Fellow Teachers, This is my first year teaching and I feel like I am not doing a good enough job. I am used to working with older grades and I don't know if 1st grade is really my thing. I teach in an urban school and it is hard!! When do the first graders really start to listen??? Do you wait until you have everyone attention until you talk? My afternoons are always crazy- I do brain breaks to calm them and try and do hands on activities- but group work with first graders is tough because there is always someone not keeping hands to self or being too loud. I just don't know what to do. I feel like I am a broken record all day long and I just never know what I am going to get out of them in the afternoon. My Management- scoreboard for whole class and marbles Individual- clip chart get stickers and after 20 get to pick out a prize
When you make them. You need to teach them that until everyone is quiet, you will not speak which is bad for them. There needs to be consequences when procedures or rules are broken. Set the tone by making sure they walk in the classroom quietly. If they run in or come in yelling, send them back out and allow them to enter again. Never acknowledge a student unless they are quiet and with their hand raised. Teach them procedure every single day until they understand and respect you.
Management I do have students walk in quietly. If they do not I say try again and they do. I have been waiting for everyone to be quiet. I guess I am just asking how often do you guys have to do this? I feel like each day I have to wait for just a couple of the students each time. (of course it is always the same ones).
How many days of school so far? It will take around 6 full weeks to really get into the swing of things. Model and have them practice the behavior you expect from them. Be consistent with everything you do in the classroom.
Okay.... now I think we've all felt like that our first year. Just remember that this is your learning year and every year after this you'll be better. Seriously! I worked in a very urban, very low income, very tough district my first year as a teacher, teaching 3rd grade and I cried almost nightly. many times I thought maybe I had gone into the wrong field, I thought some days I just may quit, right on the spot... but you don't and you keep going and learning and getting better. I have taught for 9 years and every year that I have switched grades or schools I have felt that same exact way again. Its HARD!! there is a lot on your plate ALL THE TIME and that usually doesn't even include the time your are supposed to be teaching. So... to answer your question and actually help, I have taught 1st grade for 5 years now and the little 'good kiddos' are your best friends. I make my whole class wait until they are quiet before talking, and I talk really quietly reminding those that are listening and following rules, in a whisper "oh I hope you guys aren't late for lunch/gym/recess/ etc. because we can't get our work done" "oh it makes me so sad that we are going to miss out on our fun things", etc. etc. Soon enough the 'good' ones are scolding the noisy ones and quickly everyone becomes accountable. Sometimes, I'll talk quietly and then call on a student who I know wasn't listening, in front of everyone and ask them for the answer to a question... obviously they can't answer it because they weren't listening and in front of everyone I let them know that we'll have to go over that at recess because everyone else was listening and its not fair if they have to wait... you get the idea. Even though they are 6 and 7, you can still hold firm to your classroom rules and be consistent all the time. I demand respect, even on these first couple of squirrely weeks back to school. You can do it!!
Wow thank you all for those kind words and advice. I think I was a little too harsh on myself in the first post. I wrote my first post when I had just gotten home and was feeling very down. What my 1st graders do do a good job at: they are wonderful in the hallways (took a lot of hard work but they are great), mornings, specials, and dismissal. What we need to work on: blurting, listening, hands and feet to themselves and talking quietly in small groups.
Oh and by the way this is my 4th week of school. I have felt like I have been doing a great job up until these last two days. Idk what it is, but I feel like my kiddos have gone backwards with listening and I've been keeping everything the same....
At that age you have to explícitly teach and model the correct behaviors. I don't talk until they are all quiet. Otherwise the message is that it is okay to talk over the teacher. My class is pretty good, though I had an incident with a couple students taking a while to quiet down after I rang the bell. It does take a while, and some groups catch on more quickly than others.
I have to explicitly teach and model correct behaviors intensively and many, many times - even in third grade! I also had to do it in first - I know, you feel like a broken record, but all of the "frontloading" of the rules, procedures, and routines will pay off in the end! Word of Warning: You will have to do it again after Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring breaks, too!
TeacherBug you will do great! Don't quit and don't give up. We have all been where you are currently. Sometimes even on my 4th yr of teaching I feel like i'm not to far removed from my first year of teaching. Afternoons are certainly tricky. Oddly enough my students do the same thing... but I wait them out. I begin to thank the other students who are ready. We are a PBIS school so I pass out a golden ticket, a sticker and more recently 1-2 fruit snacks for those students who are ready on time. I feel like I'm trading puppies in a way, but I told them I only want to see your best. So when I get their best they may get a reward. It keeps them on their toes. So I have 3 positive award systems in place so they want that more. My negative rewards I take a few minutes off their recess, they have to work alone in the classroom, call parent, note home, markdown on behavior log, they miss a treat etc. Dollar store has really great cheap awards that you can give students who are really turning their behavior around to keep them motivated to do better. Today my girls were extremely chatty and all over the place in the hallway so I took some of their recess time an had them practice walking in the hallway quietly, hands behind them until they got it right. You can do it! Keep pushing and don't give up on them!
If there is a more difficult job or more important job than teaching first grade, I don't know what it is. It is an incredibly demanding job, and one that has one of the higher turnover rates for a K-5 job. I would find excellent 1st grade teachers, and I would observe them. They are truly amazing. It is worth taking a day off to do so.
