Classroom management tips

[zoebartlett]

What are the best classroom management routines you have going? Are there any tips you''d like to share...anyone?

 

[KimberlyH]

As you know, I don''t teach yet (I''m still subbing though!). But a great idea (I think) that I picked up from my cousin who has been teaching elementary school for 15+ years is as follows:

Include a note in your welcome letter to parents that you will be calling them from time to time to give them an update on student progress and behavior. Set it up so that they know the call will be brief (during your lunch perhaps so you can say "The kids are waiting, I need to go get them!").

Write each students name on a popsicle stick and place in cup.

Tell students you will be randomly selecting a stick from the cup every day/week and contacting their parents to have a brief discussion about how the student is doing.

Note: If you need to you can "randomly" select a student who has been doing exceptionally well, or poorly (hope not!).

 

[Sabine]

I teach high school, so I''m not sure if it would be too subtle for the little ones, but my kids get a kick out of it. I have a set of EXAGGERATED facial expressions that let the kids know when they need to stop doing something wrong or start doing something right. I use a stern "warning" look, a frustrated "trouble" look, and an way over the top angry "real trouble" look. The kids get a kick out of them, it communicates to them without me really having to stop the lesson, and because there is the element of humor, the kids are able to get the message without getting their feelings hurt!

 

[darkeyesredshoes]

I spent four years teaching fifth grade in an urban and low-income school, so having strategies for management before the year started was a necessity. My life was completely changed by Setting Limits in the Classroom, a book that you can find here if you are interested. Some highlights:

Essentially, kids spend the beginning of their year with you as researchers. When they do something unacceptable, part of what they are doing is finding out whether the rules you have posted or stated are actually the rules of the classroom. If I say that I'm going to move your seat if you don't stop talking to your peer, and then I give you three more warnings without actually moving your seat, what have you learned? I'm not going to move your seat. On the other hand, if you say that an action has a specific consequence and then you follow through with it, your students quickly learn that you mean what you say and they eventually stop testing the limits.

Don't end sentences with "Okay?" or "Alright?" because you don't need to ask their permission to give a direction. There's a big difference between "Can you please stop talking and begin your assignment?" and "I need you to stop talking now and begin your assignment."

Routines are your friend. Have routines for everything. My kids could run my classroom when a sub was filling in for me. Frankly, they did a better job than the sub did.

Never get into a power struggle with a student, or corner them. It's bad for everybody, and you'll end up seeing/doing things you'll regret. It's better to cut off a student's outburst, have both parties cool off, and then check in later.

I feel like writing this makes me sound like some sort of cold disciplinarian, but after I started using the Setting Limits rules and strategies, my life became SO MUCH easier. My other safety net was the "respect corps" which was essentially a color coded stick with the kids' names on clothespins attached to it. Everybody started every day on green, with a clean slate. Breaking a rule moved you down to yellow, which was a warning. Continued misbehavior moved you down to red (phone call home) and finally blue (lunch or after school detention and phone call home).

The best thing about this was that I established major positive reinforcement for the number of days my kids could spend with everybody on green. 20 days was an extra recess, 50 was a pizza party, 75 was picking their own seats, and 100 was a movie party. They LOVED IT and were super motivated to stay on green every day. They loved counting the days and keeping track of their progress towards their goals. And I can say that this past year, I had two kids on red once and no kids on blue at all.

All of this took so much stress out of my year, and it allowed me to have a really great relationship with every student without any yelling, sarcasm, or power struggles. I didn't get any of the "You never tell so-and-so not to..." or "I don't care, call my mom, whatever" like I did my first year.

I think this post is longer than my engagement post. Can you tell I'm going to miss teaching while I'm going to grad school?

 

[Haven]

Make sure you always show your students respect, even when they are acting inappropriately. I work with really difficult "at risk" kids, but I have far less discipline issues than my colleagues who get angry, or yell, or demean the kids. It''s totally obvious, but a lot of teachers forget that a little respect goes a long way. Kids will do anything for you if they know that you respect them, they really will.

Sabine--I do the SAME THING! My kids call it "the look" and they joke about how "scary" it is. But you''re absolutely right, it gets the point across, the kids know what is expected of them and when they are doing something inappropriate, and it doesn''t put you in a power struggle with the kids.