Classroom and facilities management require more than a series of techniques. Management and safety require a philosophy. Veteran teachers who “make it look easy“ have not perfected the techniques of management inasmuch as they have integrated certain techniques into a system and philosophy of C&I, assessment, discipline, facilities design, and safety. We can think of our combination of techniques and philosophies as flexible superstructure that complements our somewhat inflexible infrastructure of architectural units, devices, software, tools, and machines. The greatest amount of anxiety for new teachers tends to be over classroom management, and specifically the way that individual students are disciplined for incivilities. Rather than confronting incivilities, effective management and safety depends on preventive infrastructure and systems that are in place. This point cannot be stressed enough. Students will test new and veteran teachers alike. Veteran teachers may have the benefit of experience in dealing with incivilities such as bullying, but they rely on their infrastructure and systems of prevention rather than their reactive techniques. They know how to deal with individual incivilities but prefer preventive measures by setting a tone for acceptable classroom behavior. We will explore a range of techniques, including humor, for dealing with classroom behavior.
Supporting New Teachers as Designers of Learning
