Management Strategies

This week we looked at various management strategies. What advice would you give to teachers who decide to implement the strategies you reviewed to ensure that they work smoothly and effectively in the classroom?

• Set Firm Routines - Make sure your students know what to do! Practice transitions between activities so that they don't fall apart when you try to put them into place. Make sure students know what to do when they finish work earlier than other students in the class.
  
• Be Organized - Know what you want students to do, otherwise you can never expect things to run smoothly. Have a place for students to turn in work when they are done so you're not constantly bombarded by students wanting to turn in assignments. Plan more than you think is necessary for a lesson in case it goes more quickly than anticipated.
  
• Be Available - Make yourself available to students both in class and outside of class in order to address individual concerns and struggles. Make sure students feel as though they can come to you with cognitive and affective needs.
  
• Be Flexible - Nothing will ever go exactly as you plan for it to! Be ready to adapt! The main objective of differentiation is to adapt to students' needs. It may be necessary at any time for you to adapt a lesson that isn't working quite like you planned for it to.
  
• Know Your Students - It is pivotally important to know your students both cognitively and affectively, so that you can best address their needs.