Classroom Management for a New School Year

Although I’m no longer there in the CNMI to start the new school year with the PSS teachers and staff, I do think about you all often and would like to repost something I wrote last year around this time to help the new incoming as well as the veteran teachers on classroom management. Though at first glance these tips do not appear to be “classroom management tips”, they are indeed.

I want to share four suggestions from LD Online (called First Year Teacher Essay) that might make for a smooth transition into the school system and to ensure that your school year starts off well.

1. Get to know your students before the first day of school. Ask around. Find out who the previous teachers were. Look over their files, especially if they have an IEP (Individualized Education Plan). What are the things they had trouble with last year and what were they good at?
2. Start building relationships with parents. They can be your best source of information about your student as well as help you help the child at school. By building and maintaining an open line of communication with parents you communicate a message that says, “I care and I’m willing to work together to help your child.”
3. Develop a method to monitor and assess your students. This allows you to pinpoint areas that the child may struggle with. It also gives you feedback about your teaching efficacy. In other words, if you don’t assess and monitor, how will you know whether or not the students are learning anything at all, and if so how much?
4. Find a mentor teacher. This is very important, but one that tends to be pushed aside. Mentors can help answer questions, offer support and encouragement when you need it.

This next one is my own suggestion based upon what I’ve seen and experienced during my time in Saipan.

• Teaching = Friendly Attitude + Acculturation. No where else is this more pronounced than in Saipan and the CNMI. I have seen some very unhappy non-local teachers and I have watched them struggle in their jobs here. My take on the whole thing is that they had a difficult time adjusting to the mindset of the island. As outsiders, we must be careful to balance two dichotomies - that is, helping others vs. imposing our ideologies on them.

In contrast, the successful “outsiders” are the ones who have embraced the island and the way of life here. In order to be effective, you must get to know your students, their families, their background and their struggles and triumphs. For it is only through that perspective can you truly help.

Good luck and have a great school year. Please let me know if I can be of service.