Seven tips to classroom management

Seven tips to classroom management

tip one: Don't let anyone see you cry

As sad as it sounds, Teaching is tough. You got into this for all the right reasons, you wanted to help others, you love kids, you even loved your content area, but come the first month of school, none of that will seem important. It's not that you can't remember WHY you got into teaching, but you WON'T have TIME to remember why you got into teaching.

What's a fresh face like you to do? You need to pee on your territory, to use a canine metaphor. You are in charge, this is your world, and you will welcome them to it--when you are good and ready. Lay the ground rules down immediately. Practice that teacher face. It doesn't matter that you look like Lindsay Lohan, you need to get a different kind of game face on. Sometimes children can't help being sweet, personable, or even funny. DO NOT SUCCUMB!!!! Keep that teacher face on Some say to be mean and angry until Thanksgiving. Maybe, but you will need to put it back on in January. Consider it your Christmas present to your class.

Ground rules: Come prepared and don't back down. Depending on your school you will need to have a syllabus and your classroom expectations (rules) ready. At my school, we changed classes and students the first three weeks of school, so I had to continuously go over the rules. It was particularly difficult to hand these out because we had limited paper and ink (copier) resources. If you are particularly mean, your students can write the rules out from your overhead copy (transparency or PowerPoint depending on your situation). Take your rules seriously and FOLLOW through. I know they are adorable. I know this is only the second week of class. There are no exceptions. Be consistent. Treat everyone the same. Don't make concessions. But--be clear. Make sure that everyone know what is expected and that they understand the rules. How? That part you already know because you've been trained to teach. Make a jepardy game, think/pair/share, or perhaps a fill in the blank quiz. It's your job to make sure that they know. This not only includes the subject that you think you will actually teach them, but most important, your classroom rules and consequences.

When the dust settles slightly and the same kids keep showing up, more or less, get their input into what they want as their particular rules, consequences, and rewards for their own class. Try to get this done the first full week of class. It's not fair to have this completely one-sided. Well, who said anything about fair.





Next time: Keep 'em busy

Classroom mgt: Challenge to the gods

When you read a book by a guy named Harry Wong, a guy that often makes teachers squeal with delight, and he tells you the most important thing is classroom mgt, you either take him seriously immediately or you find out later that you should have taken him seriously.

As my first year and fifth career, teaching seemed like a dream job, good for my ego and a good way to help enrich the next few generations. Little did I know that it would all come down to classroom management. To paraphrase Dr Wong, it doesn't matter how smart, pretty, clever, interesting, or wealthy you are if you don't have classroom mgt.

Over the next month, I will impart how I failed in classroom mgt, how I wasn't as bad as I thought I was, and ways to get better. And the most important answer to what is classroom management. It meant something completely different to me 18 mos ago than it does today.

peace,

End O' Year

the School year is done. Mom is feeling better. Life is good.

It was a really difficult school year. K12 IS vastly different than higher ed. That being said, going through an alt cert program has really opened my eyes and given me a lot of knowledge in a concentrated time. Of course, I don't know everything about pedagogy, but I certaininly know more than before. I really wish I would have an entire year in one subject [ask me...I can go for days abt how I was treated]. It would have helped me immensely (and students) to have actually not been bounced around from dif class to dif class. Frankly, if they didn't need me, they should have allowed me to transfer. NOW, IT'S OVER!!!! Yipee!!

I have high hopes for next year. I really hope that I get the same group of kids for an entire year (instead of four dif grps), to TEACH SPEECH!!!! How great would it be to teach your actual subject. It would also be great to teach technology. I know I'm asking too much, but if you don't ask...

peace,

How many Virtual worlds?

How many virtual worlds are you in?

I have a SL -life (or did, I don't keep up anymore), accounts on link-in, twitter, FB, myspace, right here, and most other accounts that I will forget. Now, my friend has turned me onto a way to keep all these things organized and updated with one post (thanks, David). This seems to defeat part of the purpose. Afterall, are you communicating or broadcasting? My ego wants to be on as many new and groovy things as time and sanity allows, but I would hesitate whether the "pasta effect" is transactional communication. That being said, when you do have small groups aligned on Twitter, for example, that community is getting, hopefully, what they need and in turn can communicate their levels of interest.

another facinating aspect of this communication is an example from fwtno, who reviewed a technology conference via twitter. Now that sounds like community communicating! I know as someone who is not the chattiest person (for example, see last blog post date) in the real world, that I may not have the opportunity to assert myself. It seems twitter in such a scenerio would allow me to see many other points of view while adding my own.

I know it is human nature to want the next best, biggest,fastest, and newest thing. Lord knows that no one wants to be seen as a laggard. "Innovator" as a personal adjective is respectable, but never "laggard." I guess I am going to adopt the "early majority" curve on this.

Another year

I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to have two weeks off. It took an entire week just to unclench (my jaws). I now understand why teaching is considered a young person's game. You have to be young to be brain-washed into putting up with all the paperwork and blame.