Can a teacher be popular with his students and still maintain control of his classroom? “Definitely,” says Dave Foley, an award-winning educator and classroom management coach.
Foley’s expertise is grounded in the 29 years of experience he has teaching English and Social Studies at junior high and middle schools in Cadillac, Michigan. Like all teachers, Foley faced daily behavioral challenges from students. His ability to address these issues through innovative and effective classroom management techniques led to his acclaim as an exceptional educator.
Foley shares the techniques that worked for him in the recently released, second edition of his book Ultimate Classroom Management Handbook. Foley drafted this guide while teaching, hoping to help novice teachers as well as veteran educators who, despite being highly trained and experienced, struggle to run a classroom free of chaos.
In Ultimate Classroom Management Handbook Foley helps teachers better understand the nature of adolescents so that behavior issues can be handled and prevented without sacrificing students’ self-esteem. Through Foley’s guidance, teachers are able to develop a classroom management plan that fosters student cooperation, ensuring class time can be used for instruction rather than discipline.
Realizing that teachers need specific strategies, Foley focuses on what to say and do when dealing with student misbehavior. Here are a few of his keys to successful classroom management:
- Take charge of the classroom when the bell rings. Don’t begin the lesson until everyone is in their seat, attentive and focused on you.
- Have a discipline plan. When disruption or misbehavior occurs, know what you are going to do.
- Prepare a “Plan B.” If students don’t comply with your requests to behave, there must be consequences.
Foley further adds, “To get kids to behave, teachers need to find out what it is that students don’t want to have happen and to make that situation a possibility. Understanding what motivates students can help gain their cooperation.”
Ultimate Classroom Management Handbook is written to offer teachers techniques for dealing with the many problems they will likely encounter in the classroom, plus strategies to boost student achievement. The book is available at major bookstores, Amazon.com and JIST.com. To request a sample copy for review or to interview Foley, please contact Selena Dehne at (651) 215-7548 or sdehne@jist.com.