Posts Tagged ‘class management’
This has nothing to do with classroom management. At least I think it doesn’t. You decide.
We’ve been testing all week. You know, those practice standardized tests our county uses to gauge how much the students have learned and how well the teachers have taught. It’s a long week, to say the least. Typically, we test from 8:30 in the morning and don’t get a break until around noon. Ugh! What a long time to spend cooped up quietly in the classroom.
On the first day of testing, when we finally got to go to the cafeteria and pick up our bag lunches (double Ugh!), I decided to take my students outside to get some air and enjoy our food. It was a tad chilly, being the first day of spring in the mountains of western North Carolina. Most of the outside tables were tucked neatly into the shade, making for a very chilly lunch.
I found a spot a bit away from most of my students but still close enough that I could see everyone. This sunny spot felt just about perfect as I settled into my lunch (which I’d brought from home- never eat in the cafeteria…). A couple of peaceful minutes passed and I heard a student yell, “Hey, Mr. B! Are you lonely?”
I replied jokingly, “Extremely lonely.” At which point that student and his group of about five other guys sprang up, came over to where I was sitting, and grabbed a seat around me.
Now, truth be told, these guys were probably just hoping to warm up a bit in my sunny spot, but even still. That group of guys coming over to eat their lunch with me… Let’s just say that even if it’d been a lot colder, I’m sure I wouldn’t have noticed it.
Here’s to warmer weather and appreciative students!
Darren
This one’s fresh, my friends! I was inspired and tried this little trick today, and it really worked! If you’ve ever struggled to get your students to really, actively listen to each other, then try this little trick.
In class, we’re reading the novel, Ender’s Game. Great book. My 7th graders love it. During one of our written reflections, I had my students share their responses with everyone at their table. Typical stuff, I know. But this time, when it came time to share with the class, I had the students share something they’d heard from another student rather than sharing what he or she had written.
This proved to be quite challenging! More often than not, the students couldn’t remember anything that their other table mates had shared with them. I told them to share again, only this time, each student needed to be an active listener since each of them would be responsible for sharing what someone else had written.
The conversations and sharing proceeded again, only with more energy, more interest, and greater levels of participation. Afterwards, I asked the students if they could tell the difference between their earlier passive listening and their newer more active listening. Sure enough, they could!
I often try to get the students to break out of their “private movie where each of them is the superstar and everyone else is an extra in their move” but it can be difficult. This little listening exercise really seemed to help- both them and me!
Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.
Darren
I have laughed more with my students this year than I have ever laughed before. It’s not that these kids are any more hilarious than the rest of the students I’ve taught. It’s that I’ve allowed myself to open up in front of the kids and just laugh.
This sounds a bit strange, I know. But think back to the last time you really laughed out loud with your students- a laugh that was so real that you had to stop what you were doing and just… laugh! Sure you might have chuckled here and there, but when it comes down to it, I realized that I had been so concerned with presenting a strong image to the students that I wasn’t taking the time to laugh.
I remember my favorite teacher in high school laughing with us. Someone would say something silly or maybe something came out sounding much less intelligent than the speaker (me) had hoped. This teacher, Mr. Lambert, would hold his belly and just laugh! I still remember that to this day.
And now that I’ve allowed myself the opportunity to laugh with my students, I find more and more chances to laugh. And they feel more like laughing too!
You’d be amazed how far a laugh goes to help shape the classroom environment. A class that can laugh together (and definitely not at each other) is much more likely to be enjoyable, to have fewer discipline problems, and a much lower level of stress.
In our stressful jobs, doesn’t that sound good?
Hey! Where have I been?
Good question. If you teach, and I can only assume that you do since you’re reading my blog about teaching, then you know how easy it is to get lost in your job. This year I’ve really been involved at school and haven’t taken the time to update my blog like I should.
But that’s all about to change. I’ve recently had a serious increase in people signing up for my online classroom management training, and it’s reinspired me to continue with my blogging. After all, teachers learn best from other teachers, and I truly feel I’ve got something to offer the teaching profession.
If you’re looking for ways to become a better manager of classroom behavior, head on over to my website featuring my most current online class management videos: Take Back That Class – Class Management that Really Works! These videos are availabe for instant download and have helped hundreds of teachers manage student behavior- and in so doing, these teachers have told me that they really enjoy their jobs much more!
Doesn’t that sound good?
Darren Barkett
HelpingTeachersGrow.com
Here I am, like so many of you out there, suffering through your final days of the year. Here in North Carolina, we’ve already had our end of the year tests and our grades have already been turned in. Typically, this is the time of the year when our students start unraveling, sometimes more than just a bit… Now my homeroom students this year have been just fantastic. I wish I could keep them all day. We could work on a loosely organized project for hours and have a great time together.
But some of my other classes…Well, they can get a bit trying. I often find myself getting a bit uptight at these changes in my students’ behaviors. I want to jump all over them and fuss at them and tell them how disappointed I am with their behavior.
But then I remember. It’s the end of the year! We’ve only got a few days left together! As long as they aren’t being unsafe or hurtful to others, then perhaps I can take a different approach. Perhaps I can try just smiling and laughing and *gasp* relaxing a bit with them.
If figured it was worth a try. And wouldn’t you know, they actually became better behaved. Instead of taking my more relaxed attitude as a sign that they could continue to behave inappropriately, most of my students showed better behavior. Their behaviors actually improved.
I really like being able to relax with my students at the end of the year. All too often we get caught up in all these last minute tasks that take so long to accomplish that we get a bit grumpy. But if we can just remember that our students will remember us more for how we are on these last days of school that we were throughout the last 180 days, it might make it a bit easier to…relax and enjoy these last moments with our students.
Darren
Well, after a very long week of taking North Carolina’s standardized tests, we’re finally done. I am so thankful to have a great homeroom this year. What always ends up happening with our testing is that as the school finished up at different times, we are stuck with our homerooms for extended periods of time.
Now typically, this isn’t a big deal. We can move around the class, do class work or finish up projects. But with this testing, we have to be very quiet and stay in our seats. Ugh! It makes for a boring and very slow passing morning.
We finished up just a couple of hours ago, and my homeroom made this process so relatively painless. I hear horror stories from other teachers about how their students behaved, both during and especially after the test. I’m just glad my homeroom is as well-behaved as they are.
I know part of that is due to the standards I’ve established for classroom behavior. But another large part is that those kids are just so darn good!
I’ll be sad to see this batch go…
Darren
I’ve been teaching long enough to know what helped me be successful as a teacher. But what helped me might not be the same thing that would help you…
So, a question for you. What would help you most in your classroom? What is your greatest challenge in your classroom? What brings you down and drains your energy in the classroom?
In other words, how can I best help you grow as a teacher?
I’m busy creating my curriculum for the six week seminar due to be released in August, and I want to make sure I include aspects of teaching and classroom management that will be most helpful to you.
Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. I very much look forward to hearing from you!
Darren
I was recently checking out the boards over at teachers.net (great source for troubleshooting school issues of all types) and ran across a thread that really grabbed my attention. The teacher had had a pretty rough year. The students didn’t respond well to her and she was thinking about quitting.
Many of the other teachers on the boards gave her solid classroom management advice along the lines of what you can find here- create a plan, teach and model it, implement and reinforce it consistently… She was wondering how her students she was working with would respond to her new efforts at implementing a classroom management plan.
This reply by poster marjoryt really put things into perspective nicely. Here’s what she wrote:
How bad was my first year of teaching? I was asked not to ask to
return – that’s how bad! (Basically – they didn’t want me again.)
The problem was ENTIRELY classroom management.
My next job was in an alternative school – I had studied everything
available on classroom management and went with Wongs’
recommendations (sorry, Tom, but you weren’t around in 1998). That,
coupled with a strong principal, put me on a good path – I actually
got BETTER every week. During that second year, a few students
would say, “X says he was in your room last year, and he did 1, 2,
3, 4 and got away with it.” My reply was always, “Different year,
different school, different attitude – do you NEED to be bad in my
classroom?” I didn’t deny it, but wasn’t about to slip into bad
habits. Amazingly enough, my then current students agreed that we
had a good relationship going – no need for attitude.
In my 3rd year (second year in the alternative school); in walked 3
students from my first year. They saw me and were immediately
prepared to resume business as normal (causing me grief). This is
what you are imagining now. Here’s what I did:
1) Welcome to my classroom again.
2) I’ve learned from you! I do things DIFFERENTLY now!
3) I know you’ve grown up some physically and intellectually – we
want the old, bad behaviors to be in the dim, distant past.
4) Allow me to show you how things run in this classroom – you can
settle in quickly and start enjoying success almost immediately.
And, that’s what I did – I told EACH student exactly how the
classroom worked – as if they were each a brand new student who
didn’t know me from Adam’s housecat.
When they behaved normally, then I poured on the praise, just like a
new student. If/when they misbehaved, then I treated them exactly
as a new student and corrected them exactly the same.
Get your ducks in a row as far as curriculum and activities, and get
your ducks in a row for managing the environment. Your principal
knows you had some issues last year; talk to him/her about your
plans to head problems off and listen to any ideas proposed.
Great advice. The students really take their lead from us. Whatever we reinforce, both consciously and unconsciously, the students follow.
I wrote her and asked if I could include her response. She agreed and even expanded on the story a bit. I’ll save that story for a little later. It’s too good to pass up, hearing how a full-time chicken farming mother went back into the classroom, struggled, was nearly fired, and discovered how she could manage her students effectively.
You can do this!
Darren