Woody, R.H. (2001).  “Reflective classroom management.” Teaching Music, (8) 5, 46-50.  Reston, VA: MENC.

 

SUMMARIZE:

Ø       Introduction

·         Some music teachers see classroom management as detracting from actually teaching

·         Sometimes, this ends up being true, but it is still necessary

·         “Management” includes planning, organization, and anticipation of problems ahead of time

·         Teacher must be proactive; if not, time will be spent only on what students want to do

·         Instead of complaining, reflect, and fix it

Ø       Are You Being Perceptive?

·         Musical goals, and other things, can get in way of properly viewing and reflecting on situation

·         In particular, teachers may ignore behavioral problems by getting into rehearsals too much

·         General awareness of one’s teaching practices is important

·         Formal written records of observations and occurrences may be helpful; use these questions:

-          Could the problem behavior be the result of music learning difficulties?

·         Work individually to help them solve these deficiencies

-          Could the problem behavior be the result of a poor student-teacher relationship?

·         Be caring, go out of your way, treat them better than they deserve

-          Have you noticed if the problem behavior occurs only in certain “problem conditions?”

·         Make record of behaviors, with circumstances

-          Have you tried to identify the “payoff” for the problem behavior?

·         Record what happens after behavior (including your reaction)

-          Are you reinforcing the behavior?

·         If so, ignore it instead

Ø       Are You Being Creative?

·         Music inherently fosters teacher and student creativity

·         Teachers often limit themselves and plan narrow lessons

·         Should aim for environment where students are so involved and interested that they don’t and can’t misbehave

·         Creative teacher also comes up with effective discipline plan – yes, a plan for this is important

·         Must often go beyond typical strategies, so use these guidelines:

-          Do students have adequate opportunity to engage is musical activity?

·         Lessen teacher’s role and give clear instructions that lead to a lot of student involvement

-          Are students motivated to participate in class activities?

·         Find incentives – incentives that they actually desire and would want

-          Can improvements be made to the classroom environment?

·         Physical setup can be changed to reduce distractions, use new procedures, change pace

-          Are there any consequences for the problem behavior that might deter the students?

·         Make practical, enforceable, sufficiently painful consequences – and be consistent!

-          What other initiatives might help the situation?

·         Get ideas from other teachers, articles, etc.

Ø       Are You Setting a Good Example?

·         Teacher must demonstrate behaviors he/she expects students to do

·         Sometimes doesn’t even realize he/she is doing what he/she tells students not to!

·         Use these guidelines:

-          Are students arriving at their seats late and unprepared?

·         Be ready at start time, and then start.  Don’t round up kids and wait until they are ready

-          Are students talking persistently in class?

·         Don’t raise voice to be heard, don’t discuss talking with kids

·         Just use other methods – talk softer, less, use more nonverbals

-          Is student attention wandering from class activities to off-task behaviors?

·         Make class more interesting and stimulating, be focused, move quickly through activities

-          Are students unresponsive or apathetic in class?

·         Be excited, have energy, show you care – then they will too

-          Are students disrespectful to you and to each other?

·         Make them earn your respect – respect should be the number one policy

 

DISCUSS:

These are all terrific guidelines for classroom management.  They are concise and easy to understand, yet they cover most everything that needs to be covered.  Personally, I have observed a lot of these ideas in the classes I have taken in the past.  I have been blessed with a lot of really good teachers, so I’ve almost exclusively seen good examples of these guidelines.  In particular, all of my best teachers have shown an obvious passion for their subject; therefore, I have enjoyed their class.  Yes, even my freshman Social Studies class, for example, was enjoyable, because my teacher had an enormous passion for the content and for teaching it to us.  Finally, the first section (regarding perceptiveness) is crucial – the ability of a teacher to recognize what he is or is not doing well in his classroom is essential to improving his teaching and increasing his students’ understanding and enjoyment of the material.  This will be additionally very important to me, someday, and I will, undoubtedly, have students who would really prefer to not be in my class.  I must find ways to convey to them the importance of music and to make them enjoy music and my class.