Starting the school year off right – what to keep from being a troubled teacher

The time to work towards a good school year is before you become a troubled teacher. Here are some tips to help keep you out trouble once you get students
Classroom management is not taught in college, yet lack of this skill is the major reason many teachers only stay in the profession three years or less. Let’s face it – the key to classroom management is to let the kids know whose boss, and it’s not them. This needs to happen before the students ever walk in your school room door. You accomplish your goal of being in charge by doing a lot of work before school ever starts.

1.       Look around your room. How are the student’s desks arranged? Will the layout give you the maximum number of front row seats? If you use the traditional square or rectangular layout you have the minimum front row seats, unless your room is really wide. I always taught in rooms that were too small for the number of students that I had, so I had to maximize my front row space. I did it using a V layout. This had several advantages for me. I was able to move into the student area to teach, all students were looking at me and the board, or screen, and no student was more than four or five desks back. I could arrange it so that students in the back of the room were still in the front row. Keeping as many kids a possible in front-row seats saved me from a lot of trouble later.

Number of desks can be expanded by reducing the teaching area. I always had to be prepared for 40 students per class.

2.       Again look around your room. Where is your desk? Today with computer network hookups, LCD hookups and printer hookups, you may not have a lot of choice of where your desk goes in the room. However you do have the ability to position your desk and book shelves in the area you are restricted to. I did not want students coming behind my desk at any time. So I angled my desk to narrow the access route to my area, then I placed book shelves against the wall to narrow it even more. This helped cut down on the problems of theft and kids getting into my drawers by being a visible reminder for students to stay away. It stopped trouble before it ever began. The book shelves also acted as a place I could organize papers that would otherwise have landed on my desk.

This was my favorite set up. I had to adapt it for different classrooms.

3.       For a third time look around your room, only this time look at what you’ve put on the walls. What you chose for posters and room decorations give the students in immediate idea of what type of teacher you are. Is your room all frilly, giving the viewer the idea you are a fluffy sort of person? Is it over decorated, indicating that you are probably not as well organized as you might be? (Also remember the fire code on this one.) Is it straight forward with posters that apply to your area of teaching or filled with you-can-do-it posters? Or is it totally plain. Be objective when looking around your room at your additions. Would you want to have this person for a teacher? A well thought out plan for decoration you keep you out of trouble with the safety inspector, too.

Remember your room reflects who you are and what you expect from your students. Put some time and thought into how you arrange it and decorate it. Leave it for the weekend, when you come in on Monday stop and really look at what you have done with it. Are you comfortable with the message is gives? Do you feel less troubled about the coming year? If so, you are ready to start working on the first day of school.