THE INGENUITY OF CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT IN THE KINGDOM OF TEACHING

Managing a situation is often defined as a way to handle an interaction in a variety of circumstances in

terms of leading, organizing, guiding, overseeing and inspiring. In a classroom setting, the teacher
becomes the manager who would manage a teaching environment in a way that students find an inner
pleasure in learning while interacting and blossoming. Now, the concept of learning in a classroom
setting involves many factors and not only the assigned curriculum. In fact, beside the content, learning
is likely to include how to carry oneself within an environment like respecting oneself and respecting
others, listening to others and be listened to, debating issues and solving them intelligently.

However, in a classroom full of students subjected to a constant physical and mental development,
anything can happen. Hence, the teacher as the classroom manager is there to create a balance where
everyone can feel safe and important bringing their share of experience and taking their share of
learning to grow more confident. Such ingenuity can only be found in teachers who understand deeply
the mission of teaching. Plus, If teachers throughout planning would succeed in envisioning the
environment where they teach, they can cleverly avoid major problems generated within that same
environment.

Still, the fact that today's students are so different in the way they think, learn, like, dislike and perceive
things in life, bringing them together as one to respect each other and follow the setting that was
planned by the teacher can be very challenging . Consequently, teachers need a lot of understanding
mixed with diversity in their teaching approach to touch and reach everyone in the classroom in order to
keep them at least fairly satisfied. It is imperative that teachers understand that the concept of diversity
should be exemplified in terms of students engagement while sharing with them the responsibility of the
classroom. Oftentimes, when teachers make students feel important about themselves within the
classroom environment through appreciation, respect and consideration, they tend to behave
responsibly towards one another and very often follow the rules, which makes the task of management
less stressful for the teacher.

No matter what we can say about students, teachers remain the sole responsible in charge of setting the
rules and the mood in managing the teaching environment. As a result, teachers’ attitude towards
students and the subject area they teach is crucial to the success of classroom management. In fact, the
relationship of teaching and classroom management is so intertwined and interweaved that neither can
survive without the support of the other because teachers are not only in charge of teaching the
students but also protecting them and inspiring them positively while helping them discover themselves
and their environment.

As a matter of fact, teachers can inspire more trust when they show their abilities in managing the
classroom in terms of organization, structure and work coordination involving their students intelligently
throughout the process. Furthermore, teachers earn more respect and admiration when they are fair,
pragmatic and empathetic in their teaching environment. Indeed, they are frequently viewed with
veneration when they show self-confidence, common sense and wisdom in handling students day-to-day
issues. Consider this: If a teacher has 40 students in the classroom, 39 of them are fond of the subject in
average and are fairly respectful to the teacher while only one is off and on in a bad mood allowing
himself to misbehave at any given time. The 39 students would want that one student to stop and let
them learn. So far, the 39 students are 100% with the teacher admiring silently his patience,
understanding and rationality while wishing that teacher can find a genius way to stop him.

However, if the teacher handles the misbehaved student the wrong way by either yelling, saying the
wrong word or humiliating the student in any way, teacher will instantly lose the support of the rest of
the students because in this situation, students often sympathize with their peer. Teacher ends up the
enemy number one of every student in that classroom. If such scenario repeats itself in the classroom
with the same or a different student, the teacher will drown himself in more trouble with every student
in days ahead. To avoid falling in such trap, it is imperative that teachers would equip themselves with
patience and approaches that would allow them to defuse any conflict intelligently like creating a
reflection corner in the classroom where a student can sit and reflect on the issue in writing. Also,
inviting students to step outside the room to breathe some fresh air, get some water or stretch their legs
for a minute or two would decrease tension and anger. The teacher should work on defusing and not
escalating the situation.The teacher wants to win the students and not lose them. Actually, when
teachers win students on their side, that's a successful move in classroom management and worth a
lifetime lesson in education. However, when students are ignored, belittled, neglected or embarrassed ,
the opposite is likely to happen.

Also, another critical reason that classroom management may fail with the majority of teachers is the
lack of quality teaching. Indeed, when students don’t feel excited about learning, they often shut down
in many ways. If it is repeated with every teacher, students may lose all taste of learning. Now, while few
students may behave and abide by the rules, other students turn to troublemakers from passive to active
to aggressive. The teacher has to stay alert and question oneself about the reasons of such misbehavior
because the success of classroom management is mostly related to the quality and diversity of the
lesson including the activities that students may work on. When teachers plan for students to be
engaged individually, in pairs and in groups, that include the four skills, this will create a balance within
the flow of the lesson and eventually students won't feel bored doing the same thing nor have the time
to make trouble.

If the lesson involve sitting, walking, standing, thinking , writing, touching, observing, questioning ,
talking to a peer,a group or a whole class and eventually producing something, teacher would have
created a learning environment where everyone has an opportunity to mingle . How the lesson starts
and unfolds itself through a process that would provide meaning to teaching and learning remains
crucial to the success of the lesson along with the management of the classroom. Any downtime or gap
in the lesson would create an opportunity for students to get distracted unless the gap is a part of the
lesson.

As a final point, I must say that classroom management ingenuity resides in the way teachers project
themselves in the classroom as passionate, assertive and confident people who care not only about
teaching but also about the success and the welfare of their students . Smart teachers, teach and pay
attention to any change in the behavior of students to adjust their teaching in order to meet their
students needs and not the other way around. Teachers who believe that teaching is a world where
learning never ends will always remain creative in the way they teach and manage their classroom.

Yazid Rabahi M.ED.