Classroom Management Tips: Before the First Day of School
How to Organize Your Space and Time
and Still Drink Lots of Coffee and Work Out
Renee Cargerman Dolezal, PhD, 1992 Golden Apple Award Winner
As a Speech and Drama teacher, Renee quickly learned that organizing space and time was crucial for teaching. Putting on plays and musicals with large casts and bands at Dunbar High School, organizing a debate team, and moving from ¾” Film to VHS to digital media are activities that forced Renee to hone her organizational skills. This month’s Free Resource is the lecture that Renee adapts to mentor talented new teachers at Northwestern University, UIC /Chicago, and in Golden Apple’s Scholar program.
These tips encourage differentiated instruction and how to develop an effective classroom climate. Renee’s expertise is teaching urban students in Chicago. She offers practical explanations of how to juggle space and time while meeting a teacher’s personal needs.
Administrators and educators can use the attached 6-page document in professional development conversations, especially prior to the start of school. The tone of the document is candid and teacher-friendly. Renee has used the content with teachers of all grades and subjects. Ask small groups to present: What goes where and why?
Renee Cargerman Dolezal, PhD was chairperson of the English department at Arts of Living, a Chicago Public Alternative School for pregnant teens, where she and her students developed the Baby Lit program and an award-winning cable TV series, Teen Moms Only. She earned her doctorate in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, has been the producer of an Emmy award-winning film, and supports plays and the arts in Chicago. Renee served as Director of the Golden Apple Teacher Education (GATE) program in 2008, and is the originator and Editor of Golden Apple Academy Online Resources.
Renee is currently a writer and Lecturer and Program Administrator at the University of Illinois, Chicago, in the English Education department, where she oversees English Ed student teacher placement.
Download PDF: Classroom Management: Space, Time, and You >
The art of Classroom Management is juggling space and time so that you and each of your unique students thrive. Assess each person’s emotional, social, physical, artistic as well as cognitive needs. Perceive and prepare for needs before your students walk through the door.