Planning for an effective classroom management in secondary school

        If you are a teacher, you should already realize the importance of planning effective classroom management in the class you teach. On the last meeting, I have already learned that the importance of classroom management itself is crucial. No matter how well you master the subject matter you teach, if your students are not feeling well to enjoy every learning activity you give then your teaching efforts will be largely in vain. They will not be able to engage in the learning process and as the consequence, they will be left behind. Is it right, isn’t it? So, as reflect from the evidence, I think teachers especially secondary school teachers need a special set of classroom management strategies in order to support the effectiveness of students learning when teaching and learning process taken place. However dealing with secondary school students is more different than dealing with primary or middle school students. Even though most of them are smart, but we cannot ignore about the fact that sometimes they are extremely sensitive to the pressure by their environment such as their peers, families or even their teachers and worry about how they look like in front of their fellow students.

          Well,, same as the previous reflection, If I were being a secondary school teacher, there are some strategies that I want to use to create orderly and safe classroom environment for my students. Of course to make everything in place and works better, there are some things that I need to prepare. First, if I were a teacher in a secondary school, I will start my first class with classroom agreement and sitting arrangement. Involving students in setting the rules and the consequences of breaking the rules, as what I said before, it will be good idea for students. However, with a set list of the rules and consequences, perhaps my students will know exactly what are expected of them. On the other hand, besides helping me to look out for the good of the entire classroom, classroom agreement at least can help me to not being sarcastic toward students or engage in a power struggle.

            About sitting arrangement, I have my own reason of why this thing is crucial. My experience told me that the old sitting arrangement lacks of engaging students in discussion activity. Yes, sometimes, when they are required to share or discuss materials/problems with their peers or groups, they need to turn around their chairs and tables first. In my opinion, it really takes time and I personally dislike it. Since I prefer to use group work activities and group discussion, I will take a seat in the circle (where each member of group can face each other) to conduct lessons as well as moving around the room. Yes, if the sitting arrangements are arranged as so, I can maximize students learning. I can walk around, engage more students in the activity I prepared for, and create an environment where students can talk and share their ideas freely and comfortably.

          Second, I will start my days of teaching by thinking about how to keep enhancing students’ motivation during teaching and learning process taken place. Yes, besides of preparing the lesson which will be delivered in class, trying to keep enhancing students’ motivation through the various ways like giving positive reinforcement and reward and some activities that foster collaboration rather than competition among students are also important. Besides of helping students build their own confidence, those kinds of things can intrinsically motivate them retain information and concepts longer and help teachers increase levels of student success and reduce dropout rates which a lot happens in most secondary schools (Blank, 1997 in Saifer, Edwards, Ellis, Ko, Stuczynski, 2011).

         In summary, I realize that classroom management cannot be left behind in the teaching and learning process. It is crucial and as you know that it can be the important aspect to create a positive classroom environment where learning can take place and students can enjoy and feel safe participating. Even though to conduct the planning for an effective classroom management in secondary school is not simply as it may sound because at the secondary school level, classroom management presents its own set of challenges. Teachers at least can deal with trial and error process to find which set of classroom management strategies that is suitable for the students they teach.

Resource:

Saifer, S., Edwards, K., Ellis, D., Ko, L., Stuczynski, A. (2011). Enhancing engagement and motivation in learning. In Alpert, D., Bedell, M., & Stapleton, V (Eds.), Culturally responsive standards-based teaching: Classroom to community and back (p. 211). Thousand Oaks: California. Retrieved December 18, 2012 from http://books.google.co.id/books?id=pXmX2dNMgAsC&printsec=frontcover&hl=id#v=onepage&q&f=false


Himmatul 'Aliyah
2010110030