Hi everyone! I'm in need of some major advice from all my forum teachers! We started school on Thursday this past week and have had 2 full days so far. I teach Kindergarten and 2 days before school started the Kinder teachers found out that we will have 29 students each. We have a full day kinder at our school. There are 3 classes total for Kindergarten. When we found out about out situation we wanted them to either hire a new teacher and split the classes or hire aides for us. We have no aides and the budgets don't allow for any extra money spent so we are going to be stuck like this all year. That being said, my 2 days of teaching were brutal. This is my first full year teaching and I'm soooo overwhelmed. There are so many students and they literally come in knowing nothing. When I put our projector on for a video break, they started getting out of their seats and standing in front of the white board and jumping. There's 29 of these bodies with my 2 eyes. I'm so worried! I have talked to them about class rules and expectations and I know it'll take time. But I wanted to know what's the most engaging way to get them to listen to the rules? They have a hard time listening already and this is going to my first full week. They lose interest and I want to keep them engaged in learning the procedure and routines. We read some books about back to school and I'll be reading No David this week to understand what's a good choice and bad choice. Any tips or suggestions from everyone out there that is experienced. Please help! Thank you.
Start getting into routines, schedules...practice, practice, practice again. What do you envision your day looking like? If you could post a rough 'schedule' here, we could help you figure out how o get things rolling on a god track....IMO,videos were not a good idea...(I'm sure you figured this out already)
Let them act it out, maybe 5 kids show the correct way to line up and then 5 kids show how not to line up (and repeat it with every procedure). Stick to your consequences and enforce them quickly. You'll have to really be sure to show them that you mean business and will follow through with everything you say and do. Games where they follow directions and get the wiggles out are good practice and help them get ready to focus - Simon Says, Tooty-ta, for example.
No David is a good book! Also, I'm planning on having all my students do a self-portrait of themselves and then talk about how we are all different and how we should respect each other. And I will be talking about the rules little by little. The behavior chart is one of them, and how each student can get student bucks if they stay on green each day. ALWAYS start with how good behavior is rewarding. I'm a first year Kindergarten teacher too, so I'm just as scared as you are!
Schedule I agree that acting out is great! The biggest problem I'm having is getting their attention and keeping their attention. I do the clap and they have learned that. I might also try the if you hear me clap once strategy. When I talk about rules and listening I have like 6/29 that are not listening and are playing with their shoe laces or like just getting antsy. We take a few breaks throughout the day so I'm not sure what else to do. Our schedule is: 8:30-8-40 take off backpacks and get ready for gym Gym 8:40-9 9-9:45 phonics and whole group reading 9:45-10:30 writing 10:30-10:50 handwriting Get ready for lunch 11-11:45 Lunch/recess 11:45-12:30 specials 12:30-1:10 literacy centers, small group instruction, word work (etc) 1:10-1:55 math 2-00-2:20 snack time 2:20-2:55 sight words 3 pack up and dismissal at 3:15 We have social studies and science on Tuesdays Thursday when we don't have specials. As you can see there are many transitions coming in and out of the classroom. I'm thinking I need more songs for like transitioning and more rewards for students doing well.
