Monitoring Student Behavior and Academic Success

Monitoring student behavior and academic success is one of the most important things a teacher can do to insure that "no child is left behind." A teacher cannot know how his or her students are doing without interacting with them individually on a regular basis. Here are some tips teachers can use to monitor student behavior.

1.) Move around the classroom. This may sound obvious, but many teachers do not do this, they have a few areas of the classroom where they prefer to stand and they stick to those areas. The problem is mostly with classroom layout. If all the students are not easy to get to, desks are too close together, or backpacks are cluttering the aisle way, students become hard to monitor. Make sure that the students place their book bags under their desks and that all students are easy to see.

2.) Drop off notes to students. Always carry a notepad or set of post-it notes with you on a clipboard. As you walk around the classroom, write notes to your students. These notes could be notes of praise or notes to remind students to stay on task.

3.) Carry a class list with a comment section. Mark off who you talk to and help as you walk around the room. This allows you to see if you are concentrating on a few students in the class. Try to see all students in a given week. If a student has a particular difficulty, mark it in the comment section. Secondary teachers can see upwards of 150 students in a day. The comment section helps in reminding in which areas a student may need remediation.

4.) If students need assistance, do not have them form a line at your desk. The students in the line may distract others sitting at their desks. Other options would be to have students place a card on their desks that indicates they need assistance, writing their names on the board in a list to indicate who needs help, or have the students "take a number."

5.) Give yourself a time limit with each student. Often, we find students that need more help than we can give them within the class period. Give yourself a time limit with each student; therefore, you are able to see more students a class period. The students that are having more trouble can see you before or after school or during a recess period.

By monitoring the students behavior and academic success, teachers are able to gain control of a classroom and help the class run smoothly.