Grad Student Orientation Classroom Management & Communication

Introduction

Classroom Management

Introduction

Communication with Students

Introduction

Practical Scenerios


1st Principles

Classroom Management 1st Principles

You gain and maintain your control through:


• Your reputation for effort, flexibility, and availability.




• Your reputation for honesty, interest and fairness.





• Your knowledge of the content.






• Keeping the students focused and wanting to learn.






• Keeping the students focused and wanting to learn.

• Responding calmly, directly and fairly to challenges to your authority.


Your Tools

Classroom Management Tools

Your Tools: Organization and Preparation



• Have a Plan



• Have a Plan

• Have a Plan B



• Have a Plan

• Have a Plan B

• But be flexible enough to respond in the moment

Your Tools: Clarity


• Be clear about expectations and assessments

Your Tools: Clarity


• Be clear about expectations and assessments

• Explain the reasoning behind your pedagogic choices

Your Tools: Clarity


Your Tools: Enthusiasm & Energy


• Care about your Material




• Help students to understand why they should care




• Help students to understand why they should care

• Make your classroom as

dynamic as possible: Use of daily energizers, discussion questions, and activities



Your Tools: Refocus and Redirect


• A dynamic, participatory learning environment means that you give up some control. Students can ramble, sharpshoot, and respond in expected ways.



• A dynamic, participatory learning environment means that you give up some control. Students can ramble, sharpshoot, and respond in expected ways.

• Have a clear idea of your goals and the “takeaway” for each class period and be prepared to steer conversations back to the topic at hand.



Your Tools: Responsiveness & Attentiveness


• When you notice unproductive behavior, nip it in the bud. Otherwise, you send a clear message to the students that it's OK for them to talk, skip, sleep, use their cell, leave early, etc.



• When you notice unproductive behavior, nip it in the bud. Otherwise, you send a clear message to the students that it's OK for them to talk, skip, sleep, use their cell, leave early, etc.

• If you ignore, it will NOT just go away. Have a ready response for all of the above (they WILL happen) so you do not act in the moment with irritation.



Your Tools: Personalize Interactions


• Learn and use names; call on students




• Make eye contact




• Make eye contact

• Treat students with respect; avoid patronizing; do not shame or embarrass



Your Tools: Depersonalize Conflict & Contention


• You are in no position to judge your students. We witness and assess only a very small subset of their actions.

• Do not label or assume.

• Stick to the facts of their performance.



• You do not need to be right. Allow students to “save face” (this does not necessarily mean not challenging their excuses, however)



• Remain poised, calm and even detached if necessary.

• Use classroom management techniques before you become irritated, impatient or upset. We are much more powerful when we are centered, when we like our students, and when we view our students with fondness rather than impatience.



• If, by chance, you feel that you have spoken sharply in an attempt to manage your students, own up to it.



• Even if you disagree or don’t particularly like some theorist, Demonstrate a level of scholarly respect regardless of subject matter.



Your Tools: Be Fair


Your Tools: Be Fair


• Extra credit or make-up work (if you use) should be an option for all or none, not arranged case-by-case.

Your Tools: Be Fair


• Extra credit or make-up work (if you use) should be an option for all or none, not arranged case-by-case.

• Don’t play favorites with your attention. It’s easy to pay more attention to talented, outgoing and/or needy students. They will succeed with or without us. It’s the average and unexceptional students who need us the most.

Your Tools: Stay Sane




• Have reasonable expectations both for workload and student performance.



• Have reasonable expectations both for workload and student performance.

• “In a class of 20 only a handful are at a place in their lives to really understand what you have to offer. The key to good teaching is to not allow yourself think that you know who those few students are.”

Communication with Students

Communication

Lecture Format

• Get students attention with a provocative question or image

Communication in the Classroom

Lecture Format


• Convey your enthusiasm for the material.


Lecture Format


• Convey your enthusiasm for the material.

• Speak loudly and clearly.


Lecture Format

• Anticipate, present, and review. Make the organization of the lecture explicit.


Lecture Format


• Tell them what you are going to tell them.


Lecture Format



• Tell it to them.


Lecture Format



• Tell it to them.

• Tell them what you just told them.


Lecture Format

• Take advantage of visual media. Juxtapose images with ideas or other images.


Lecture Format


• Visually illustrate concepts.

Use text judiciously.


Lecture Format


• Visually illustrate concepts.

Use text judiciously.

• Use your knowledge to present new information to blend with text information. Create something students could not have learned by reading the book.


Lecture Format

• Use your visuals as your outline. Do not read your presentation.


Lecture Format


• Interact with your audience. Solicit questions or responses & move among them if possible


Lecture Format


• Interact with your audience. Solicit questions or responses & move among them if possible

• Vary pacing and format.


Seminar Format

If you are able, change seating arrangements to a circle and require students to use one another’s names when addressing comments. This enhances a sense of shared responsibility and respect.


Collaborative Learning

Use group projects with a clear set of multiple deadlines for each phase of the project.

Get students working together and learning as a cohesive group.

Assign students to “Research Teams.” Let them devise interesting and related nick-names for each group.


Electronic• Canvas

Use It. Decide on one type of assignment turn-in. Stick to it.

• FacebookUseful for some kinds of group projects that involve multiple media & student access.

• EmailIf BGSU is not their main account, they need to link.

Communication Outside the Classroom

Email

• Let them know your preferred standard of address.

• Etiquette: • Complete Sentences

• Include Course and Section

• Do not feel obliged to respond in the moment.

• Establish Boundaries


Face to Face

• Do not meet alone with students outside of class unless you are in a public space.

• If you need more privacy use

an office with the door open.

• If you perceive the potential for a hostile meeting get a fellow student or faculty member to simply sit in the office with you.


Privacy Considerations

• You cannot discuss student grades with outside parties including students’ parents unless you have express permission (other faculty are okay if it is germane to educational considerations). This violates FERPA.

• Do not discuss grades via email (official BGSU email is okay but still a bad idea)

• You may NOT ask for doctors’ notes or excuses. This violates HIPAA.


Grades are Communication

• Assessment doesn’t happen after teaching—it IS teaching.

• What and how you assess communicates very powerfully to students.

• Assessments need to be timely.

• The purpose of assessment is to improve student learning (not reward or punishment.)

• All assessment is formative if students care.

Communication and Assessment

• Grades should be the beginning of a conversation, not the end of one.

• If students don’t understand their grade, they don’t understand the material.

• Dare to invite challenge.



Institute “Reflection Time.” Don’t discuss grades for 24 hours. Then have them make an appointment and SEE you to discuss their grade.

The burden of proof for a change is on the student to demonstrate their knowledge of the material.



• Do not be baited by their excuses or challenges. If they “need” a grade then they need to master the material.

• You are not judging their effort or aptitude or values. Treat grades as formative. Stay focused on the material.

• Do not label or assume.

• Stick to the facts of their performance.



Practical ScenariosPractical Scenarios

• raising your voice

• insisting on having the last word

• using tense body language, rigid posture or clenched hands

• using degrading, insulting, humiliating, or embarrassing put-downs

• using sarcasm

• attacking the student’s character

Practical Scenarios

Unsuccessful Responses to Negative Student Behaviors

• acting superior

• drawing unrelated persons into the conflict

• having a double standard

• insisting that you are right

• preaching

• making assumptions

• backing the student into a corner

• pleading or bribing

Practical Scenarios


• bringing up unrelated events

• generalizing about students

• making unsubstantiated accusations

• holding a grudge

• nagging

• throwing a temper tantrum

• mimicking the student

• making comparisons with other students

Practical Scenarios


BEHAVIOR: Rambling -- wandering around and off the subject. Using far-fetched examples or analogies

Practical Scenarios

POSSIBLE RESPONSES:

BEHAVIOR: Shyness or Silence -- lack of participation.

Practical Scenarios

POSSIBLE RESPONSES:

BEHAVIOR: Talkativeness -- knowing everything, manipulation, chronic whining.

Practical Scenarios

POSSIBLE RESPONSES:

BEHAVIOR: Sharpshooting -- trying to shoot you down or trip you up.

Practical Scenarios

POSSIBLE RESPONSES:

BEHAVIOR: Griping -- maybe legitimate complaining.

Practical Scenarios

POSSIBLE RESPONSES:

BEHAVIOR: Complaining about or critiquing the primary instructor of the course or their grading.

Practical Scenarios

POSSIBLE RESPONSES:

The Takeaway


• Be fair, flexible, prepared and available.

• Keep the students focused and wanting to learn.

• Respond calmly, directly and fairly to challenges to your authority.

The Takeaway

Communication

• Anticipate, present, and review. Make the organization of lectures explicit.

• Interact with your audience. Solicit questions or responses & move among them if possible.

• Vary pacing and format.

The Takeaway

Communication

• Assessment doesn’t happen after teaching—it IS teaching.

• Grades should be the beginning of a conversation, not the end of one.

• Invite challenge. University is about conversation and inquiry, NOT facts and grades

Education

Grad Student Orientation Classroom Management & Communication