NUO Conference: Classroom Management for New Teachers Workshop

On day one of the 2024 Teacher Education Conference, I attended a workshop entitled Classroom Management for New Teachers, presented by John Masciarelli. In this workshop, I learned the importance and significance of effective and practical classroom management to navigate the demands and unpredictability of the classroom environment and as an opportunity to support students' presence and learning in the classroom. More specifically, the activities, discussions, and strategies presented gave concrete examples that helped me better understand how effective classroom management strategies lie at the heart of healthy, respectful, safe, and encouraging relationships with students and set the tone for meaningful engagement and learning in the classroom. 

This workshop was impactful and meaningful as it demonstrated and simplified how to find opportunities to reward and praise students' behavior, foster learning opportunities to support students in recognizing the importance of good behavior through positive and fair modeling, repetition, reminders, correction, and communication, and the impact of establishing, affirming and reinforcing classroom norms, both positive and negative. As a future teacher, I found classroom management overwhelming and daunting; however, this workshop highlighted the basic, daily, and practical approaches to building respectful classroom communities where students can thrive, have fun, be included, and be motivated to be their best version of themselves. In that way, it is evident that effective classroom management, which blends and maintains the classroom's emotional, instructional, and social elements, is essential to a productive learning climate and the cornerstone of student success. 

                                 

This workshop, Classroom Management for New Teachers, highlighted the importance of the OCT Standard of Commitment to Students and Student Learning, which states that: 

"Members are dedicated in their care and commitment to students. They treat students equitably and with respect and are sensitive to factors that influence individual student learning. Members facilitate the development of students as contributing citizens of Canadian society"

This workshop has reinforced this OCT standard as it has emphasized that by getting to know students and their experiences, teachers gather the necessary information to better understand how these experiences affect student behavior and learning and are better prepared, responsive, and equitable in their classroom management approaches, as discussed in the workshop.

Finally, I will apply what I learned from this workshop to my future teaching by leading with the notion presented in the workshop that classroom management is a critical tool for helping students understand that it is good to do good. By engaging students in recognizing the extrinsic and intrinsic rewards of good behavior, both in and outside of the classroom, in the present and future, I will, as a teacher, in turn, encourage my students to be excellent and respectful individuals in their classroom, communities, and the world.

EDU491-GraceD@NUO