The Three “M’s” of Creating an Effective Learning Environment: Mentor, Manager and Model

The teacher’s responsibility in providing an effective learning environment in their classroom can be broken down in three important roles; mentor, manager and model. As a mentor, you are constantly helping your students understand and interrupt the different situations and challenges they are facing each day in your classroom. We all benefit from another perspective on what is happening in our lives. Secondly, we need to manage the experiences our students have in our classrooms. This involves a variety of decisions from where we seat students, to the pace of our instruction to the type of work we ask our students to complete. Lastly we are a models for our students. As the old saying goes, “What you are doing speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you are saying.” Our students are constantly watching how we handle conflict, disappointment, joy and success. All three roles are essential for effective classroom management.