Authority in the classroom

The following are a few ways on how a teacher can gain and maintain authoirty in their classroom.  I say a few because there are so many aspects that could be covered in this area. 

Ever hear of “you only get one first impression”?  Well, it applies in the teaching world also.  A teacher’s authority in the classroom starts the first day, when you, the teacher and students first meet.  On that first day, the students formulate their own impressions of the teacher.  This is why as a teacher, you need to establish a set of classroom rules to guide the behavior of students.  You need to discuss these rules with the students to ensure they understand and see the need for each rule. Keep the list of rules short and to the point.  If it’s too long of a list, you may seem overly malicious and lose face with some of the students. 

When discipline is needed, a good teacher needs to know what the school expects from both the students and the teacher.  Who would respect a police officer that had no clue what stop lights were and how they might properly work?  The same principle works in classroom enviroments. 

Along the same thinking line, a teacher needs to maintain consistency when dealing with rules and punishment.  If you give Jack a time out for doing something and Jill a walk to the principal’s office for doing the exact same thing, you create issues.  These issues can lead to a drop in respect by not only the parties involved, but also the entire class.  Being firm and consistent to provide your students with a fair and safe envrionment will assist a teacher with maintaining authority in the classroom. 

Little things like learning the student’s names can be handy for you as a teacher.  Besides being your job to learn their names, it has other useful effects.  Has your mom ever call you by your full name, including your middle name?  My guess is that she did and you knew you were in trouble for something.  This has some what of the same effect on students, but only using their first names.  It allows you to personalize situations and works alot better then “hey you, stop”. 

Authority is gained by respect.  Respect starts with you and your self respect.  If you enter the class room smelling of booze, in the same clothes you wore last friday, eventhough its monday, slurring your words and making a complete fool of yourself, you have a pretty good chance at losing respect by all your students.  You dont have to go to these extremes to loose respect from your students.  It helps students in the long run to have good role models.  Teachers need to remember that they are role models and that the students will be looking up to them. 

RESPECT!

-

Hopkins, Gary. “Education World ® Lesson Planning: Some R-E-S-P-E-C-T (Lessons) Just for You!.” Education-world.com 09JAN04 . 3 Nov 2009 http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson329.shtml.

Hopkins, Gary. “Education World ® Lesson Planning: School Rules! Ten Activities for Establishing Classroom Rules.” Educationworld.com 02AUG2002 . 3 Nov 2009 http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson274.shtml.

Streich, Michael. “Classroom Management Tips: Mutual Respect and Professionalism Begin a Successful Year | Suite101.com.” Classroom-management-tips.suite101.com 22JAN09 . 3 Nov 2009 http://classroom-management-tips.suite101.com/article.cfm/classroom_management_tips.

Jackson, Mick. “Classroom Respect, Behavior & Learning.” Ezinearticles.com 24JAN08 . 3 Nov 2009 <http://ezinearticles.com/?Classroom-Respect,-Behavior-and-Learning&id=946574>.