Teach like a Novice: Lessons from Beginning Teachers: All Teachers Can Add to Their Classroom Management Toolkit by Reflecting on the Lessons They Learned Early in Their Careers

Doug Lemov's Teach Like a Champion (2010) examines the work of teachers whose students have higher than expected test scores--providing valuable insights. Meanwhile, I sit in the back of student teachers' classrooms watching disaster after disaster unfold before me. Here are some vignettes from my supervision notes: * Student has been loudly sharpening his pencil for three minutes; only ended because he ran out of pencil. * Student left the room to go to the bathroom 32 minutes ago. I believe she is hiding under the coat rack in the hall. * Four students are crawling under desks. * Teacher just gave student her third warning before having her move her stoplight to yellow--A WARNING! * Two students are physically fighting in their chairs at the back of the classroom. How is it possible to fight entirely below desk level while seated? I am a professor and student teaching supervisor at a selective liberal arts college. Most of the student teachers I observe are quite successful, so these are not representative, rather illustrative. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In each of these vignettes, my student teachers were earnestly teaching most of their students--not effectively, but earnestly. I wonder how it is possible that preservice teachers who have had four years of practical experiences, numerous education courses, and a course that explicitly addresses classroom management can struggle so mightily with managing a classroom. Yet I am reminded of my first time being videotaped while teaching, and I am humbled. The year was 1995. Picture a room filled with 32 4th-grade students arranged in groups of three or four. I am the earnest teacher at the front of the room teaching a lesson that should have lasted 10-15 minutes, energetically teaching for nearly 45 minutes. Four students are remarkably engaged, but I have no idea what the other 28 students are doing. My cooperating teacher sits in the back of the room, probably cringing as he records the session. When it's over, he requests only that I sit down and watch the video with him. I wonder what sadistic enjoyment he hopes to take from this, but I agree. We sit down after school and put the VHS tape in the VCR. It's not that bad--for the first five minutes. Then, I actually get bored watching myself. Then at about the 28-minute mark, without me noticing, the camera slowly pans to the left side of the room, which should have been in my peripheral vision. A male student was lying with his entire body parallel to the floor on his desk for nearly five minutes, and I was never aware of it until I saw it on video. There is a great divide between experts and novices (National Research Council, 2000). Whether we call it classroom management, facilitating a learning community, or effective instruction, one of the greatest divides between expert and novice teachers is the way in which they direct groups of students. I have learned a great deal from reflecting on my practice over the past 18 years and from watching student teachers struggle and succeed in their classrooms. Our program places student teachers in urban, suburban, rural, and international schools. Classroom management in these diverse contexts tests student teachers' flexibility, skills, and knowledge. The following seven recommendations include techniques, strategies, dispositions, and habits of mind that seem to make my beginning teachers more successful. Based on my experience and what I've observed from veteran teachers, these observations apply for us as well. #1. Maintain a growth mindset. Carol Dweck (2006) writes eloquently about the need for teachers to have a growth mindset when we consider students. A growth mindset allows teachers to see students' potential and does not view intelligence as a fixed entity. One of the best ways we can have a growth mindset as teachers is to have that same mindset with regard to our growth as teachers. …