Classroom Management: The First Step to Effective Teaching

by Johnny Coogan M.Ed.

Teaching is a vocation so many profess to be life changing, yet too many teachers quit within the first five years. Why is it that teachers don’t stay in the profession? It’s classroom management. Honestly, few new teachers acquire classes with the best students, it’s usually the opposite. So, if a new teacher can’t control his or her classroom, how can they teach?

If you look at all the top teachers at any school they have one thing in common—they are great classroom managers. This book will help you manage your classroom so you can make a difference and feel like you’re enriching the lives of your students. It explains how real students respond to lessons, not the perfect students in teaching textbooks. Few books outlining classroom management clarify how to handle students when lessons don’t go as planned, but Johnny will help you stop the problems before they happen, or minimize the explosive behavior. His system of creating a wolf pack will transform your class into a thriving learning environment.

Johnny Coogan wrote his Master’s thesis on new teacher support and he’s a mentor for new teachers at his school site. Since 2000, he’s taught many subjects at the high school English, health, 9th grade academy for troubled students, and AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination). This book is the cornerstone as to why he still loves it after all these years. He’ll explain how teaching a classroom starts with management, no matter what subject you teach.

64 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 2, 2015

Reviews

[Jacquelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

While some chapters were underdeveloped in my opinion with a lack of the examples/specific advice I'd grown accustomed to receiving in other chapters, Coogan thoroughly grabbed my attention with his humor and relatable/conversational writing style. Once again, I received validation on my philosophy and desired approach, but I recognized where the application of my desired approach to classroom management is failing. Without calling me out, Coogan essentially called me out, letting me know that the problems I am having with certain students (or even whole classes) is a mixture of certain events that I did not handle the proper way and so all of the work that I put in to developing relationships with my kids have crumbled in many ways due to some missteps of my own.

This was an excellent work to start making tweaks to my approach in class that I'm hoping will make for a calmer and more effective instructional space.

[Noeliaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really helpful guide for beginners. I really liked the "wolf pack" metaphor and how to know when to choose your battles.

[Johnny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a teacher, and he had the same name as me, so I decided to see what he had to say. He gave some specific ideas on how to teach a classroom. I thought it was helpful, so I added some of his techniques to my own classroom. Most worked.

I loved that he used examples from specific students who did specific things in his class, that I've had happen in my class, and he gave me a different perspective to see how I should deal with students.