Things I Have Learned Along the Way About Classroom Management

Joel, who blogs at So You Want To Teach?, has gotten me thinking about classroom management with his post today.

He mentioned being proactive. I agree with that! Be aware of what is going on in your classroom and deal with potential problems before they grow. Sometimes just letting a student know you are aware of what is going on the student will make a choice to change it. I think this is where "the look" comes into play.

Another key is routine, routine, routine. Thank you, Harry Wong for laying it out so easily for us. If you teach the routines early on and then stick to them. It is easy just to say, "Excuse me that is not how we do things around here." Usually, a student just needed that little reminder. Sometimes though, it would be a great opportunity to review and practice the routine. I would many times find myself having to do that in January.

Empower students with a choice instead of telling them to do something. This is something that I have recently gotten a lot better at. If I am unsure that a student is aware of what he is supposed to be doing I will simply ask. If they don't know, then I will explain. If they are aware, I will simply say then you have a choice to make. I continue on with, "If you choose not to follow the directions, I am going to ......" Usually, this will correct the problem. Most often I just have to say, "What are you supposed to be doing right now?"

Don't take it personally! Sometimes a student is just out to see how you react. Deal with the situation in a calm manner. Often, a soft answer that is firm will turn the situation around.

Separate the behavior from the child. Sometimes there are very viable reasons that a child is behaving in the this manner. Other times there is no apparent reason whatsoever and it will be a waste of precious time if you try. Some students are very tender and get upset when they are given consequences. This is a good time to explain that I am not mad at them but the consequence is the result of a choice they made. I remind them why they were given a consequence. Often, the consequence follows an unheeded warning. I also let them know that even I make mistakes sometimes and I don't expect them to be perfect.

Document almost everything! I learned this as a PreK teacher. Anedoctal notes are your friend. This helps if the behavior becomes a pattern and has to be looked at more closely. It also helps if a parent has a question about it. It is good to have an easy system set up in advance and to get in the habit of using it. I have to think about what this looks like for an elementary classroom. I think it will look different depending on what level you teach. This will also assist in making good instructional decisions for your students.

Tomorrow is a new day! Remember we all have those days every once in awhile. This is a good time to go home and leave your work at school. (I recently read a blog that compared it to closing a book, putting it on the shelf, and going home for the day. I will try to find it and link it to here.)












Two books that have really helped me are: The First Days of School by Harry K. and Rosemary T. Wong and Teaching Outside of the Box: How to Grab Your Students by Their Brains by LouAnne Johnson. Harry and Rosemary's book was very good for setting up routines and getting your year started. LouAnne's was a very enjoyable read.


As far as not smiling, I don't think I could do it. It would be very unnatural and ingenuine of me. Students are very intuitive and can spot a fake from far away. I do agree in the thought behind that statement. It is necessary to be firm. Some days I will say it is easier to be positive and happy than others. On those days I decide to have a good day for myself and I attempt remember not to take things personally. After those days are over I remember tomorrow is a new day.

Sixth Grade Environmentalists

A day not to long ago I was subbing at one of my favorite schools. I like most schools but I love this one! I have been in the building three times and had a great experience each time. It is a school made up of all the fifth and sixth graders in the community. There are five K-4 schools that feed it. It has four or five different houses. The houses are housed in an atrium with fifth grade on one floor and sixth grade on the other. They remind me of smaller schools within a larger one. In my opinion this mix of students is great. I think it helps the students not grow up so quickly. (They already grow up so fast.)

On this particular day I was subbing for sixth grade. I have to admit I was extremely nervous. One of the reasons was not the fact that many of them are taller than me. I had done fifth grade and it was a breeze. So, why not try it? If the day doesn't go well, I don't have to go back. Besides, I like a challenge. Well, they were wonderful, fabulous, respectful students. We talked books and I got some good suggestions that I have written down somewhere. I got to teach science, math, and language arts. I enjoyed the day thoroughly.

At one point in the afternoon, an incident happened that made me nervous. I was supervising a study hall. I was mostly helping with math and watching the students interact. I even let them write on the white board and before I knew it half of the class was up there writing. As I was watching them interact, I discovered a note being passed around. I think they thought they were being so covert but it was completely obvious to me. This caused a tug of war going on in my head. Do I want to read it or not? I was wary of what it may say. After it got about half way around the room my curiosity was so strong I had to read it. So I bravely confiscated it and read it. It said: NO MORE HOMEWORK.....Save the Trees. I had to keep myself from chuckling because I was so relieved. I did not want to embarrass the author. I was curious if the which was more important: no homework or the trees.

I located the author and talked to him. It was a great opportunity to talk about how teachers enjoy hearing the opinions of their students. He also mentioned that he was thinking of starting a petition. My response was that should wait until tomorrow. He did not want me to tell his teacher about the note. I didn't. I just mentioned in the notes that I thought she had some budding environmentalists in her class and perhaps she should ask them about that.

A few things that I was reminded of this day were:
1. Being brave pays dividends.
2. Sometimes what you think may be a challenge turns out to be a wonderful and memorable experience but you won't know if you are not willing to try.
3. Believe the best. It is often not as bad as you think. Besides worrying about how bad it could be doesn't help you with dealing with the matter if it does turn out to be bad.
4. Smiling and saying, "Good Morning, I am glad you are here" will go a long way to show you care.
5. It is great fun to talk books with students in a casual manner. I just asked, "What are you reading?" The responses I got were marvelous.
6. Giving students a voice can be powerful.

How will I give my students a voice in my classroom? How will I remember always to believe the best?

SMART Boards are so cool!

I have been having a blast subbing the last few days in the class I am working in. I am learning so much. I think I mentioned that I get to use the SMART Board in the class I am in.

Yesterday, we did a lesson on adjectives. I wrote two basic sentences and showed what a difference a few details can make in a sentence. We talked about how they can make the picture in your mind so much clearer. Then I had some pictures up and we described them. I found a picture of a double-decker bus on there. We talked about the picture they see when a bus is mentioned and then we added adjectives. Then I did the French flag. I also found pictures of three different houses. (They happened to be the homes of the three little pigs.) We were going to write a sentence about one of the houses so that it was evident which house we were talking about. The SMART Board is so cool because it was a quick and easy lesson to prep for. Any time I have seen it used in a classroom the students are very engaged!

Tomorrow is my last day in the classroom I am in. I will miss the class. They are a sweet bunch of students!

Magnetic Poetry.....Shakespeare Edition

One day recently I was goofing around with magnetic poetry and came up with this:

Never question discontent or by mischance allow it perilous lordship upon you nor let it deceive and tempt you to yield to a trifle and loathsome existence; you must measure and quench it with thy dreaming and bid farewell to your idle life.

Four Days in a Row

I am so excited I get to be in one place for four days. I get to teach second grade. Today was the first. It went fairly well. I got to use the SMART board a little. I haven't shared my intense desire to have a SMART board yet. They are so wonderful. I am looking forward to getting to use it some more this week.

To Hideout or Not to Hideout

Today is Monday. As a sub, I get those lovely 5am calls. I was pondering shutting the alarm and my ringer off and promptly pulling the covers back over my head. Just then the phone rang. It was timely. I accepted a job to teach 3rd grade. I instantly got up and decided to be the morning person I am. I think the coffee with hazelnut creamer may have helped minutely. I typically like to know where I am going and what I am doing before I go to sleep and most often that is the case. I have had days that I got up, started getting ready and never received a call. I will admit I have had days I have pulled the covers over my head and gone back to sleep but today was not one of them.

I am glad I got up and taught 3rd grade. The morning was wondrous. The students came in and got to work right away. Math went really well. (I will have to write about overcoming my teaching math phobia.) Language Arts went fabulous. They were working on rough drafts. I unfortunately did not get the chance to read any, but I did get to help one student get started. Sometimes getting started can be the most difficult part. Then I got to read part of Squids Will Be Squids by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith. The most amazing part of the day was handwriting. They were all extremely focused and very methodically writing. I should have taken a picture. Then came social studies and it just wasn't the same. (Now, you may think that perhaps they were sitting too long. I will tell you that they had P.E. in between handwriting and social studies.)

Of course, I was bummed because I love social studies. I wasn't doing things exactly the same as usual. We had six pages in the textbook to cover and a worksheet to complete. The topic was immigration, schooling, the Great Migration, sports and assimilating. Assimilating wasn't the term used but that was one of the subjects. I did my best to have lively discussion and not just read from the book. I even had them get up and move around a little. It is a little more difficult because it wasn't my classroom and the options are not the same. I could have jigsawed it or found some pictures to look at.

All in all.......I am glad I went. It seems like subbing gets a little easier each time I do it.

Let it Snow....

We don't really have a choice but sometimes I wish we did. I had planned on doing some shopping today. I got to two places. The nice thing is I actually finished shopping for half of my nieces and nephews. There are eight. (I love them all very much. By the way the girls rule the roost because there are 10 of us in comparison to the 5 boys in the family. This count includes the adults.) I made some really fun purchases. I got Wedgits for my 6 year old nephew. I also got the softer version for my one year old niece. I love toys that can be used for creating and building. I bought some Playmobile 123 sets for my 2 year old nephew. (They are much less expensive than the sets for older children and I had a $5 dollar off coupon.) I got the book The Treasure Tree for my 3 year old niece to complete her gift. It is one of my favorite books to read aloud. I get to do voices for the characters and the main idea is great!

As for the rest of the day, I have been reading and discovering blogs by educators. I have even commented on a few. After my discovery of Google Reader yesterday, I had subscribed to many blogs. Today, I subscribed and unsubscribed to a few more.

While reading the blogs, I was reminded of a few things I thought would be worthy to take note of. One is I need to read more! (Thank you, Ruth and aredden ) The funny thing is that as I was talking to a friend yesterday I began to feel convicted about my TV time lately. I have been watching it way too much. Ruth also reminded me of the importance of writing, which I have begun to more of since I have started blogging. Another blogger, reminded me to take risks as an educator. She also reminded me how amazing it can be when students collaborate and work with one another. (Thanks, Jen.) I also learned more about things I can do as a beginner. (Thanks, futura.) I have been reminded of quite a few other things.

Earlier in the week I learned about del.icio.us while reading a blog and I spent practically a whole night adding my bookmarks to it. It was a timely discovery. I have not really been using my bookmarks because I had too many and I have wanted to reorganize them. I haven't even finished putting them in. Perhaps I will work on that later.

I am am off to play some spades and read a book. I think I am going to read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.