classroom management- 1

What is the value of classroom management in your opinion?

I think it is the most essential part of teaching students.  A teacher can have all the knowledge in the world and give handouts, write on the board, and use the latest technology, but it all comes down to putting the information inside the child head.  The saying “you can lead a horse to water but can’t make him drink” applies to children as well.  How then are we supposed to teach the children in order for them to open their minds to new information?  The answer seems obvious if you have ever taken a college class or been involved in a long work meeting.  The information needs to be interactive and delivered in a way to get the audience’s attention.  The same holds true for children.  If it is fun/interactive and gives them a slight challenge they will be more likely to respond than if they sat through a lecture or book lesson.  I like the comment in Building a Better Teacher where Lemov states that getting students’ attention is a skill, just like playing guitar.
How will it make a difference in learning for your students?
I have recently starting using a mimio smartboard (about a year ago).  It allows teachers to embed lessons and make them interactive.  So instead of saying “who can tell me the answer?” a teacher could ask “who would like to come and show the other students the answer to the problem”.  Most students are very interested in using a large pen to draw on a surface that can easily be drawn on and erased in seconds.  Lessons can be a simple handout to a complex power point presentation that teachers and students can draw on with a stylus through a projector.  Mimio software takes it a step further by integrating games and actions that require the student to reveal the answer.  I found that by grabbing their attention and speaking their language, they wanted to participate.  I didn’t have to coax them into learning; they wanted to learn.  I am trying a blended classroom system this year in which I lecture and the students listen to the information then I actively engage them to show me an example on the smartboard.  I really would like more management techniques.
What do you need to have in place so that you can implement effective Classroom Management?
The time I have with each class is relatively short….about 3o to 45 minutes.  I struggle with getting the class of excited students seated and quiet in order to give them the information they need for that week.  I tried incorporating a warm up drawing in order to grab their attention as soon as they walk into the room.  I still have those certain students who shout out answers or get frustrated with their drawing and make a scene.  I am fortunate enough to have an assistant to help me most of the time.  I do teach classes by myself and find that keeping the noise level down, students on task, and cleaning up their area gives me very little time to say all the things I want to say.  In the article Building a Better Teacher it suggests teaching teachers to know the important, specific items to know in each subject area.  I may find that Michelangelo was the world’s best sculptor and didn’t want to be a painter, but do the students just need to see a picture of the Sistene Chapel and learn that it took him 4 years to accomplish the painting.  I really liked the suggestion of teaching relevance and not pointless curriculum.