Creative problem solving

Practical subjects require a range of flexible classroom management strategies to cope with students working on individual projects. The teacher describes some of the approaches that she has developed to respond to situations where her students may be separately engaged in research, folio preparation, arts making and group activities. She demonstrates how she balances the need for individual and group activity work with whole class feedback and/or demonstration. In working with colleagues, she emphasises the need to ensure that the content and strategies used are engaging and flexible.

Centralian Senior College is the largest senior secondary education provider in Alice Springs. The school was established in 2005 and has approximately 600 students in years 10, 11 and 12. As the Arts Co-ordinator of the College, the teacher recognises the need to have flexible and appropriate classroom management approaches suited to both the subject area and to age of the students that she and her colleagues teach. She models these in her own classes and assists colleagues to adopt strategies to deal with particular classroom management issues as they arise.