Class+Management


 * Classroom Management Strategies **

****3-2-1 or individual lesson (Amy K.)**** **When the AT or I needed the class to be quiet, we used the "3-2-1, I need your attention up here". If students were talking too much while my AT or I were teaching, they were given an individual package with a form to fill out about what they did that was disrespectful and an individual lesson so they could teach themselves the lesson. They were sent to another part of the class to complete their task. If they were still disruptive to the class, they were sent in the hall. The next level would be to send the student to the office.**

**Just wanted to add, I felt I was starting to lose my students with this technique at some point, so I started doing 5 - 4 - quiet - 3 - have a seat - 2 - eyes up hear - 1! This really helped get them back (Rubina ) **

One issue that was persistent in my classroom were students calling out. At the beginning I would call out the student and make them stop. But this didn’t always work so well, because they would stop for maybe two minutes but then continue again. So as the days continued I started using different strategies such as proximity, or moving the student. These students were calling out to take the attention away from the lesson because they weren’t understanding or weren’t following along. So as the weeks went on the students weren’t calling out as much and actually raised their hands to ask questions if they weren’t clear.
 * Calling Out - Girthiga**

**Classroom management (Rubina)** By far, this was the most difficult and challenging portion of my placement. I feel it is important to have classroom expectations set out so that students will adapt to following them. Sometimes I went home, took a nap and tried to understand what went wrong in the day, why was it so difficult to control the class. I think classroom management is a fundamental concept that teachers need to master in order to establish effective learning.

When the AT or I needed the class to be quiet, we used the "3-2-1, I need your attention up here". If students were talking too much while my AT or I were teaching, they were given an individual package with a form to fill out about what they did that was disrespectful and an individual lesson so they could teach themselves the lesson. They were sent to another part of the class to complete their task. If they were still disruptive to the class, they were sent in the hall. The next level would be to send the student to the office. Just wanted to add, I felt I was starting to lose my students with this technique at some point, so I started doing 5 - 4 - quiet - 3 - have a seat - 2 - eyes up hear - 1! This really helped get them back (Rubina )
 * 3-2-1 or individual lesson (Amy K.)**

The teacher had specific key words that he used in class to direct how he wanted them to behave. All the keywords were explained to them at the beginning of the year and the students would follow the instructions. “Shh” was used when the teacher wanted them to settle down and bring the noise to an appropriate level. They were allowed to talk, but had to talk quietly. “Zip” was used when he wanted them to be absolutely silent and listening to what he had to say. “Hold” was when he wanted them to put their hands down or keep their comments until the appropriate time.
 * “Shh” “Zip” “Hold”** - Chris Nelan

At my placement, a few of my lessons completely flopped. They crashed and burned and there was no coming back from them. I defaulted to my new favourite thing: DPA. DPA has saved me many a time: if lessons are going badly, DPA; if lessons are boring: DPA; if students are just absolutely drained: DPA; if students are way too hyper and need to take it down a notch: DPA; I know this is such a great thing because, no matter how terrible the lesson was going, as soon as I did some DPA with my kids, they were happier, much more cooperative, and they actually gave me little words of encouragement and thanks.
 * DPA (Vicki)**

I saw this demonstrated and it worked wonderfully. More instructions were given in a low voice. It ended with "clap your hands if you can hear me". However, when I tried it, about 4 students touched their noses, but everyone else stopped talking. They were just quietly reviewing each other's work, which is the task they were given. I had a blank moment, trying to decide if I should continue with this or should I move to the next topic :) This is supposed to achieve quietness, but I needed their attention. In the future I think I need to be prepared for any and all outcomes that may result from a strategy.
 * Touch your nose if you can hear me (Doina)**

I bought a rainstick last Monday night. It works wonderfully to bring the class back from group discussion. Extremely non-invasive, I didn't even have to say why I was using it. I just started giving instruction after they quieted to listen to it, and now we all just know it's to present more instruction. No talking over other people, no light switches, no clapping... it just works. Highly recommended! Can you elaborate on this rainstick thingy? (Doina) It's a musical instrument that mimics the sound of rain when you turn it over: [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainstick] Let me know if you still have any questions! (N-Dawg)
 * Rainstick (Nathan)**

I had a supply teacher come in one day this week, and she listed her expectations on a chart paper. There were 4 of them! 1. Don't talk when I am talking 2. Respect me, yourself, your classroom and your peers 3. Raise your hand to ask a question, to make a comment, or to move 4. Do not talk or blurt out So basically at the beginning of the school year, she established her expectations and reminded students when they were disobeying them. She reinforced some consequences that would take place. I think this is a great strategy to use when we start our new placement or even when beginning a new lesson this coming week. Okay, let's reflect here - Item 4 is basically them same thing as item 3. So we could have 3 rules. Item 2 means little to the kids and little to me. What is respect? It is good to have clear expectations BUT again, these are teacher generated - We do not teach the students to develop their own rules adn guidelines. In fact, by telling stduents "these are the rules" we are showing ceratin lack of respect for our students (Robin) Good point Robin! I kind of felt like it was an unnecessary pressure the teacher was putting on them, but then again, she was a supply, and needed to do that. I see your point. Note that you said "she needed to do that". She may not have needed to do that if the students genuinely understood and believed in the classroom rules established by their existing teacher. In other words, kids go crazy with supply teachers because they don't get a chance to develop rules and guidelines for themselves.
 * Expectations (Rubina)**

Had to use my first 'bump' today ... it was a long day - no outside recess due to the weather. The students were very restless in the afternoon after being inside all day. No physical education course today or DPA. A particular student was being very distracting to the class, after three warnings (which we discussed and agreed upon), I sent him to the back of the classroom to work individually and he left the group. Seemed to work, as the class saw I managed the classroom and the student saw I was not bluffing. We will see tomorrow..... Pray for sun ....... lol.....
 * The Bump (Brian)**

One of the best things I learned from Tribe is to say Thank you! I am glad I am trying to use it everyday in every class. I started my math teaching from the first day of this placement, and it didn't take me long to get along with the grade 8 students. I guess one of the reasons is because I would like to show my respect every time I can to their effort and their responses. I guess this strategy is really worth to try if you didn't try yet :-)
 * Tribes (Yana) **

First time a taught a lesson last week, I just jumped in and started it. Some of the students were talking while I was teaching. It was towards the end of the day too, so the attention span was really low. Next time before I began, I gave a small introduction about how I will be teaching them for the next few weeks, then I told them that all the rules that my AT has are still applicable while I am teaching, I revised some of the rules with them. Now I am using all the techniques that we talked about in classroom management, e.g. using gestures, proximity, calling a student's name, and voice modulation etc. and they are seem to be working. Students are so much more attentive and taking me seriously now. I am so glad that they are actually learning the content I am teaching. I think the actual reward for teaching is the satisfaction we get when we realize that the students have learned and understood a new concept because of us.
 * Reminder of Rules (Samina)**

The most important lesson I have learned for classroom management is to make sure you have the full attention of the class whenever giving instructions or lessons. If the class is chatty, don't try to speak over them. I have been doing lots of group work in my lessons and demonstrations, but my largest challange initially was bringing them back to full attention after doing an activity. My first few lessons I found that I was ignoring small side conversations during the lesson, which would tend to grow and create problems rather on. When I started stopping these behaviours as soon as they were occuring I found that all students were much less distracted and able to fully engage in the lesson and instructions for the next activity.
 * Having Full Attention (Brad)**

My AT said something which I found amazing, a student can't talk back to you unless you speak to them. He theory is to simply not engage the students in a battle. He just stands there and lets them yell or argue and once they stop he asks are you finished. He had a student who was a problem in previous grades and when she had an outbreak he just did as he always does. He asked if she was finished, and then said this is not your house, it is my classroom, and I will not take this kind of attitude from you. He gave her two options, to sit down and be respectful, or go out the door, but if she left, by the time she got to the office her parents would be called and it would take her a very long time to come back to the class. She sat down, and at the end of the year, ended up winning several awards. I think it's important to show he students that they should respect you. I would﻿﻿ agree that enaging in battles with students, especially in front of the class, is a not an effective classroom management strategy. However, I don't think I would ever say "this is not your house" because I don't know what that stdeunt's house would be like. I certainly wouldn't say this in front of the class. Basically, the teacher threatened the student with punishment and yes, the student conformed, but I would bet good money that the stduent did not respect the teacher. I think it is more important to earn genuine respect than force students to pretend they respect you. It would also be nice if the teacher showed respect to the studnet - In this case, there was little respect shown. I am not condoning shouting at the teacher, but talking with the student alone, listenting, and discussing why shouting at the teacher is not appropriate or effective would be my suggested approach. I get the punishment, dominant, my classroom style and it does work in the short term, but I don't think it earns respect.
 * It Takes Two for Backtalk! (Kathryn)**

Faux pas this week, students were assigned a home activity which I gave them some time in class to work on. One student had worked ahead and completed the work (which was good), but he was disrupting the class as other students were trying to complete their work (which was bad). My solution was to remove him from the table and have him work individually on the computer. I was thinking that I was rewarding good, but in reality I was rewarding ‘bad’..... Should have given him more work and not allowed him to work on computers which they view as a bonus. Well - It is always a good thing to have extra activities for students who finsih early - this will always be a problem. But I think it is worth explaining the student what the problem is and asking him/her what he/she thinks is a good solution. (Robin)
 * Rewards? (Brian)**

//Give me 5 was a classroom management technique used by my AT.// She would hold up her hand and say "Give me 5" The five are
 * Give me Five (Greg Leverton)**
 * 1) Eyes up front
 * 2) Stay still
 * 3) Listen
 * 4) Stop talking
 * 5) Hands free

**Reviewing Rules (Lisa)** I personally found that my class was reasonably well behaved most of the time. However, when doing activities I thought could involve a lot of talking or chaos, I made sure to review the rules. For example, when I taught a lesson involving the use of microscopes, I made sure to review how to use the microscopes and how I expected them to behave, such as how quiet they had to be. In addition, I showed them an example of how to do the activity and reviewed the safety. This lead to students knowing what they were doing and what was expected of them during the activity.

During my first day of practicum, the students had a work period to complete an art assignment. They had asked me to put on some music for them to listen to while they worked. I put the volume at a level at which they would not be able to hear if they were talking. Well, wouldn't you know it, they started talking and subsequently complained that they could not hear the music! I calmly asked for everyone's attention, and pointed out that when they were quiet, they could hear the music. Work continued. After a little while, the noise level began to climb again, and while I was assisting one student individually, my back was to the SMARTBoard. All of a sudden, I noticed that the music became much louder, and I turned around to find out why: the class clown had **boldly** walked to the SMARTBoard and turned up the music! I made sure to keep my composure, and calmly and politely asked him to turn the music back down. He stood his ground, saying that he could not hear it. I repeated my request. He stared at me. I stared at him. He broke. He went back to the volume control and turned the music back to its original volume. I politely asked him to turn it down further. He turned it off. I thanked him, and sent him back to his seat. The class was quiet... for three weeks.
 * Don't take no guff! (Alex Willison)**

**Classroom Management Challenges (Michelle K)** Classroom management was one of my most difficult challenges throughout the placement. Although my AT had a technique set up within the classroom for which all the students were familiar with, I found that it was not necessarily the method I would have chosen. This technique worked, some days, and others took some time and a lot of waiting to get the students to settle down. But by far, the most challenging aspect of classroom management for me was dealing with disruptive behaviour – I learnt that it is important to be consistent and stick to your word. If you say you are going to do something, do it! This was typically tested when we were working on group activities and labs where the noise level was higher than normal and everyone was busy working on their tasks. Students do not enjoy wearing the safety goggles required for science labs and tested me whenever I had my back to them. As soon as I was helping another group, their goggles would be off. I need to improve on a method that will better deal with students who just do not want to follow instructions especially when it comes to safety.