31/100 I wish I’d bought this book years ago

I’m slowly reading through “Classroom Management for Art, Music and PE Teachers” by Michael Linsin. I’ve downloaded it onto my Kindle for £4.95, but you can also buy it as a paperback.

I found the book through his website, www.smartclassroommanagement.com, which I follow. If I’d read the book at the beginning of my class teaching career, it would have saved me a lot of angst (and the children would have had better lessons too!).

Most of the behaviour management books I have read (not that many, to be honest) are aimed at class teachers or secondary school teachers. This one is totally for peri specialists like myself – seeing each class for just 45 minutes of high-activity, high-energy, teaching per week.

He talks about the importance of setting your own routines, fixing them in place, so that you can hopefully establish your own expectations and requirements for behaviour, listening, following instructions, regardless of what may be the norm in their own classroom. And then – this is the good part – he clearly explains how to go about this process.

I think my problem in the past has been to be too anxious to get on with teaching MUSIC before I have taught BEHAVIOUR. There is this expectation that lessons should be “fun” and “full of relevant activity”. Actually, this is not really feasible until the children are in the habit of being in a teachable frame of mind.

So, expect to hear more – and I’ll let you know how it goes.

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