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Comment by Sarah willits on March 4, 2011 at 9:02pm

my daughter has a lovely grade one teacher - she is quite elderly but so enthusiastic and caring - she believes in a positive classroom and has nothing but lovely interactions with our daughter and family. I wish she was my teacher!

Comment by Linda Gudzinski on March 23, 2010 at 9:04pm

Stronge definitely sums it up well hey!! I have not taught for a while and am doing a course to keep my qualifications updated. One unit I am studying at the moment is Classroom Behaviour Management.

The textbook is fantastic! Based on a democratic classroom, it is very well researched and so far, many useful examples! Title: Authentc Classroom Management: Creating a Learning Community and Building Reflective Practise by Barbara Larrivee

On the subject of, "your favourite teacher" mentioned by Tracey, I actually conducted a little survey for my assignment on that very subject!!!!

40 people responded. age 13-60. Most people were 30-40yrs old. My main findings were:

37 people listed teachers with qualities of a democratic classroom. The way the teacher was described were using words such as:- (took an interest, always approachable, encouraged us, caring, kind, supportive, respectful, fair, just, understanding, good listener, expected respect and gave respect, interesting real stories, trustworthy, understood our needs, was prepared to explain things in detail with us, each child felt unique.

17 people (just under half) listed qualities where the teacher was calm and controlled. Such words used included:- didn't yell, down to earth, quiet, laid back, patient, relaxed, even-tempered, calm, controlled, gentle

19 people (nearly half) listed a sense of humour and fun. Words used were: made me smile, fun, sense of humour, played games, made us laugh, cheeky, made lessons fun, playful.

14 people (one-third) listed that qualities relating to the teacher's attitude: words such as:- teacher loved their job, loved teaching, passionate, inspiring, always smiling, great laugh, positive, friendly, charismatic, enthusiastic, happy

9 people (just under a third) mentioned qualities of the teacher's control of the class. The words used indicated that the teacher was a leader not a dictator. It was interesting to note that everyone of these 9 people listed democratic qualities in their teacher as well. Words such as:- leader, commanded the class like a leader, firm, in-control of the class, set boundaries (we knew when to learn, and when to have fun)

While this is not an extensive survey, the results were very interesting. I would love to see results from 100 to 500 people.

Note that that often more than 2 of the qualities I pin-pointed were found in the one teacher.

As a sum up of the survey: a kind,caring supportive, patient, calm, even-tempered teacher who has a passion and is cheerful and has fun with the class while still setting boundaries and expectations could be the magic ingredients to a teacher.

As a result of my assignment I concluded that clear rules, clear routine procedures (eg lining up, entering the class), clear consequences, coupled with a genuine and authentic caring approach were the two main basic preventative teaching strategies to managing the classroom. The assignment didn't lend itself to talking about humour, but I definitely thing that's key as well!!!