This post has been written to help you address your first days as a brand-new teacher! Recently, as a substitute teacher, and I came across a student teacher who asked for practical guidance. She was about to graduate and assume a long-term position as a fully qualified teacher. In conversation she bemoaned the fact that lectures she had heard on educational theories citing the teachings of Piaget, Vygotsky and ‘ encouraging cognitive development in students’ were of little practical help when entering a classroom for the first time.

Having previously trained teachers in-situ as part of their practical teacher training – often quipped as ‘new teacher survival training’ – this comment was very familiar to me.

So, I do indeed know that these first few days can be quite unnerving for many new teachers just entering the world of teaching.

It can indeed be quite like being thrown into the proverbial lion’s den! This can be particularly so when, as a ‘teacher-in-training’ you have observed, as part of your own training those veteran teachers who are seemingly effortless in the control of their students and responding to the dynamic environment of their classroom.

Classroom Management … how to quickly achieve it!

So, in this post I want to give you all some very practical guidance that will help you in those very early days in your career.

It really is ‘all smoke and mirrors…’

Remember: “They (the students) don’t know what you don’t know…“

Another way to put it is that as students come pouring into your classroom for the very first time, they don’t know you and the level of skills you may (or may not) have. They will then very quickly establish that understanding depending on what they see and hear from you…!

It is very true….First impressions count!

This puts into sharp focus the need for you to be well prepared.… in advance… so that any anticipated questions from the students will not throw you off your ‘equilibrium.’ Remember your goal which is to immediately project total confidence in your teaching abilities. This means that upon entry the students gain an impression that they are entering the domain of someone who clearly has anticipated their needs and is fully in control!

How to immediately project confidence

Specifically, this means that you have put up clearly, the learning goals for the day for all to see, Also make sure that if you have any handouts for them, you have sufficient copies for the everyone in class (plus 10%).

Should you be projecting instructions for the class to follow, make sure you have it ready to go. You also need to have personally viewed what you are showing from the back of the class – to ensure its legibility! The same equally applies to any information you may have written on a white board!

In addition to the learning goals being clearly displayed, make sure any ‘special instructions’ you want to enforce are equally visible (example: ‘no use of calculators’, ‘no cell phones out’ [good luck with that one!!], ‘no consuming food or drinks’ etc.).

Doing this will reduce the number of ‘negative instructions’ you have to give in class and allow you to create a positive learning environment.

Be familiar with pre-existing school wide protocols (example: a ’10 / 10 rule’ meaning no students to leave a classroom until 10 minutes have been spent in class or to leave a classroom in the last 10 minutes of class). As you show familiarity with any school wide rules students will tend to accredit you with the same authority as they do the veteran teachers at the school.

First you manage,,, Then you teach!

Your goal is – of course – to engage your students with a meaningful academic curriculum. To do this you must first manage your class.

So, setting the ‘tone’ at the beginning of your classes goes a long way to establishing the behaviors you want throughout your class period…. in order to deliver such future lessons.

In Summary: Good preparation will make you feel more confident which will be transmitted to the students that are looking to you for their instruction and guidance.

You may well be introduced to your classes by the departmental head who…. hopefully will not introduce you as a ‘NEW’ or ‘STUDENT’ teacher! When this is done, I have seen inevitably sets new teachers up for a plethora of challenges to quickly establishing their ‘presence’ in a classroom than is warranted.

Remember !

What really matters a LOT in the classroom is not just what instructions you give but also HOW you appear to the students.

Most communication is NON – verbal (up to 93% according to some research) and 38% of verbal communication is made up of the tonal quality of what is being said.

That is why I said before that a lot of classroom management truly is ‘smoke and mirrors’ and emphasize again it the manner in which you conduct yourself in a classroom that determines how your instructions will be followed.

The more confident you appear will convey a great deal of your ‘authority’ to students, which means that you will have to spend far less time in correcting ‘off task’ behaviors and more time on honing your communication skills.

So be sure to project your voice in the classroom if you are standing at the front of the class, better still is to walk amongst the students as you instruct them.

Managing interruptions to your giving verbal instructions

While it is important to always maintain a projection of being ‘in charge’ at the beginning of class; and students look for it, how you handle interruptions is important!

Invariably, when you are addressing a class at the beginning of a lesson a student will raise a hand to ask a question, or sometimes even verbally interject a comment. This could be for any reason that seems very important to them at the time such as “I forgot my textbook!” or “I need a pencil!!.”

When I face such a potential disruption to giving instructions, I find that stating to the assembled class “I will deal with any questions at the end.” I then continue my verbal delivery to the class and then use that important phrase “Any questions?”

Support material that really does help!

I personally found excellent guidance in my own early years of teaching in an ‘inner city school’ a veteran teacher called Michael Marland. In his classic book, ‘The Craft of the Classroom’ https://amzn.to/3IbJXKV the author goes into a great deal of practical advice to enable teachers to have great classroom management. On applying much of his advice, I saw there was an immediate increase in my own classroom control. Over the years this has become second nature to me now.

While Marland’s book is based on his experience in UK schools which I found equally applicable in the U.S. (Hence students are called ‘pupils’ and principals are called ‘headmaster’)

However, in the USA I found that equally practical, in the same manner, is the training called ENVoY (Educational Non Verbal Yardsticks) by Michael Grinder https://amzn.to/3STEn52 which again offers guidance to teachers on Classroom Management. This speaks very specifically to the non-verbal communication and the influence of posture and tonal expression in a classroom.

I consider the advice or techniques given by these two authors, while extremely simple to employ, are also very effective. They include where to stand in a class, how to alter the tone of your voice to gain attention from the students. Also how to move around the classroom to convey, almost subliminally, to students, your authority as teacher as you develop your ‘craft’ as an educator.

I consider that if you invest in their guidance above you will certainly be able to being to quickly exercise classroom control, which is the first major goal in your career.

In later posts I would like to share with you how to evaluate your teaching material so that it can best engage the students…. and engaged students offer minimal disruptions and achieve higher grades!

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