I am a firm believer that a classroom should be managed in a positive way with a focus on procedures that make the classroom run almost without the teacher even needing to be there. Classroom management was the hardest thing for me when I started teaching, as I think it is for most people, but is now the thing I get most compliments on. It is important to establish a specific procedure for EVERYTHING that takes place in the classroom and for the kids to practice the procedure and to perfect it. If you are consistent with this and your schedule is pretty much the same on mostt days, your kids will run the classroom and move to the next step, after cleaning their area correctly. They will strive to meet your standards as long as they know what you expect! In following posts, I will outline the procedures that I establish each year in the classroom. These procedures start with how they enter the room and unpack their backpack and include how they put books away on the shelf.
Whole group
As I said I believe in positive reinforcement, so I always have a goal that the class is working towards together. Sometimes, we fill a marble jar or spell out ICE CREAM PARTY on the whiteboard, one letter at a time. Either way, they get a marble or a letter for every compliment we get as a class. If we are walking in the hall or if they were great in music or lunch and a teacher lets me know, they get a letter or marble. If I have to walk next door to help the teacher in the next class and they are completely quiet and working, I can give them a compliment. This motivates them to always try to do their best and my kids have loved this every year, plus it works like a charm.
Small Group
I have already touched a little bit on my table groups in a previous post and how I group my students into tables for small group work, etc and how I later use this to teach a lesson on Communities. The system I use for my groups is that I put change group "mayors- leaders of the city" once a month and the mayor is the one who gets to hand things out, get supplies etc. I use the mayor as the person that does the jobs for each table. "Mayors, please get a math tub for your group." The students love being in charge and everyone gets a chance to lead. I then make a tally chart on the board with the name of each table group and will give table points throughout the week to the table that is clean first, quiet first, ready first, etc. The kids work as a team to make sure that everyone is ready when I am ready to move on and will even help each other put supplies away if it means their table could be first to get quiet and seated. At the end of the week, I give a prize to the table that gets the most points. The prizes are usually small incentives but the kids enjoy it (things like stickers or pencils).
Individual
I use a color system in my classroom, similar to what most teachers use, but mine is in the form of a painted wood board with clothespins. I make my chart into a weather system. Students stary everyday on Sunny (yellow). They get moved to cloudy(grey) for a warning and stormy (blue) for a day where I have been on them way too many times. This results in me writing a note in the folder and me taking away a privelege that is important to them (computer time, play time, extra something, etc) . But my all time favorite part of my behavior chart is the chance the students get to move up from sunny to something extra special (rainbow- red) This is saved each day for just a few students who are doing an extra wonderful job during activities or transition times. Students get super excited when their clip moves up a level, instead of just down! I then chose my line leader the next day from my rainbows. I usually pull the rainbow clips off at teh end of the day and let someone close their eyes and pick a clothespin to be the lineleader the next day. Plus, students who get on rainbow get a special note home in their folder to praise them for their day. Students and parents love this! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment