Classroom Management - Can you be fired for poor behavior?

 Hi Everyone!   This post falls under the category of "there must be information missing."

This article from the Orlando Sentinel discusses a teacher getting fired when a young lady acted inappropriately. It seems that the layout of the classroom made it difficult to see all students at one time. Check it out and think about the importance of always monitoring your students!

HS Classroom Management Student Project

Fantastic!  Looks like a group of going-to-be-teachers created a "proactive" video that brilliantly shows power struggles between high school teachers and students.

Maybe the next project will demonstrate the solutions they describe (like we do in our DVD) but this is a great start!  Kudos to the teacher who assigned the project and to the students for doing such a nice job!

Behavior Management in Challenge Based Learning

 Well - it was an interesting week and my laptop is not the better for it.  But, since life goes on - I have to talk about an interesting Apple seminar I attended.

The program, Preparing Students for Career Success (K12) concentrated on the technology that folks in creative industries (film and photography) use on a daily basis.

What I found even more interesting, from an educator's point of view, was Apple's Challenge Based Learning site.  I think you can figure out we are talking about students researching, analyzing and solving challenges the way adults do in the workplace.

So - how do teachers move from the "sage on the stage" to the guide who learns along the way?  Almost more importantly, how do teachers learn to manage classrooms where students are interacting, learning at their own pace and seeing the teacher as a resource more than the expert?

My answer - it does not matter one bit what the content of your class is in terms of management.  You set the general guidelines, you establish proper behavior protocols and you model professional behavior.  Students want boundaries and you will have to reinforce fewer of them the more engaged your students become.