Classroom Management Tips

Classroom Management can make or break your learning environment.

- Meet students at the door. Welcome each child into your class. Say good morning/afternoon. Call students by their name.

- Ensure students are quiet before entering the room. If the students are loud in the hall, they will come into your room the same way. At the door, make sure the students are quite, orderly, shirts tucked in (if you're at a uniform school), etc. Whatever you want to see in your room, ensure that's what you see prior to their entrance.

- Use proximity. If a student is talking or off-task, go and stand close to them to help minimize attention-seeking behavior. "No eye contact is made, and nothing is said." (Albert, 1996.)

- Positive reinforcement. Use phrases like, "I like the way Ashley, came in the class" or "Thank you Mike for being on task." This will let the class know what you are looking for and most will strive to give you just that. If you use Class Dojo or Classcraft, give out 3 times as many positive points as negative.

- Develop a rapport. Demonstrate that you care about the students. Ask them about their day or weekend. Assign a Student Inventory and use the data from that in classwork. For example, if you know Luis likes soccer, then put a soccer problem on an assignment and use Luis's name.

- Be consistent. Put rituals and routines into place as soon as possible. Students need to know what your expectations are sooner rather than later. If you are inconsistent, students' behavior will mirror that. When students don't know what the expectations are, they are more likely to display off-task behavior. "Being consistent doesn't mean being a robot or a machine. It arises out of our caring for our students, and caring for their learning." (Smith, 2004).

- Criticize/compliment the behavior, not the child. Describe the behavior. Concentrate on telling the student exactly what they are doing to cause us grief. Only deal with what is happening at the moment, the what happened in the past or what we think will happen in the future. Be firm and friendly. Being firm and friendly says to the student, "What you are doing must stop now, but I still like you." (Albert, 1996). Use descriptive language, not judgmental language. (Cangelosi, 1993).

- Don't be afraid to apologize. "Public humiliation outweighs a private apology." (Smith, 2004) If you ridicule a student in public and need to apologize, then apologize the same way. Apologizing shows the students that you are human. The apology is like you are also apologizing to the class too.

- Kids Culture - Expose yourself to their favorite shows, movies, music, etc. This allows you to have something to talk about with your students, which in turn, helps you to develop a relationship with them.

- Start each day as a new one. No matter what your students did yesterday, that was in the past. We can't punish them for what they did the day before. Each day students need to start with a clean slate. In my opinion, this one may be the most important.

- Identify the reason for misbehavior: attention, power, revenge, or avoidance-of-failure (Albert, 1996).

• Attention-Seeking Behavior: 
• Use proximity.
• Give "The Eye"
• Positive Reinforcement
• Name Dropping
• Power and Revenge Behaviors
• Time out
• Acknowledge the students' power
• Remove the audience
• State both viewpoints
• Avoidance-of-Failure Behavior
• Stage an "I Can't" Funeral
• Modify instructional methods
• Require two "put-ups" for every put-down.
• Encourage positive self-talk

References

Albert, L., PhD. (1996). Cooperative Discipline. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.

Cangelosi, J. S. (1993). Classroom Management Strategies (2nd ed.). White Plains, NY: Longman. 

Smith, R. (2004). Conscious Classroom Management. Fairfax, CA: Conscious Teaching Publications.

Creating a Supportive Language Learning Environment

This chapter helps to provide comprehensible instruction. The following are 20 strategies that will make your classroom more comprehensible.

1. Simplify Vocabulary.
2. Teach key words before the lesson.
3. Repeat and rehearse new words.
4. Recycle new words.
5. Print, rather than write. (No cursive)
6. Provide plenty of concrete and visual support
7. Use key visuals to present key concepts.
8. Simplify sentence structure.
9. Emphasize key ideas and instructions
10. Use many nonverbal cues.
11. Make notes to signal key ideas, new words, and so on.
12. Give clear instructions.
13. Encourage oral rehearsal of key ideas and words.
14. Check often for comprehension.
15. Speak naturally
16. Be aware of figurative and idiomatic language. 
17. Provide enough response time
18. Provide peer tutors.
19. Provide alternative resources.
20. Reduce anxiety levels. 

Reference

Coelho, E. (2016). Adding English: A guide to teaching in multilingual classrooms. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Learnzillion

Learnzillion is a free website that houses 1000+ instructional videos. These videos are aligned to the Common Core State Standards. So, if you are looking for videos for English/Language Arts (ELA) or Math, then give Learnzillion a try.

Some benefits are:
- Can be used with Google Classroom
- Can set up classes (not necessary)
- Can assign videos to students
- Can search by standard (over 600 standards aligned)
- Includes teaching aids and notes
- Includes lesson bookmarking
- Includes lesson plans
- Students can take quizzes
- Math Content Grades K-8
- ELA Content Grade 2-12

Edhelper

Many teachers don't like to assign worksheets to their students for various reasons. Some teachers say that worksheets don't provide the rigor that the students need, or that "drill and kill" is not a good thing.

I feel like every now and again, a worksheet won't hurt. I use Edhelper for those times that I need a worksheet. I mainly use them for my sub plans. A lot of the time I use the problems from a worksheet and revamp it to add rigor, or do error analysis, etc.

Edhelper has all subject areas and all grade levels. There is a free version, as well as a paid version.

Classroom Library

Do you have a classroom library? I use Classroom Organizer. "Classroom Organizer is a free web-based program to help you organize and inventory your classroom library, find the right leveled literature and assess student development." 

Just create an account and download the app. You can use your phone to scan in the book's information by scanning its barcode on the back of the book. Because all books are not in the database, you may have to manually add some books into your library. 

Once you enter your students names in (or import them), your students can now check books out from you like they do at the public library or the school's media center.

Pocket Charts

Pocket charts can literally be used in any subject in class. Here are two examples for how I use pocket charts.  

1.) I use one for our class daily schedule. In middle school, we have A Days and B Days. I interchange the schedule based on the day. Depending on the grade level, this can be a student's job. That will take one less thing off your plate and will help students to be responsible. If you choose to assign this responsibility to a student, I recommend you change the student each month.

2.) The other way I use pocket charts is for my Word Wall. Most districts require teachers to have a word wall. I use a pocket chart because I change my words based on the unit of study. These are the same words that the students have written on their Walking Word Wall. Students are also allowed and encouraged to add words to the word wall. When they come across a new math word that they didn't know, they can write it on a sentence strip and add it to the Word Wall.

10 Things I Wish I Knew as a First Year Teacher

These are the 10 things that I wish I knew as a first year (or new) teacher.

1. Do something for yourself. You don't want to burn out. There are times when you will feel overwhelmed. That's normal. Be sure to detach from work at least once a week where you aren't doing any work. Watch a good movie. Get a hobby. Get a massage. Go out with friends. JUST DETACH!
2. Make a schedule for yourself. Break things down into bite size pieces. Staying late frequently can cause you to burn out. A sample schedule could be:
1. Do lesson plans on Sunday.
2. Stay late on Tuesday to get other odds and ends done.
3. Straighten/clean up your classroom on Wednesday.
4. Grade papers on Thursday.
5. Detach from work on Saturday.
3. Call parents when students are doing well, not just when they are misbehaving or struggling. Often parents are on the defensive when they receive a phone call from the school/teacher. This helps to break down barriers and develop a relationship with the parents.
4. Become a part of a Professional Learning Community (PLC). Find other educators that teach the same content/grade level as you. Find other educators that may have had difficulties (and have overcome) in something that you are struggling with. For example, go to Twitter and search the hashtag #ESOL or #SurfaceAreaLessons, etc. This will help you to see that you are not alone and that you aren't the only educator going through difficulties.
5. Find a seasoned educator to be your mentor and meet with them 1-2 times a month. Seasoned educators can be your saving grace. They can provide guidance, tips, tricks, suggestions, etc. 
1. Have them do an informal observation so that they can give you advice on a lesson. 
2. Have them review lesson plans or activities that you have planned.
3. Go and observe the seasoned educator. He/she may have some techniques that you can use.
4. Meet with them regularly to ensure you are following school/district protocols, you are on track to meet deadlines, you have the resources you need or how to obtain them, among others.
6. Seek out professional development. An effective educator never stops learning. Many school districts require professional development for recertification. Professional development not only helps to improve your craft, but will help to increase your salary. I highly recommend participating in professional development in your areas of weakness sooner, rather than later. Two professional development classes I took on Classroom Management are Cooperative Discipline and Conscious Classroom Management. Both transformed my classroom. I still use the books from these classes as resources.
7. Give names or numbers to your reading groups and/or group tables and seats. You can call table groups numbers to line up, award points, or something of the like. Within each table group (quads), I number the desks 1 through 4. Then i can call all of the number 1's to line up or pick up materials, etc. When I hold groups, I have had either 3 groups or 4. When I did 3 groups, I called them "Earth", "Wind", and "Fire". When I have 4 groups, I use "Accomplished", "Achievers", "Intellects", and "Scholars". I've seen other educators use sports team names and colors.
8. Develop a relationship with the students. Get to know your students. Ask about their families/friends. What foods do they like to eat? What movies are they watching? What kind of music do they listen to? Our students just want to know that you care about them. If they sense that, they will work harder in your class. If they are bilingual, try to learn some words/phrases in their language.
9. Spend 2 minutes each day with your trouble or disruptive student(s) talking to them and getting to know them. If you have a student that doesn't follow directions, is disrespectful or something like that, talk to them for 2 minutes everyday for 10-15 days. This will help you to develop a relationship with them and eventually will change or curve that undesirable behavior.
10. Use call and response or other attention grabbers. I found some attention grabbers on Pinterest. I use attention grabbers to bring the class back to order, to interrupt them (for a second) to make an announcement during group work, or if they are getting too loud. Some examples are:
1. I say "Holy Moly". The students say "Guacamole".
2. I say "All Set". The students say "You Bet".
3. I raise my hand. When a student sees my hand raised, they raise their hands too. As students see hands raised, they will imitate.
4. I count down from 5 to 1. If you count up, the students don't know what their limit is. 
5. If the students are in the middle of class discussion, I say "I need your attention in 3, wrap up your discussion in 2, bring it back in 1, thank you for your attention.

Stephen Krashen's Five Main Hypotheses on Second Language Acquisition

I found this slide show while searching online for Stephen Krashen's Hypotheses...

I hope you can find it useful if you're in school studying ESOL/TESOL/ELLs.

Krashen's Five Main Hypotheses from Mr. Robin Hatfield, M.Ed.

I Take It You Already Know...

I Take It You Already Know...

Of tough and bough and cough and dough. 
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through. 
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps.
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird. 
And dead – it’s said like bed, not bead.
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed! 
Watch out for meat and great and threat. 
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt. 
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for pear and bear.
And then there’s dose and rose and lose – 
Just look them up – and goose and choose. 
And cork and work and card and ward.
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Man alive,
I’d mastered it when I was five!

– Anonymous

7 Teaching Strategies for Classroom Teachers of ELLs

Here is a blog that I found useful that provides 7 strategies that teachers that teach English Language Learners could use...

...taken from Everything ESL (www.everythingesl.net).

ELL Strategies - Lucky 7

Here are a my Top 7 Strategies for teaching English Language Learners (ELLs):

1.) Slow down your speech. Some students are taking what you say in English, translating it into their native language, then translating their response from their native language into English. Therefore, the students need more processing time.

2.) Wait Time - Because all of that translating is taking place in their minds, ELLs need extra time to process what is being said/asked. Once you ask a question, give the students about 5 seconds to respond before moving on or rephrasing your question.

3.) Use graphic organizers to help organizing thinking.

4.) Use manipulatives in Math to help with the conceptual understanding.

5.) Use sentence frames and/or sentence starters to help the students to formulate their responses or conversations among their group mates.

6.) Provide an opportunity for the students to read, write, listen, and speak several times a day every day.

7.) Cooperative groups is imperative. It helps the students to practice their listening and speaking and it also takes some of the pressure off of them when it comes to responding to the teacher. Students should work in groups several times a week.

Google Certified Educator

For those educators that use Google Apps (GAFE) consistently, you may want to think about becoming a Google Certified Educator. The training is free, but the assessments are a fee ranging from $10-$40. Once you pass the assessment, you will be awarded with a badge that you can put on your blog, website, email, etc. Some school districts offer Google Certified Training for a fee, but here is the link to begin training today. You only need to sign in with a Google account.

Google Training Page

Versatiles

Versatiles are a fun, self-checking learning center. Students can reinforce previously taught skills. They have grades Kindergarten up to Algebra 1 and Geometry.

To see how they work, take a look at this video...

Combining Like Terms

We used Algeblocks to demonstrate combining like terms via ETA Hand to Mind. First, we recreated the picture. Then, we categorized the pieces: x, y, and the constant. From there, we were able to simplify the expression.

Here are some examples of our small group.

Bookmarks

I know many of us use some sort of Bookmarking feature to help you to access your frequently used website. I use Symbaloo. It's strictly for bookmarking. You can access all of your websites as long as you are connected to the internet. So, if you save your bookmarks on your computer, but don't have your computer with you, you may be out of luck.  With Symbaloo, just log into your account and there they are...all of your bookmarks.

It's easy! Create an account. I use the free version.
Just right click on a blank space to create a tile.
Type in the website address. Voila!
Your favorite website is now saved on a "Webmix" (pictured below).

You can also share a Webmix with others. For example, if you want your students to access certain websites for your class. 

Work Smarter, Not Harder

Screenshot of a Webmix

How to Screenshot

How to Screenshot on a Mac.

1. System Preferences (Figure 1)

2. Keyboard (Figure 1)

3. Shortcuts (Figure 2)

4. Screen Shots (Figure 2)

There you will see the 4 ways you can screenshot. You can take a partial or entire screenshot and save as a file or copy to clipboard.

Figure 1

Figure 2

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How to Screenshot on a PC.

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How to Screenshot on a Chromebook

Entire Screen
Ctrl + Window Switch Key

Partial Screen
Ctrl + Shift + Window Shift Key

Math Key Words Artifact

I create an artifact for Math Key Words to help guide the students when solving Expressions and/or Equations. The artifact is posted in the room for the entire year and the students also make their own. To create this artifact, we do this 4 Corners Activity.

1. Each student has a card with a word that means one of the operations on it (i.e. sum, per, altogether, etc.)
2. The students have a few minutes to discuss with their groups what operation they feel their word means.
3. The students then move to 1 of the 4 prelabeled corners (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division).
4. Each student uses the sentence frame: "I have (word) and it means (addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division) because (explanation). If the students are incorrect, the other students in the class get to correct them using Accountable Talk/Math Sentence Stems. The incorrect student then moves to the correct corner and says their statement again, correctly.
5. Then together we create the poster.
6. The students must write small enough that we can add to our poster at any time.
7. The students are also writing the information from the poster into their Math Journals.

There is an extra section for words that means Equal too, but we add that later after the 4 Corners Activity.

Here is an example of one we created...

Walking Word Wall

As an educator, I think we all have to have some sort of Word Wall in our rooms. It's probably a requirement.

I provide the students with their own Walking Word Wall to keep in their interactive Math Journal. This way, wherever they are (with their journals), they have access to their Math vocabulary. I have them fold in half and tape into the back of their journals.