Musings from a Not-So-Master Teacher

The following are five easy steps to managing a classroom:

It's blank for a reason.  I don't think there is that magical formula.  There aren't five easy steps.  We don't teach in Hogwarts and we don't have a magic wand to make it all better.  Moreover, I am skeptical of the famous gurus and wizards offering a solution for a nominal conference fee, plus the price of a book. 

I think classroom management is a relationship and all relationships are an art and not a science.  Offering five easy steps to classroom discipline is like offering five easy steps to parenting.  Relationships are messy.  In a classroom, no two kids will respond the same way in the same situation.  That's why it's more like walking a mystery than following a formula: figuring out how to be fair but consistent, strict but supportive, compassionate but just. 

For me, classroom management has been more like learning how to drive a car.  At first, when driving a car, I had to learn some principals and hear some practical advice.  Yet, where I grew was from actually driving with my dad working as a mentor the whole time.  I would constantly over-adjust and I'd get emotional when I messed up. 

The same happened in teaching.  I had some basic ideas of a philosophical framework.  I had some practical ideas.  Yet, my first year, I constantly over-adjusted - swaying from passive to outright mean.  I let kids get away with stuff and then I'd yell at kids who were talking. I got emotional and wondered whether the veterans thought I was any good.  And, like driving, it was my experience that gave me the confidence so that I wasn't constantly over-adjusting.