My English Pages

A classroom management issue

“Why Do You Let Othesr Control You? ” said to a student may be a clue to ending a fight in the classroom according to Larry Ferlazzo’s experience with a bad class. Instead of using punishment, this kind of straight forward strategy can work perfectly to solve classroom management problems. It focuses on the psychological outcome, on valuing the self, humanizing the students and  building a tolerant peaceful personality.

What would have happened if Larry had sent them out? AN OTHER FIGHT. The secret to successful classroom management  is in mending behaviour not in punishing.

I’ve aready written about classroom management issues in two previous posts. The first one was about teaching with love and logic and the second one the RESPECT that some teachers seek to get from their students. These posts  highlighted the importance of preventive measures compared to reactive ones.

Preventive vs reactive mrasures

Preventive measures focus on allowing students to take responsiblilty for their actions, communicating with  parents and training teachers for problematic classroom management. The approach aims at creating appropriate environment for the students educational and personal development. The reactive approach, on the other hand, are measures taken after the harm is done. They focus on punishment as well as other less coercive methods.

I personally believe that teachers should favor preventive methods to reactive ones.

A word of acknowledgement

Finally, I’d like to thank Larry Ferlazzo for the great tips and interesting links he offers to his colleagues in his blog.