Teacher Interview Question: What is your Approach to Classroom Management?

Excerpt from Road to Teaching: A Guide to Teacher Training, Student Teaching and Finding a Job:

Classroom management is important and has many implications for the school administration. First, if you – as a classroom teacher – can create effective classroom management then you have cleared a path to higher and sustained learning. It is nearly impossible to create a learning environment in a classroom that is disrespectful, disorderly, and dysfunctional. Boundaries on behavior and expectations for learning need to be clear to students and consistently enforced. Effective classroom management also translates into less work for the school administration. The teacher that routinely sends students down to the principal and writes a fistful of disciplinary referrals increases workloads and headaches for administrators. Not to mention those “problem” students on their way to the principal’s office are missing out on learning opportunities in the classroom.

Therefore, it is critical that you have a strong response to this question. If you cannot articulate your classroom management plan, then how can you expect to manage a classroom full of students?

In answering this question, think of your broad classroom management philosophy. Follow this up with a personal triumph involving classroom management and then relate this example to your philosophy. For instance, in one interview I explained my belief that relationships, routines, and rigor are critical components of effective classroom management and provided concrete examples of how I incorporate them in daily class work.