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Class Management
The document discusses strategies for effective classroom management presented at a session at M.G.M Model School on April 22, 2012. It identifies 10 key strategies: student engagement, classroom procedures, checking for understanding, establishing a safe classroom environment, discipline, nonverbal communication, challenging students academically, gaining students' attention, seating charts, and collaborative learning. The session provides guidance on implementing these strategies to maintain order and promote a productive learning environment in the classroom.
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Class Management
- 1. Tuesday, July 1,2014 M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL INTENSIVE SESSION PLANNING FOR 2012-13 WELCOME TO SESSION ON
- 2. Tuesday, July 1,2014 M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL INTENSIVE SESSION PLANNING FOR 2012-13 Classroom Management
- 3. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL Classroom Management • Classroom Management is maintaining order in the class • Teachers need to create an environment that promotes learning. • Teachers are responsible for helping students manage and direct their own learning.
- 4. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL Class Management • Familiar Classes • Unfamiliar classes
- 5. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL Class Management • Entering the class – Style – Dress code – Wishing the students – Uniform • Lot of Strategies are there for an effective classroom management
- 6. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL Strategies for Effective Classroom Management • Student Engagement • Classroom Procedures • Check For Understanding • Safe Classroom Environment • Classroom Discipline • Nonverbal Communication • Challenge Students Academically • Student's Attention • Classroom Seating Charts • Collaborative Learning
- 7. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL 1.Student Engagement • Getting Students on Task • Keeping Students on Task • Differentiated Learning
- 8. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL 2.Classroom Procedures • Classroom Procedures for Starting Class • Classroom Procedures for Organization • Classroom Procedures for Tardies
- 9. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL 3. Check For Understanding • Formative assessment • Index cards
- 10. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL 4. Safe Classroom Environment • Teaching Respect • Classroom Rules • Classroom Set-up & Organization
- 11. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL 5. Classroom Discipline • Punishing misbehavior is one of the hardest aspects of teaching
- 12. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL 5. Classroom Discipline • Consequences • Rewarding Students • Catching Cheaters & Misbehavior
- 13. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL 6. Nonverbal Communication • Body language and the tone of your voice are major factors in communicating and thus teaching.
- 14. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL 7. Challenge Students Academically • Make sure that when you write your curriculum you allow for students to do extra work for a small amount of points.
- 15. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL 8. Student's Attention • Getting students' attention can sometimes be difficult and can cause the teacher to become frustrated.
- 16. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL 9. Classroom Seating Charts
- 17. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL 10. Collaborative Learning • Size of Groups • Make sure the role of each student
- 18. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL A Businesslike Atmosphere • Take advantage of the first days of class • Establish an environment in which achieving specified learning goals takes priority over other concerns • It is much easier to establish this environment from the beginning rather than later
- 19. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL 5 steps 1. Take advantage of the new school year or term to set the stage for cooperation 2. Be particularly prepared and organized 3. Minimize transition time 4. Utilize a communication style that establishing non-threatening, comfortable environment 5. Clearly establish expectations for conduct
- 20. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL Beginning a new year • Take advantage of initial uncertainty • PLAN for a favorable beginning – Classroom/lab organization – Ongoing routines • Use learning activities with easy- to-follow, uncomplicated directions
- 21. 22 April 2012M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL References • www.authorstream.com • www.slideshare.net • http://www.lessonplansinc.com
- 22. Tuesday, July 1,2014 M.G.M MODEL SCHOOL INTENSIVE SESSION PLANNING FOR 2012-13 THANK YOU
Editor's Notes
- #7 These classroom management strategies can work for any teacher, but are intended for middle school and high school teachers. Most credential programs leave the classroom management style up to the teacher, focusing instead on the most important aspect of teaching, curriculum. Classroom management is how the teacher delivers the curriculum, as well as the environment in which students will learn. There are a lot of strategies that a middle school or high school teacher can use in order to create an optimal learning environment. Teachers with the best classroom management usually have their class working and learning seamlessly. The most important classroom management strategy is keeping every student on task. How do you keep students on task? The answer is good curriculum. How many great teachers have you had in your life? Ask this question to other adults. Most people will say that they have had one to five great teachers in their life, when they have probably had over thirty teachers during the course of their schooling. That is a big gap. A great teacher needs great curriculum. But writing great curriculum is both difficult and time consuming.
- #8 Keeping students on task is the primary challenge for any teacher. If your high school or middle school students are doing what they should be doing, then you do not have any management problems. Getting Students on Task Classroom procedures and routines are essential for getting students on task. Once students enter the classroom, they should follow a routine up until they are dismissed from class. Routines are created by procedures. Students should work on a warm-up right when the starting bell rings. Work at the beginning of the class goes by many names: do now, starters, bell ringers, etc. This is a good routine for getting your students on task in class. A list of good classroom procedures is covered on the following page. Keeping Students on Task Having lessons that students actually want to learn will be your main tool for keeping students on task. The other nine rules also help keep students on task. As you can see, everything comes back to curriculum. Differentiated Learning Every student is different. Writing lessons that every student will want to learn is difficult. If you threw an ice cream party, would every student be happy? Probably not. What about students who are lactose intolerant? They might feel left out. Differentiation is not only having multiple learning modalities in one lesson, it is using many lessons that concentrate on different learning modalities. Almost everyone is a visual learner, but those same people may be kinesthetic learners, as well. Be aware of which learning modality you are targeting in a lesson, and try to target a different modality the next day. This keeps your class fresh and interesting for all students.
- #9 Procedures are the second most important rule to establish in your classroom. Most discipline problems arise when procedures are not in place. Every classroom should have very few rules but many procedures and routines. Classroom Procedures for Starting Class Warm-up: Do you start the period by telling students to be quiet? Students need to be ready to work when the bell rings. Having a warm-up on the board motivates students to start the class without your intervention. This also gives you plenty of time to take role using your seating chart. You accomplish two tasks right at the beginning of the period, getting students on task and taking role. Classroom Procedures for Organization Passing back or collecting papers: Do you hand out papers so that the students in the front of the class pass the papers backwards? The problem with this technique is that students cannot see to whom they are passing the papers. They might throw the papers onto the person's desk, or even worse, throw them at the person. How about passing in papers? Do students hit the person in front of them with their papers? This leaves plenty of chances for students to disrupt your class. Passing papers sideways is usually the best routine. This way a student can easily see if the student next to them is ready for the papers. Do you pass back papers randomly based on whose name is on top of the stack? Passing back or collecting papers can waste a lot of time in class. High school and middle school students are more likely to develop discipline problems when their task is to sit and wait quietly for several minutes. This does not challenging the students academically. Instead, have students put a row number on every piece of paper. That way you just hand the paper to the first person in the row. Your TA can also sort student papers by rows ahead of time to speed up the delivery process. Classroom Procedures for Passes Going to the bathroom: Do students take advantage of bathroom breaks during class in order to wander around campus? You can help prevent students from using the bathroom during your class by counting the number of times each student uses a bathroom pass. Tell students at the beginning of the year that they are allowed four bathroom passes per semester and each bathroom pass is worth 10 extra credit points. Since students do much of their learning in class, offering extra credit to students who stay in class rewards learning. If a student really needs to go to the bathroom, you MUST let them, regardless of how many passes they have used. Classroom Procedures for Tardies Tardies: What do you do when a student comes in tardy? Write their name on the board, and have them stay after class to talk with you. Most will complain and argue that they will be late to their next class. However, you need to stop this behavior by demonstrating that it is not acceptable in your class. Remember that the rest of the class is watching how you reinforce your classroom procedures. Give them a reason to show respect to you.
- #10 How do you know if your students understand what you are teaching? You can check for understanding by halting your lesson long enough to use a formative assessment. This will get your students to say or do something with the information you just gave them. Most teachers already check for understanding by asking the class a question and then selecting a student to answer or even letting the fastest students answer out loud. Many high school and middle school teachers also walk around the room in order to check how students are doing on the assignment. There are many other techniques that can be utilized. When asking the class a question, it is important not to let the students give the answer out load. Even having them raise their hand does not fully utilize this powerful tool. Once you ask a question, wait at least 5 seconds before calling on a student. Which student? You can pick one at random from a seating chart or use Popsicle sticks. The point is to make it random. This will give every student a chance to answer and it also holds them all accountable for thinking about the question. Once a student answers, let that student complete what they are saying. Even give them several seconds of silence after they speak. This will provide them with a chance to go deeper or restate their answer in a different way. While this method does slow down the class, it keeps the students engaged. The Popsicle stick method works by writing down each student's name on a Popsicle stick. Then pull out a stick from a jar and call on this student. If the student answers the question (even incorrectly), remove their stick from the jar. Your purpose is to encourage participation of all students, not just the 3-7 students who answer all the time. Several other engagement strategies include choral reading, question stems, and pair reading. It is great when a teacher roams around the room, checking student progress and answering questions, but teachers can do so much more. Teachers should incorporate explicit direct instructions into each lesson. Explicit direct instructions tell the student exactly what you want them to do. The instructions should be short and concise. Some examples include: students answer a question, draw something, or copy down in their notebook what is written on the board. Then have the class simultaneously show you their work. The easiest method is for students to hold their papers up in the air as you walk by and quickly inspect their work. This lets the students know that they are responsible for their work at all times. This method of checking for understanding will definitely keep students on task. It is recommended that you use explicit direct instructions several times during a lesson. Once you have mastered this method and your students become adept at this technique, you can ask more complex questions. Formative Assessments Using White Boards An alternate version of this teaching technique is to have small white boards at each desk. Each student writes his or her own answer on it using dry erase markers. The main advantage with the white boards is that students can write larger. Once they have answered, they then hold the board in the air. Teachers can usually see all the responses from the front of the room and therefore progress the lesson faster. This technique is great for math or calculation questions in science. The disadvantages of using these white boards includes: cleaning the boards, a student may inadvertently use a permanent marker, and a student will not be able to keep his or her work since it will be erased. Formative Assessments Using Index Cards A third version is to use index cards. Students can write A B C D and E onto 5 index cards. Students then answer A B C D or E by holding up that corresponding card. Index cards are very cheap, easily made, and provide the teacher with instant feedback. This method is great to see if your students are paying attention and to see if they understand the current concept being taught. The negative to index cards is that students can look at each other's card before raising their own. Another drawback to index cards is they can only allow for the answering of multiple choice questions. Formative Assessments Using Clickers A fourth version is to use Classroom Response Systems or Student Response Systems. Many people know these systems as clickers. Teachers post a question and students answer using a remote control clicker. A great feature of clickers is that student data is stored on the computer and can be promptly retrieved to check for individual and group understanding. Teachers can even perform tests using clickers. Clickers can be incorporated with PowerPoint for lectures, and graphs can be displayed showing how the class performed after each question. Most students like clickers since they give instant feedback. Students easily relate to this technology. An iPod can even be used as a clicker. Also, games can be made using clickers: fastest finger, jeopardy, group contests, etc. The disadvantages of clickers include the cost, wear and tear from student usage, learning the software, and limitations on the type of questions that can be asked. Here is a list of clicker vendors in no particular order: Meridia, Fleetwood Reply, TurningPoint, Poll Everywhere, eInstruction, IML, Qwizdom, iClicker, and H-ITT.
- #11 A safe classroom environment has many different aspects that work in conjunction with each other. These include classroom rules, consequences, procedures, respect, your attire, and a tidy room. This page will cover rules, your attire, and the physical aspects of your classroom. Teaching Respect Respect is a difficult word to define because it means something different to each person. If you want your students to be respectful, you must model respect. It may not be easy to get high school or middle school students to be respectful in your class. It's almost guaranteed that they will not be respectful if you are not respectful. You cannot be a hypocrite. Try to say only positive things about people. Stop students from gossiping about other students. Creating a safe classroom environment is difficult when slander is present. Try to make all your students feel like they are an integral part of the class. Every student is different; there is no need for you to point this out. If a student wants to share how they are different, that is ok, but pointing it out yourself is not ok. Try to be consistent with your rules. An example would be: if Johnny can't wear his bandana, Sally can't either. Try to say please and thank you when making requests. Students might be shocked by this and might see it as a sign of weakness, but you are modeling correct behavior for your classroom. Try to get the parents involved in the positive things their child is doing. When parents are invited to come to school, they will remember the positives of your class. The more you integrate the parents on the positive aspects of your class, the more likely they will support you when discipline issues arise. Try to go to every meeting regarding your students, especially IEPs. Responding to parent's phone calls and emails promptly is important but time consuming. Using a website where students and parents can access password protected grades or homework assignments can help time management. Example Classroom Rules You should have easy to remember classroom rules. Try to keep each rule to no more than five words, and there should be no more than five rules. Create a large sign with your rules and put it where every student can see it. The idea is that the rules are both easy to understand and easy to remember. They should not repeat the school rules, since all students should be following those already. Example, "be on time" is not a good rule since this is true for all classes and once the students are in class; this rule no longer applies to the students. Good classroom rules may include: “No food, drinks, gum, or edible items”. This rule works well since not all teachers have consistent rules for edible items. “No sexual, drug, violent or inappropriate topics” “No swearing, vulgar, or offensive language” “Show respect: teacher, others, room, and yourself” “Raise your hand to speak” “Stay on task and in your seat” Rules do change from teacher to teacher and should be used to enhance your teaching style and classroom environment. If a student breaks the rule, write their name on the board and they have to stay after class to talk to you. Save your classroom consequences for after class. Student Confrontations Before doing anything else, ask for advice from the vice principal when working with potentially aggressive students. The placement of students who do not get along with each other is critical to a safe classroom environment. When creating a seating chart, place students who are aggressive toward each other on the polar opposite sides of the room. Remember to place the friends of the two students in areas far enough away that they will not be tempted to provoke a confrontation. If the students cannot behave themselves in your class, you must get help from the office. You need to create a safe classroom environment for all students. Classroom Set-up & Organization Maintaining a clean and organized classroom communicates to your students that you are a professional. Students might think your disorganization is the reason for their lost papers. The degree of cleanliness and organization is up to you, but it is important for all school supplies to be put away so that they don't become a danger to you or your students. This is especially true for science lab equipment.
- #12 Punishing misbehavior is one of the hardest aspects of teaching. For this reason, nine out of ten of the rules of success help to prevent misbehavior. Consequences It is important to have consequences when students break your classroom rules. Three very commonly used consequences are referring a student to the office, calling the parents, or making an empty threat. When a teacher tells a student of a consequence but does not follow through, it affects the teacher's credibility. The empty threat is meaningless. Calling home and using the administration are effective but the teacher should try to handle the problem on their own. Please remember that high school or middle school students can become discipline problems because of a lack of procedures in your class. Before the school year starts, have procedures for your consequences in place. Make sure you discuss the following consequences with your principal to make sure that they are in compliance with state laws, district and school procedures. Have students write a change of behavior plan stating three things: what they did wrong, why they did it and what they are going to do differently so that they will not repeat it. The behavior plan must be acceptable to you, the teacher, or else the student will be referred to the office. Have the student sign and date this behavior plan. This can be useful since the student is writing the documentation and they will know what they need to do differently. Call home and explain the misbehavior and what changes you would like to see with their behavior. Have documentation of their behavior so that you can provide the parent/guardian with accurate details. Please be polite and always approach parents from the point of view that you are working together with them. Both of you have the same goals: to get their child to succeed in class. A consequence that works well with many students is holding them after class, because it is most effective when a consequence is administered as soon as possible. However, this may be a problem at your school if students have a short passing period after your class. After school detention can be effective but many students have a bus to catch or may not show up. Some schools have set up lunch detail for students who misbehave during class. Referring the student to the office may remove the student from the class for that period, but usually does not fix the problem. Parent /teacher conferences are also a valuable asset. Please be polite and always approach parents from the point of view that you are working together with them. Be prepared for the meeting with documentation, the student's grades on assignments, and even examples of student work. Your goal of the meeting is to get the student to correct their behavior. The parent's goal is to make sure their kid is going to succeed in your class and is being shown respect. Having good documentation really helps parents to understand that all you want is a change in behavior. Showing parents the change in behavior plans discussed above is a valuable tool. Rewarding Students To reduce misbehavior, reward good behavior. Rewards should be utilized several times a week. A reward should be something immediately gratifying to the student. You can use this technique to reward a couple of students or reward the entire class. Catching Cheaters & Misbehavior A good teacher usually won't be sitting at their desk during class. If you are not helping students, you can help make sure that the students are on task. To catch students who cheat or break your rules can be easy if you follow several simple rules: All work done outside of class has a higher risk of being copied. Try to keep all important and valuable learning experiences in class where you can monitor students. Not only do parents help too much with student work, but students may copy off of each other, copy off the internet, and so on. Students may try to cheat in class on assignments. If you don't want students to work in a group, you need to be in front of the room watching students' heads and eyes. To prevent cheating on tests, ask students to roll up their sleeves to their elbows. This will help prevent students from writing answers on their arms or keeping a cheat sheet in their sleeves. Ask students to move their chair in so that their stomach is touching the desk. This will prevent students from looking at their lap where they may have a cheat sheet. It will also help to obscure their view if they have a cheat sheet on the ground or on a backpack. Have two or more versions of the test so that students may not look for answers from their neighbors. Make sure to check the tables for writing when handing out the test. Never allow cell phones because of text messaging or taking pictures of your tests. Have student remove their hoods and turn the bill of their hat backwards. This will allow you to see the students' eyes the entire time they are taking the test. To catch students who are using a cell phone in class, watch for students looking at their lap. There is usually no reason why a student needs to be looking at their lap. Just walk over to that student and ask for their phone, even if they put it back into their pocket. Many students will try to listen to their iPods during class. To prevent this, do not allow students to wear hoods. You can now see if the students have wires hanging from their ears. Students nowadays may have sun glasses with an mp3 player built in. If you do not allow chewing of gum, spend 20 seconds during class and scan the room watching students' mouths. If you see a chewing motion, ask the student to spit it out. This can also help if you don't allow any food or drink in class.
- #13 Punishing misbehavior is one of the hardest aspects of teaching. For this reason, nine out of ten of the rules of success help to prevent misbehavior. Consequences It is important to have consequences when students break your classroom rules. Three very commonly used consequences are referring a student to the office, calling the parents, or making an empty threat. When a teacher tells a student of a consequence but does not follow through, it affects the teacher's credibility. The empty threat is meaningless. Calling home and using the administration are effective but the teacher should try to handle the problem on their own. Please remember that high school or middle school students can become discipline problems because of a lack of procedures in your class. Before the school year starts, have procedures for your consequences in place. Make sure you discuss the following consequences with your principal to make sure that they are in compliance with state laws, district and school procedures. Have students write a change of behavior plan stating three things: what they did wrong, why they did it and what they are going to do differently so that they will not repeat it. The behavior plan must be acceptable to you, the teacher, or else the student will be referred to the office. Have the student sign and date this behavior plan. This can be useful since the student is writing the documentation and they will know what they need to do differently. Call home and explain the misbehavior and what changes you would like to see with their behavior. Have documentation of their behavior so that you can provide the parent/guardian with accurate details. Please be polite and always approach parents from the point of view that you are working together with them. Both of you have the same goals: to get their child to succeed in class. A consequence that works well with many students is holding them after class, because it is most effective when a consequence is administered as soon as possible. However, this may be a problem at your school if students have a short passing period after your class. After school detention can be effective but many students have a bus to catch or may not show up. Some schools have set up lunch detail for students who misbehave during class. Referring the student to the office may remove the student from the class for that period, but usually does not fix the problem. Parent /teacher conferences are also a valuable asset. Please be polite and always approach parents from the point of view that you are working together with them. Be prepared for the meeting with documentation, the student's grades on assignments, and even examples of student work. Your goal of the meeting is to get the student to correct their behavior. The parent's goal is to make sure their kid is going to succeed in your class and is being shown respect. Having good documentation really helps parents to understand that all you want is a change in behavior. Showing parents the change in behavior plans discussed above is a valuable tool. Rewarding Students To reduce misbehavior, reward good behavior. Rewards should be utilized several times a week. A reward should be something immediately gratifying to the student. You can use this technique to reward a couple of students or reward the entire class. Catching Cheaters & Misbehavior A good teacher usually won't be sitting at their desk during class. If you are not helping students, you can help make sure that the students are on task. To catch students who cheat or break your rules can be easy if you follow several simple rules: All work done outside of class has a higher risk of being copied. Try to keep all important and valuable learning experiences in class where you can monitor students. Not only do parents help too much with student work, but students may copy off of each other, copy off the internet, and so on. Students may try to cheat in class on assignments. If you don't want students to work in a group, you need to be in front of the room watching students' heads and eyes. To prevent cheating on tests, ask students to roll up their sleeves to their elbows. This will help prevent students from writing answers on their arms or keeping a cheat sheet in their sleeves. Ask students to move their chair in so that their stomach is touching the desk. This will prevent students from looking at their lap where they may have a cheat sheet. It will also help to obscure their view if they have a cheat sheet on the ground or on a backpack. Have two or more versions of the test so that students may not look for answers from their neighbors. Make sure to check the tables for writing when handing out the test. Never allow cell phones because of text messaging or taking pictures of your tests. Have student remove their hoods and turn the bill of their hat backwards. This will allow you to see the students' eyes the entire time they are taking the test. To catch students who are using a cell phone in class, watch for students looking at their lap. There is usually no reason why a student needs to be looking at their lap. Just walk over to that student and ask for their phone, even if they put it back into their pocket. Many students will try to listen to their iPods during class. To prevent this, do not allow students to wear hoods. You can now see if the students have wires hanging from their ears. Students nowadays may have sun glasses with an mp3 player built in. If you do not allow chewing of gum, spend 20 seconds during class and scan the room watching students' mouths. If you see a chewing motion, ask the student to spit it out. This can also help if you don't allow any food or drink in class.
- #14 Non-verbal communication is rarely taught in teacher training programs. However, body language and the tone of your voice are major factors in communicating and thus teaching. A teacher can be declared boring by not varying the tone of their voice. During interviews, most principals look at the enthusiasm of a potential teacher. Enthusiasm is communicated by tone and body language. An enthusiastic teacher makes for enthusiastic students. Your body language and tone of voice can be used in a positive or negative way. Only use them in a positive way. Here are some examples: Some positives include walking over to a student's desk and quietly asking the student to be quiet. You could even just walk near that student and stand there. This usually does the job without you having to say a word. This shows that you are calm and in control. It also reduces the risk of potential conflict. Another example would be to just look at the student, and when you have eye contact, shake your head no. Remember, the point is to not disrupt the other students. When you speak from across the room, other students will look at the student you are addressing. In many instances, students misbehave in order to get attention. By stopping what you were doing, you could have inadvertently rewarded that student's misbehavior. Have you ever seen a teacher trying to get a student's attention by yelling? The non-verbal communication is telling the students that the teacher is not in control and maybe does not know what they are doing. There is a simple and empowering way to get student's attention. Dressing up for work communicates non-verbally to your high school or middle school students that you are a professional and you take your job seriously. It is important to do this from day one because it is part of the first impressions. It is the same reason why most people dress up for job interviews. It is important to understand that the tone of your voice and body language can communicate just as much or more than the words you say.
- #15 This rule is about curriculum. If a student is not academically challenged, they may become bored and off-task. Once a student is off-task, you have a management problem. All students want to feel that they are a part of the class. This includes students who have straight As and students who are close to dropping out. Make sure that when you write your curriculum you allow for students to do extra work for a small amount of points. This extra work is for the students who finish early. The extra work can be AP level. High school and middle school students who felt that the regular assignment was too easy may feel challenged by the extra work. Do not assume that students who have many Fs on assignments are dumb. You are grading students based upon learning the material, not on their intelligence. There are a number of reasons why students may get low grades, and rebelling is high on the list. These students might not have the self-confidence to do the academically challenging assignments. You must believe in these students and not give up on them when they tackle academically challenging assignments. When they rise to your level of rigor, they will build self-confidence because they knew it was tough and they succeeded.
- #16 This is the easiest rule to follow, and it also provides the teacher with a stress reducing technique. Getting students' attention can sometimes be difficult and can cause the teacher to become frustrated. The solution, do what the students do. Raise your hand, but you add a twist. Count to three with your fingers only, no voice. Start counting slowly when you get eye contact with at least two students. Once you count to three, write a one on the chalk board and repeat the silent counting. This could repeat several times when training the students. It is important that you don't say a word, let the high school and middle school students do the work for you. The one on the board represents the amount of time (one minute or thirty seconds) the entire class will stay after class is over. Right before the end of the period, tell your students to quietly stay ___ number of minutes. Before using this punishment, check with your principal to see they will support you during the training period. What will happen is that one student will tell other students to be quiet. Then peer pressure will kick in and all students will want to be quiet because they want to socialize during break. It is also calming for the teacher. Instead of letting your blood boil, silently count to three. We do not recommend yelling because it increases the noise level in the room and projects non-verbally that you are not in control. Do not flip the lights because some students with disabilities may have a medical response to it. Ringing a bell works for younger children but teenagers think it is too childish.
- #17 There are different ways to organize the students in your classroom. Types of seating charts include student choice, alphabetical, and teacher placed. Some teachers do not believe in using a seating chart. However, allowing friends to sit next to each other can cause disruptions in your class. Assigning high school or middle school students alphabetically might allow friends to be seated next each other or placed next to the same person since elementary school. Do not let your classroom management be left to chance. Seating charts are one of the best preventative measures a teacher can use. Sitting a talkative student next to a shy student might limit disruptions. Silence is not a goal of classroom management but having students on task is a goal, like when they are working on our interactive online assessments. The following are some general rules of seating charts: First, any student who may be required by law to be placed somewhere specific is most important. It is very important that you, the teacher, attend every IEP or student centered meeting, because it may affect your classroom, and hence how you manage the class. Second, students in the front and center of your room will receive the most eye contact from you. If you want to keep a close eye on a student, put them in the front of the room. This may work well for students with ADD. The front corners are the best place to put a student who disrupts the class. This could be a student with ADD who gets easily distracted by other students. The problem with front and center is that when a student is disruptive, the whole class sees it. This is not a good place to put students with ADHD. When disruptive students are placed in the corners, students focus less attention on them. If a student is challenging, but not defiant, the back corners of the room work best. Because of an IEP or 504 plans, the first row may be filled with students who are required to be there. If the first row is filled, then put your disruptive students on either end of the second row. Sit less talkative students next to, in front of, and behind the talkative student. The front of the room is also a great place to place an unmotivated student. Placing unmotivated students in the front allows you to frequently observe what they are doing and to remind them to keep on task. If you want to quickly learn who is friends with whom in your class, let students sit wherever they want for a couple of days. Write down where they sit and record who talks with whom, how disruptive they are and how many times they talk or disrupt. This is great to do on the first days of school since you get to use this data for the whole school year. With this data, create your seating chart by sitting the most disruptive students in the front corners. Sit students who like to talk with each other on opposite sides of the room, front/back and left/right. When placing students in the seating chart, always think, will this student talk to the students next to him or her, either next to or in front of or behind. This will help to minimize the desire to talk. Notice how much effort and planning goes into a sitting chart. This effort is to prevent a student from disrupting your class
- #18 There are many benefits to having students work together. It lets the student become the teacher. Working together lets students get their questions answered by someone who is not going to grade them. It lets students talk and get to know each other during class. Working in groups lets high school and middle school students rely on each other when they have to do something that is challenging. Group work should be based upon your seating chart. Two students working as a group works great. Four students is also a good number. Groups of three are not recommended. Two students will out vote the third and the third student can feel alienated when disagreements arise. You should change your seating chart often. This helps prevent one student from becoming too dependent on another student. Group work cannot be used on all assignments. Independent work, tests and quizzes are necessary to be completed alone. Collaboration Rubric Student cheating and laziness can be remedied by including student participation in the rubric of each assignment. It is very important for group work to be done in class. Group projects assigned for outside of class time have a high probability of failure because of schedule conflicts. You can give students a questionnaire at the end of the project where they secretly evaluate their partners. This info can be useful in determining if a student did not participate during the project. Tell the students that they are not providing a participation grade and that you will determine if the information provided matches what you saw during class. Example collaboration rubric questions using a rating scale of 1-5 are as follows: How much did they work on their own part of the project?How much did they help you / partners during class time?How useful was their help in the decision making of the project?How easy was it to work with the partner?How often was he/she on task during class time?