Hello. I need some teacher's input. I am taking an online continuing education class on classroom management. One of my first assignments is to interview a group of teachers and come up with a top 5 list of classroom management techniques that a classroom needs based on teacher experience. I am asking you to submit a thing or two to add to my list of managment techniques that you could not do without when running your classroom. I would really appreciate your insight. Normally I'd go to my fellow teachers but since we are out of school, I thought this would be a perfect way to interview a lot of teachers at once. Again thanks for your help.
Do you have specific questions? Are you looking for behavior management or materials/resources/organization/time management kinds of ideas?
Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but...... One of the top five could possibly be getting the attention of the students. I think it is important to have a variety of ways to do this to be most effective and to make it more motivating for the students. Some of the things I use that I have had good succes with are: 1. Have a music box that can be stopped and started. When students are too loud or you need to draw their attention to you, play the music box. At the end of the week, if there is any music left to play, the students earn an reward...an extra recess is what I use. 2. Clap out a pattern to which the students answer back to in pattern...such as You:*****/ Students:** The clap pattern can be changed often, and the students love to come up with a pattern to use, too. 3. Give me Five 4. Count downs (or count ups) 5. Wait Time, where you stand quietly until you have everyone's attention. I have a rule that I use with this one, called the One for Five Rule. For every minute I wait for them, they owe me five minutes of recess time. I usually just say "One for Five Time" and they quiet down very quickly. 6. Modulating your voice, speaking a bit softer forces them to listen harder. Hope these help and are what you were looking for. Most are borrowed from right here at AtoZ!! Good luck!
My favorite management technique is teaching bell to bell. My kids are normally so busy that they can't find time to fool around. From the first day of class to the last, we work bell to bell. Hand in hand with that is content knowledge. A teacher who is seen by the kids as not knowing his or her content is going to have a hard time. You've got to know what they learned last year, what's coming up later this year, and what's coming up next year. If you can't answer "when is this used??" you're dead in the water.
Thanks for your responses. I guess I was not clear to the exact question. Sorry about that. Here is the assignment that I was given: Interview teachers and glean from them the top 5 classroom management techniques that they would not want to teach without. Keep the responses coming. Thanks!!
Depending on what age you're working with, to get their attention you can say something like "If you can hear me, put your hands on your head", then say something like "If you can hear me, put your finger on your nose", and different things like that. As more kids start to hear you and do the actions, the others will take notice and quiet down and do it.
~clap patterns ~chants (Teacher: 1, 2 Students: Eyes on you) ~song make overs(change the words of familar tunes: This class is really great instead of I like to Move It Move It.) - You start singing and the kids join in until you have everyone's attention ~having kids write their own notes home if they get in trouble (of course, I double check these and require them to be signed) ~reaffirming with a student who has been in trouble.
Bell Work! Having the kids sit down and do something the second they enter the classroom. It sets the tone for how the day is going to go and what your expectations are. If they come in and chat until you're ready to begin class, you've lost a lot of time and are bound to lose a lot more!
The biggest thing for me is to be proactive. Plan well. Pay attention to your transitions. Know your classroom dynamics. Pay attention to triggers. Do whatever you can to avoid pitfalls before they happen. Teach students the tools they need to do xyz. Consistency is key. As for attention getters, I use a wide variety of them. I use a lot of positive reinforcement. It not only helps the student but others want you to say these things about them. I do a lot of community building and talking about how we are friends and what good friends do.
