see a total change in the way you view young people and a total change in your attitude towards them. When teaching, be constantly on the move, teach from each corner of the room, and use a calm, matter-of-fact approach, which is far more effective than shrieking
• The law of least intervention states that we should always use the least intrusive or least disruptive method of dealing with a student so that we don’t disturb and/ or attract the attention of other students in the room. You have to be consistent in every aspect. You can’t use your system one day and not the next. You can’t apply them to one student and not his friend. Rather than talk to a student so others can hear, ask certain students to join you outside the room for a corridor meeting where you can address their concerns. Make regular positive contacts with parents to get them on your side.

2. Establishing routines

• Rob believes that routines are important for an orderly class. One way you can maximize participation in your routines is to involve the students in the creation of them. Spend a few minutes on a one-to-one basis with some of the ringleaders in the group and explain how important it is to you, and the rest of the group, to have their cooperation. This chapter also provides a list of things a teacher needs to do to avoid avoidable disruptions during class.

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