In my first years of teaching, I couldn’t fathom managing a
group of 3- and 4-year olds on my own. During my five years of undergraduate
coursework, I never heard a word mentioned about classroom management,
establishing routines, setting expectations for my students, or building a classroom
community of learners. That made for shock and complete frustration in my first
few years of teaching. I came across students who continually disrupted lessons
and didn’t clean up (even though I rang the clean-up bell), ran through the
classroom (even when I said, “use your walking feet”), or pushed others (while
I modeled using “gentle hands”). What could be done with students like this?
Many of my
colleagues who also graduated from teaching programs in the Midwest shared my frustration and had to
learn by trial and error, with the ultimate hope that students would learn
something while in our classrooms.
Luckily, a team teaching model was in place at my first job
and I worked alongside a seasoned teacher. She quickly taught me that in
order to win the attention of young learners, I had to sing songs, predict the
unpredictable, anticipate their next 10 moves, and reflect on my classroom
management techniques daily. I also attended workshops, read National Association for the Education of Young Children journals and books about classroom
management techniques specific to preschool students, and reached out to other
schools to observe their teachers in action. All of these steps allowed me to strengthen my classroom management
skills and fine tune my understanding of what I could expect from my students.
After 13 years of teaching, I now understand that the “Big Five” has to be explicitly addressed in teaching preparation programs and that preservice
teachers need hands-on experience to try research-based classroom techniques
prior to student teaching. Classroom management techniques are learned through
execution, discussion and the collaboration of teachers who have a shared
understanding of what to expect of their students and how to engage students to facilitate learning despite the daily
interruptions/distractions of a school setting. Long gone are the days when
classroom management issues can be used as an excuse for not getting things
done. The bar has been raised with the Common Core State Standards, and both
teachers and students must rise to meet the challenges ahead. Classroom
management must be explicitly addressed in teacher preparation programs, and
teachers must be better equipped to step into a classroom with confidence in
their ability to engage their students from their first day in the classroom.
Freeda Pirillis
Member of NCTQ Teacher Advisory Group