When a teacher establishes procedures, like having children raise their hands when they want to speak, is a type of classroom management techniques.  Classroom management is a term used by teachers to describe the process of ensuring that classroom lessons run smoothly despite the disruptive behavior of students.              The term also implies the prevention of disruptive behavior.  It is possibly the most difficult aspect of teaching for many novice teachers, indeed experiencing problems in this area causes some to leave teaching.  Several research claim that 36% of teachers said they would probably not go into teaching if they had to decide again. A major reason was “negative student attitudes and discipline”.

            One of the remedies that a new teacher can resort to, is seek the help of experienced teachers in the organization where they belong. This is called Mentoring.  The mentor is the teacher who assists a new teacher in terms of curriculum, discipline and in all other aspects of teaching, while the mentee is the teacher being helped or assisted. The mentor can help the mentee in many ways.  He/she can act as an Observer took the time to listen. He will make a neophyte to be better by frequently observing classes and discussing with the beginning teachers what went well and what they could change. All the while, the mentee should never intimidate or threaten new teachers.. They should listen intently to new teachers’ frustrations. A new teacher could always tell if he was really listening, not just hearing.

“Unfortunately, other mentors, the receiver of the message, in most interactions with people, is not really a listener but a hearer,” “They hear the sounds, but they don’t take the time to really understand what’s being sent. It’s more than just the words; it’s the feeling behind the words. There’s the body language that might be involved, all those kinds of things.”

            Mentors must certainly picked up on the new teacher’s body language, and they must discuss feedbacks to the mentees. A mentee should find a way to be honest and helpful, never hurtful or insensitive. They must also feel great comfort in knowing that the mentor empathized with his/her difficulties, and mentors reminded mentees that when he was a new teacher, he experienced similar challenges.

            To help build mentees’ confidence, a mentor, who, as much as anybody else, should instill in mentees’ mind a healthy sense of confidence.  Mentors must also invest countless hours with mentees reviewing lesson plans and suggesting ways to think about more effective assessment. Certainly tremendous sense of security will be inculcated to mentees by way of receiving reassurance from remarkably gifted and experienced educator.

             Mentees who found these kind of mentors are very fortunate, what they did was such a great job that, eventually, mentees will no longer need to rely on them as much.  The mentor-mentee relationship can be equated  with the old saying of ‘give someone a fish if they’re hungry to feed them for a day, but teach them to fish, and they can feed themselves for life,’”

            Portner says. “This is really what a mentor,s  purpose if they are mentoring someone- to eventually stop mentoring them, in a sense, because they’ve become self-sufficient. In other words, they develop a capacity, and competence, to make their own informed decisions.”

                Finally, Classroom management will no longer be so crucial for beginning teachers,

through the help of a mentor and the good attitude of the mentee.

 

Reference:

Postner, H.. Mentoring New Teachers Palmer Trinity H.S. January, 2014, 

By: Sheryl Cruz | T-I | BATAAN NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL City of Balanga