Out Of The Box But Still In Control

I absolutely agree with Vicki A. Davis at Cool Cat Teacher who says:

You can be out of the box and still be a good classroom manager.  Don't misunderstand me, a good teacher is somewhat predictable, yes. They can get their classroom back on track in a millisecond. They can hush a student who is toying with the idea of goofing off with a sideways glance out of the corner of their eye. They have predictability and safety in their classroom management.

You can have fun with your students and yet control your classroom at the same time if you have what Jacob Kounin called, “withitness.”  A teacher with “withitness” not only knows exactly what the students are doing in the classroom...the students know that the teacher knows. 

technorati tags: Classroom management Tips for teaching Jacob Kounin Cool Cat Teacher

Comments

[Vicki Davis]

I think the tough think about "withitness" is that it takes so much energy. To truly manage a classroom means that a teacher is engaged during the whole class. There is not really a time that a teacher can do "other things." You hit the nail on the head about the students knowing the teacher knows!

Thank you for reading my article as well and the hyperlink.