Managing Life in Classrooms by Rogelio G. Dela Cruz (November, 2004)

All teachers have the concerns regarding the quality of life in classroom settings. All teachers and students want to feel safe and accepted when they are in school. There exists today a reliable, effective knowledge based on classroom management and the prevention of disorder in schools. This knowledge base has been developed from hundreds of studies of teacher/students interaction and student/student interaction which have been conducted in schools in almost every part of the country. We speak of managing life in classrooms because we now know that there are many factors that go into building effective teacher/student and student/student relationships.

The traditional term "discipline" is too narrow and refers primarily to teachers' reactions to undesired student behavior. We can better understand methods of managing student behavior when we look at the totality of what goes on in side the classrooms, with teacher responses to student's behavior as a part of that totality. Teachers have a tremendous responsibility for the emotional climate that is set in a classroom whether students feel secure and safe and whether they want to learn. These depend to in enormous extent on the psychological frame of mind of the teacher. Teachers must be able to manage themselves first in order to manage effectively the development of a humane and caring classroom environment.

Teachers bear moral and ethical responsibility for modeling a responsible social behavior in the classroom. There are many models of observing life in classrooms. Arrangement of the total physical environment of the rooms is a very important part of the teacher's planning for learning activities. Teachers need to expect the best work and behavior that students are capable of achieving. Respect and care are attitudes that a teacher must communicate to be received them in return. Open lines of communication between teachers and students enhance the possibility for congenial, fair dialogical resolution of the problems that would occur.

Developing a high level of task orientation among students and encouraging cooperative learning and shared task achievement will foster camaraderie and self-confidence among students. Shared decision making will build an esprit de corps, a sense of pride and confidence, which would result into a high-quality performance. Good class morale, well managed, never hurts academic achievements. The importance of emphasizing quality, helping students to achieve levels of performance they can feel proud of having attained, and encouraging positive dialogue among them leads them to take ownership in their individual educative efforts. When these happens, they would literally empower themselves to do their best.

When teachers discuss what concerns them about their roles in the classroom, the issue of discipline, how to manage student behavior, will usually rank near or at the top of their lists. A teacher needs a clear understanding of what kind of learning environments are most appropriate for the subject matter and ages of the students. Any person who wants to teach must also want his or her students to learn well, to acquire basic values of respect for others and to become more effective citizens.

There is considerable debate among educators regarding certain approaches used in schools to achieve a form of order in classrooms that also develops respect for self and others. The dialogue about this issue is spirited and informative. The bottom line for any effective and humane approach to discipline in the classroom, the necessary starting point is the teacher's emotional balance and capacity for self-control. This precondition creates a further one -which the teacher wants to be in the classroom with his or her students in the first place. Unmotivated teachers cannot motivate students.

Helping young people learn the skills of self-control and motivation to become productive, contributing, and knowledgeable adult participants in society is one of the most important tasks that good teachers undertake. These are teachable and learnable skills, they do not relate to heredity or social conditions. They can be learned by any human being that wants to learn these and who is cognitively able to learn them. There is a large knowledge based on how teachers can help students learns self-control. All that is required is the willingness of teachers to learn these skills themselves and to teach them to their students. No topic is more fundamentally related to any thorough examination of the social and cultural foundations of education. There are many sound techniques that new teachers can use to achieve success in managing students' classroom behavior, and they should not be afraid to ask colleagues questions and to develop peer support groups with whom they can work with confidence and trust.