Any teacher in any educational setting is responsible for managing what happens in his classroom. Students are there to learn and learning can only take place in a reasonably structured environment. Teachers who have clear expectations, who are firm, fair and consistent, and who provide a positive psychological learning environment are the best classroom managers.
The teacher's first step in fulfilling her responsibility to control her classroom is to develop strong relationships with her students. Teachers must promote appropriate interactions to build a sense of community in the classroom. Teachers also need to gain the respect of the students by modeling appropriate behavior. For example, if a teacher doesn't want students to interrupt or talk when other students are speaking, she should seek to do the same. Similarly, if she doesn't want the students to be late because it interrupts the other students, she herself shouldn't be late.Students tend to follow the rules for a classroom when they respect the teacher. Respect needs to be earned through effective teaching and classroom management.
A teacher is responsible for attempting to prevent discipline problems before they arise. One way of doing so is to clarify expectations from the outset of the course and to reinforce them throughout the course. The school's code of conduct provides a model for these expectations. One exercise teacher's find useful at the start of the course is to ask the students for their input about what they think the code of conduct for the classroom should look like. Students are asked to identify one thing which disrupts their learning. Typically, students identify many of the same things as the teacher, such as treating each other respectfully, turning off cell phones and arriving on time. While the code of conduct can be handed to the students, building it themselves gives them more of a vested interest in its success.
Regardless of all the preventative steps taken by a teacher to prevent discipline problems, they still arise. Students insulting each other, arriving late, texting on their cell phones while others are talking and whispering to each other while others are speaking are routine occurrences in the classroom. Teachers are responsible for immediately dealing with these types of problems so the learning of other students is the least disrupted. The first step is monitoring the classroom for potential problems by keeping students in the line of sight and frowning at minor disruptions. Further disruptions merit speaking to the offending student privately about the matter. Serious disruptions, such as cheating, may require disciplinary action such as ejection for the day or from the course entirely.