By Roseann Krane
Monte Vista High School
Danville, California

Classroom management is the foundation to successful teaching. As a computer instructor, I’ve also found good organization of materials and time management are essential to achieve instructional goals. As most computer teachers find themselves enveloped in maintenance, software, and networking problems, they discover they are short on time for course preparation. The awareness of the need for and development of a management plan is required to give the classroom environment a chance to evolve.

When one of my students wrote an article for the paper describing and honoring teachers who had helped him succeed, he described those with the most impact on students as "enablers."

Further definition might conclude that a key item in the instructor’s repertory of educational tools is to create an atmosphere that allows the student to be exposed to a variety of educational stimuli; thus the "enabler" role.

Here is a list of classroom procedures that have been found to help a classroom run smoothly. The equipment used is Pentium 166 systems and the operating system is NT 4 allowing for multi-tasking. The e-mail and web is handled by a Linux system and the backup file storage system uses Novell.

1) Login to their NT workstation.

2) Load their Web browser and check the calendar on the Web at http://www.krane.net/98-99cal/110198.htm for the daily lecture or assignment. (Students reinforce what they learn during the day by using the Internet to review the lesson from home.)

3) Open their email and check for messages. At times I send them a quiz or just a short tip.

4) Load Visual Studio and their particular compiler depending on the class (C++, J++, or Visual Basic).

The students are allowed five minutes to get all this done. We take roll and problem-solve systems that don't work during this time.

Messages are sent to the students through email and all vocabulary and some homework and class assignments must be emailed. As we have a firewall, students find it beneficial to also maintain an outside account such as Hotmail.com.

All students know to put their assignments into the inbox when the work is due. They are expected to act in a business-like, adult manner during class. We never pass out papers. There is an outbox for each class and the students know to check every few days for returns. 

All students may check their grades at any time by accessing the gradebook program through the Internet. Therefore they are aware of what is recorded and what their grade is at all times.

The gradebook program also allows the teacher to enter tests that the students can take online. The tests are graded by the program and entered automatically. This has been a terrific help and the students love the immediate feedback.

With class sizes of 30 to 35 and four preps, teachers cannot help all students. So we use the "ask three rule." They must ask three other students sitting around them for help before they ask the teacher. Students are encouraged to work in teams, but the team members must rotate -- no more than two to a team on programs and three to a team on major projects. The students get more credit for doing programs individually. They get points for answering questions and participating in class discussions. They lose points if they eat or drink at a computer station, surf the Web, do email, or talk socially during a class discussion or lecture.

Within the daily, planned program of study, the same general structure is used for all class lessons. First, a topic such as looping is explained. Afterwards, while the idea is fresh, the class does a program using the lesson topic. The daily assignment will follow the same topic and objective. We budget one day for lecture/demo, and one to two days for programming. Students do weekly vocabulary lists and homework questions linked to textbook subjects. During lecture/demos they usually have their monitors off until the demo. Then the students turn the monitors on to do the demo program on their system following along as the teacher demonstrates. As I give points for a demo program that they can run successfully, they all participate. Students who do not follow class etiquette or use the computer improperly are restricted from computer use for the day. As we have more students than computers in most classes, this works well because someone else is ready to grab the system.

Advanced students help to manage the classes, give lectures, and visually check off program runs. Students save their programs on the network file server where I may check their codes. Rarely do students print program code or execution.

There is always an extra program available for the students who finish their work quickly. Doing these extra programs helps the students bring up their grade when they have lost points from tests or from missing homework. Most of all the repetition, especially with intense interest, leads to optimum learning. We find some students dislike doing traditional homework assignments but are challenged and interested in computer program work.