Classroom Management

Classroom management is one of the most important factors that go into being a successful teacher and having a successful classroom. Effective classroom management does not happen overnight, but with practice and patience.

Effective classroom management starts with building a relationship with your class

Know your students and connect with them on levels outside of the classroom. When students feel like you care about them as a person and not just about their academic success you will be amazed at the difference it makes in their behavior and overall classroom report. My students always knew I cared about them and in return they would move mountains for me. Even when things seemed hard for them, that relationship we had built was a strong foundation to support them to go outside of their comfort zone, try new things, and amaze themselves with just how much they could accomplish and excel. Don’t be afraid to get on their level, have fun, be silly, laugh, and joke. Your students will be grateful for you, even though they might make you feel completely stupid in the momentJ

Classroom management is a learned skill

When I say learned skill, I mean that your students will actually learn the set of skills with your guidance. This starts on day one. When you establish your classroom on day 1, your students will begin to pick up on what your expectations are for them. Do not lower your expectations! Students are wired to push you to the edge. You will show them how much you care by not budging. Students need structure and thrive in that type of environment. Once you establish your skills from the beginning, stick with them. These skills will not be mastered in one day but overtime. Take Ron Clark’s Essential 55 for example. These are 55 rules that his classroom follows that are established to bring out the best in students. These are not learned and mastered in one day but overtime. For Example: Rule 19: When homework is assigned, do not moan or complain. How would this help in your classroom? It established a common norm that your students know and are expected to abide by; in return helps eliminate any behavior issues in regards to homework. When you are consistent and have routine to your classroom, both you and your students with be thanking each other.

Expectations are important

Students love to take ownership in things. They take pride in it. Let you students help come up with some rules/expectations that they want to have in their classroom.  Consequences usually are established by the administration or by district guidelines; however you do have freedom to add consequences of your own as well. For example: Student does not turn in their homework, consequence could be staying after school to complete homework with parent consent. I wish I could go back and change up how I did my rules and consequences. In the beginning I was a very by the book teacher, very old school in regards to the rules and consequences. My students did not respond well to that. It came across as if I did not care and to them they were just rules I set in place for them to break. This is when establishing a community and report comes back into play. Establish a community where the rules and expectations are collective bodies of moving parts that help the classroom become a success. Almost like running a business. Not rising up an army for battle: Sit up, legs in front, no talking, no laughing, no smiling type of classroom.

Procedures!

Procedures are kind of like routines that your students know like the back of their hand. Establishing procedures in the beginning will help tremendously in the long run. Your classroom will end up running itself with successful procedures and make the teaching and learning part much easier for both you and your students. Consistency is key! Stay with them even though it can be exhausting in the beginning. You have to go over it with each class multiple times a class period, multiple times a week, for months! Eventually the students will become a well oiled machine and teaching will become a whole lot easier. There is nothing more frustrating than chaos when teaching. Don’t get me wrong, there will be days that your students test you, even when you think theres no way they could possible fall short of the procedures and expectations, but again, stick with it and don’t hesitate to go back to the basics and start again with how your procedures work.

“Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.” – Zig Ziglar

Classroom management is a continuous learning subject for all teachers. You never quit learning how to have better classroom management. Each year you will get better and better, however there is always improvements that can be made. Each year brings on a new set of students, new challenges, be consistent. If you feel like you are off to a bad start and are falling short in classroom management, be encouraged. Your abilities will grow!

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When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I often do is check my message, then my social media. I may take a few minutes to listen to a podcast or music while I put together my French Press coffee. I normally don’t eat at home and if I do eat breakfast it is normally fast food. My life seems to run at breakneck speed juggling projects with relationships and I can find myself dropping into my bed with a list of tasks still marked “Incomplete”. Working out, eating healthy, meditation – those are all low on my list of priorities because I know me, I’ll cut myself some slack, I won’t yell at me if those things don’t get done. The other tasks on my list are often requirements – especially if I want to pay my bills or have people in my life – at least that is what I tell myself. But is my life so hectic that I don’t have time for 15 minutes of meditation?

From headspace.com – “Science has proven that the benefits of meditation are too good to ignore. And while we don’t need to meditate daily to experience its positive effect on your health and happiness, studies have shown that we can unlock even more benefits when we meditate for consecutive days. In fact, completing just one 15-minute session of meditation using the Headspace app resulted in 22% reduction in mind wandering. And four weeks of using Headspace daily resulted in 14% increase in focus.”

Not convinced? When researching meditation I found one site with over 141 ways that meditation helps your mind, body, emotional and spiritual well being. But who has time for 141 benefits? Instead I will give you seven that I found from a Forbes article that were exactly what I was looking for, especially number six – reducing anxiety. I don’t know about you, but I get anxious about deadlines and I stress out about making new commitments and keeping ones already made. I have FOMO (fear of missing out) and I say “Yes” in order to please people instead of taking a few moments for self care.

Here are Seven benefits of Meditation:

1. Meditation Helps Preserve the Aging Brain
2. Meditation Reduces Activity in the Brain’s “Me Center”
3. Its Effects Rival Antidepressants for Depression, Anxiety
4. Meditation May Lead to Volume Changes in Key Areas of the Brain
5. Just a Few Days of Training Improves Concentration and Attention
6. Meditation Reduces Anxiety — and Social Anxiety – A lot of people start meditating for its benefits in stress reduction, and there’s lots of good evidence to support this rationale. There’s a whole newer sub-genre of meditation, mentioned earlier, called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts’ Center for Mindfulness (now available all over the country), that aims to reduce a person’s stress level, physically and mentally. Studies have shown its benefits in reducing anxiety, even years after the initial 8-week course.
7. Meditation Can Help with Addiction

Meditation in the Classroom

Based on the above seven reasons alone, it is clear that meditation could be incredibly valuable for a teacher.  Teachers often wear many hats in a students’ life and deal with a variety of situations involving students, parents and faculty members. Instead of grabbing an extra cup of coffee or a snack, it can be more beneficial to take that time to meditate. Teachers can use meditation not only for themselves, but also for their students. According to a recent Edutopia article, “…meditation can help students strengthen their self-regulation and their focus on coursework. It also boosts their overall health, reduces negative feelings, and fosters compassion.” Who doesn’t want more of this in their classroom! The article encourages meditation in the classroom, but it also states that teachers should develop their own practice of meditation before teaching it to their students. Furthermore, including administration and other faculty in your meditation practice can also be beneficial.

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“If we want people to fully show up, to bring their whole selves including their unarmored, whole hearts—so that we can innovate, solve problems, and serve people—we have to be vigilant about creating a culture in which people feel safe, seen, heard, and respected.” ― Brené Brown, Dare to Lead

I recently started watching The Umbrella Academy. It’s a new take on an old theme – super heroes have problems too. What has drawn me in about this show is not the strength of the characters – but their weakness. I believe that all of us wish to be great, but even those with great powers still struggle with contentment and happiness. With every strength, there is an equal weakness.

I think that we forget sometimes that it is vulnerability and weaknesses that actually connect us much more than our strength. While we all long for excellence in our physical appearance, jobs, families, friendships, it is our beauty, our excellence, our greatness that often intimidates others and drives us apart. This is true in The Umbrella Academy. You see a family of children created by an extraordinary circumstance but they are driven apart by their differences.  As I was watching, I couldn’t help but see how Sir Reginald Hargreeves, the billionaire “father” who adopted 7 children who were born on the same day, was a demanding teacher. He schooled his children in severe ways with the purpose of determining the extent of their abilities, but he did it without the greatest tool for teaching success – love.

Great Teachers Focus on the Students, Not Themselves…

When I was in school it wasn’t the teachers that were the most skilled who taught me the most. It was those teachers that showed me attention, affection, and affirmation. It was also those same teachers that brought fun to learning. Their focus was not on themselves, but on the students. Their desire was not to make themselves great, but instead to make great students. My best teachers did not desire the spotlight, they desired to illuminate the world around them. My best teachers were humble, kind and hard-working. By showing me that I mattered they ended up achieving their desired result sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly. When I knew that my teacher(s) cared about me, I worked harder for them. Instead of trying to motivate me to learn, great teachers motivated me to succeed and be the best version of myself. They made me feel like I was capable of something great, and I believed them. 

I remember my senior year at Liberty Christian school I had the best Geometry teacher. Her name was Mrs. Gray. Mrs. Gray was young, probably in her mid-twenties with dishwater blond hair that curled and fell just past her shoulders. I hardly remember her face, but I remember she was pretty. She piled us up with Geometry homework and demanded excellence, but what she really taught us was that we were people and that we mattered. She engaged in our lives and asked us about our families. While we learned geometry, she learned about us. I remember during spirit week, it was “Sixties Day”, she handed out our tests back to us sporting bell bottom jeans, a fringe leather vest and a colorful bandana. In a word, she was “groovy”. When she handed me my paper she said, “You got an A, jump back and kiss yourself.” I thought it was the coolest phrase ever. Mrs. Gray new how to have fun.

There was also a girl in our class named Victoria that sang all the time. She was beautiful and had a beautiful voice to match. Mrs. Gray often had to encourage her to stop singing during class, but she was always kind about it. I remember Victoria telling Mrs. Gray, “Thank you for the vitamin recommendations for my mom, they have helped her so much.” That is the kind of teacher that Mrs. Gray was, she recommended vitamins for our moms, she listened to our problems, she cared not just about our grades, she cared about us.

Fast forward 15 years and I’m working for Texas Instruments. My boss Sam Blunk called me into his office and asked me what my personal goals were. I told him that I wanted to go back to school and get a Master’s in Anthropology. He didn’t encourage me to become a better Help Desk Analyst or to move up in management in Texas Instruments, instead he wrote me a letter of recommendation for my application to the University of Texas at Dallas. He wanted me to become the best version of myself. I worked so hard for Sam and he lives near me. He works in law enforcement and when I see him I always bristle with delight because he “saw” me and it feels good to be seen.

I never became an Anthropologist, I actually ended up going to Dallas Theological Seminary and getting my Masters in Theology. Then I continued to work as a web and graphic designer who also happens to write and create content for my clients. Over the last 2 years I have spent a great amount of time consuming books by Brené Brown, Dave Ramsey,  Rachel Hollis, The Harmon Brothers, Dan Partidge and many more. The recurring theme from all self-help books, business books, and every marketing thing that I’ve read is that if you care about people you will be a success. 

YOU HAVE THE POWER TO IMPACT LIVES

As a teacher, you have the power to impact lives. Let me say that again, YOU HAVE THE POWER TO IMPACT LIVES. That is a gift. Teachers can redirect a child’s life and help him or her become something great with nothing more than kindness, attention, affirmation, and affection. You don’t have to go to college for that and while you do have to to be certified to teach, you do not have to be certified to love others well.

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Seeking out iteachTEXAS reviews is a great way for you to determine if iteachTEXAS is the best program for you to choose when determining a teacher certification program.

Though you can learn a lot about iteachTEXAS on our website, it can be extremely helpful to hear from someone who went through our program.

The main two sources for you, the public, check out iteachTEXAS Facebook Reviews and iteachTEXAS Google Reviews. Both sources cannot be curated or edited by iteachTEXAS. We cannot delete poor reviews.

As of time of this blog being published our iteachTEXAS Review Score on Facebook was 4.8 stars.

And our iteachTEXAS Review on Google was 4.4 stars.
As important as it is for you to read our reviews, it is equally important to search for the reviews of other Texas Teacher certification programs’ reviews. You will find that some other programs have removed reviews from Facebook (the only way to ensure bad reviews are not posted).
 

We encourage you to do research. What you will ultimately find is that our program is the lowest cost, nationally accredited program in the state with some of the highest rated reviews. Additionally, iteachTEXAS provides our candidates a 600% greater likely hood of being hired (as compared to Texas Teachers).

Our candidates are 600% more likely to be hired

Apart from our great public reviews, below are some quotes from people just like you who have completed our program:

iteachTEXAS Reviews 

“I’m so glad that I listened to my friend when she recommended iteachtexas. I learned a lot through iteach that helped me in my first year of teaching. I love all of the employees at iteachtexas. They were accessible at all hours of the day and every day of the week. Thank you iteachtexas for guiding me on my path to becoming better at the career that I had always dreamed of; being a teacher with my own classroom and students to love and teach.” – Kim B.

“I started with a different alternative certification program, but when I constantly hit dead ends with them compiled with the fact that they lost my work (twice!), I reached out to iTeach at the recommendation of a friend and my school district. iTeach was a great experience all the way through, and they made the transition easy!” 2017-2018 Program Completer

“iTeach in my experience has been amazing. I was more than prepared to walk into my first day of school, as well as every other day. My field adviser was phenomenal, and helped in more ways than one. I have and would recommend iTeach to anyone else who asks.” – Moniqua W.

“I researched several alternative teaching certification programs. iteach was the program that seemed the most beneficial, affordable, and appropriate program for me. After visiting with several other students who were enrolled in other cert programs, I became even more thankful that I had chosen iteach. I am 100% happy with the program and have shared my success with many others looking at going into the teaching field.” – 2017-2018 Program Completer

“iTeach is may seem like an ordinary online Alternative Certification Program but it does an excellent job preparing candidates to be life-long educators. Whenever a substitute teacher has questions about certification, I always take the time to explain the great service I received from iTeach Texas. My supervisor was very personable and helpful with her encouraging words. Every time I had a concern about which tests to take, I could always count on iTeach customer service to respond quickly to me. I am more than happy to endorse iTeach as an ACP because it has been a blessing in my life. Thank you, iTeach!” – Rod T.

Texas Success Guide

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