A teacher is also a manager. Whether you are a new or seasoned teacher, you are expected to hold a class of thirty five students from the minute you close the door to the minute you exit. So what is the secret behind classroom management?

The key is to decide in advance how you want your students to behave in your lessons and make these expectations crystal clear to your students. Teach students the rules and procedures as deliberately and thoroughly as you would teach academic content. Be explicit about desirable behavior. Describe your rules as completely as you can and install your procedures more systematically.

Consistently enforce your rules. During the first week of school and beyond, spend as much time on management issues as you do on academic content.

Remember the two R's: Review and reinforce these management issues.

Inform the students of penalties and under which situations they will be used for. Make sure your students know when, why, and under what circumstances they will be administered. Children love to test the classroom limits!

An effective manager has a proactive approach to managing the classroom. By proactive I mean the plan a teacher has on that important first day of school. Proactive managers greet students at the door, introduce students to each other, have easy review materials for them to work on, and teach the class appropriate procedures for work.

Keep your tasks monitored in a large group setting so that students don't have a chance to be off-task.