Weekly Tips Newsletter
Below is our newsletter for this week. Remember, we are not the end-all, be-all! We are just teachers sharing our thoughts and ideas with you. Feel free to modify strategies you receive from us to fit you and your classroom!
Idea Share: After our last newsletter, hear what other teachers have to say about using a calendar!
Hi! Something that has really helped me keep organized is simply writing all work related items on my calendar is red pen, and all personal/home related items in black pen. I also highlight all important holidays using a green highlighter and all birthdays using a yellow highlighter. This way, everything really stands out and I stay organized.
Amy
Ravine Drive Elementary School, Matawan, NJ
----------------------------------------------------------
Using a calendar...$20
Outlook Entourage...$50
Reminders that you can set up...PRICELESS!
Reggi Mainero
-----------------------------------------------------------
I am a special education teacher (resource) so I have a lot of IEPs and meetings to keep track of. This is a system I learned from my mentor teacher that works really well for me: First, get an oversize calendar (I use a desk calendar and put up about 3 months at a time). If it is a wipe off you can simply write things down and wipe them off, but paper calendars cost a lot less. I take small fluorescent post-its and write down each meeting date with all pertinent information on one post it. I then put it on the appropriate date on the calendar. If the meeting-date changes, just move it! You can also color code.
Irene Midler
Chavez Elementary, Ventura County, CA
Weekly Tip: The 3 P’s of Classroom Management – 3 part series
Part I: Positive Environment
As a volunteer Sunday School teacher, our children’s ministry director asked me if I would look over her sheet of classroom management techniques. “I am too wordy,” she said, “and I’d really like something simple and easy to remember. It should be three major points that would help those who aren’t teachers manage a group of kids.” My immediate thought was, You don’t want me helping, I’m about as wordy as you get. But then I thought about it. How would I simplify classroom management strategies into three major points?
Managing an environment of fifteen to thirty (or more) people is tricky. There is no simple method. There is no “EASY” button for classroom management. However, I did think of a way to communicate the essence of managing students into three areas: Positive Environment, Procedures, and Productive Students. Over the next three weeks I’ll address each issue. This week we focus on positive environment and how it affects classroom management.
(Tips Continued Below)
FREE Resource for Teachers - Perfect for Math and Science Teachers, especially!
“Building Homes” Teaching Resource Available for FREE to Educators
Students use problem-solving and decision-making skills as they design, build and sell a 3D home using “Building Homes of Our Own,” an interactive CD-ROM learning tool for middle and high school youth that is provided to classroom educators for FREE.
The award-winning program from the National Association of Home Builders uses home building concepts to bring real-world context to core lessons in math, science, technology, social studies and consumer economics. Students experience each step of the home building process as they work with schedules, budgets and stakeholders to ultimately sell their home at a profit to the most qualified buyer. Comprehensive middle and high school teachers’ guides provide additional activities, exercises and projects for single classrooms, integrative learning and even distance learning applications.
Classroom educators can request their FREE copy of this complete program (no shipping or handling charges) at: www.homesofourown.org.
Tips Continued…
A positive classroom environment encourages participation and risk-taking because students know they will not be harassed or belittled by the teacher. Students do not have to shrink within themselves to survive the forty-five minutes, ninety minutes, or full day with teacher who yells, throws things, or makes hurtful comments. In a positive classroom environment students can make jokes, engage in their learning, banter with the teacher, and feel comfortable with the tasks given.
Why is this so important? Let me ask you – when do you feel most motivated to be on your best behavior? Is it for a person who constantly makes you feel small or for someone whom you respect and don’t want to let down? Most students will go out of their way to harass and frustrate a teacher who belittles through words and actions. “Let’s see how mad we can make her today,” becomes the goal. Conversely, those same students will go out of their way to behave for a teacher who encourages and lifts up.
What are some ways we can create a positive environment in our classroom? Read below.
Featured Blog:
Getting Better All the Time by Coleen Armstrong, author of The Truth About Teaching: What I Wish the Veterans Had Told Me
Tips Continued…
· Welcome students each day with a smile. Take some time to talk to each person and find out how they are doing. I use the time when my students are copying homework and working on the focus assignment (the activity ready for students to begin as soon as they enter the classroom). While everyone is working I walk around the room and stop to talk to each student briefly. It doesn’t take that long and gives me a good idea of what is happening with each student. Those that need a little extra time get it.
· Interact with your students as human beings and as colleagues. Be respectful and it will come back to you in spades. Treat your students as you would the other faculty in the school. Yes, they are children, but they are also people. We adults can be childish ourselves at times. Children are simply that way more often. Yet, at the same time they can respond to you in very mature and appropriate ways as well – especially if we expect it of them.
· Focus on the positive rather than the negative. If you focus your discipline/behavior program on consequences, then you are constantly reacting to misbehaviors. Your focus is on the negative. Instead, create a program that encourages students to act appropriately. You might have a chart or map that students “travel” or advance to a goal of some sort through good deeds and behavior. Every time a student does something good for others, is helpful, turns in homework, etc., he/she gets a coupon or ticket. Collect “x” number of tickets to earn movement to the next point on the chart. No matter what type of system you create, the idea is that students earn their way to something good or fun through their positive actions. This type of program focuses on the positive behaviors of students.
· Redirect misbehaviors rather than always punishing the student. If you see a student getting ready to push another, catch his/her attention and silently shake your head. Smile and nod when they stop, then say a silent “thank you” to the student. If you notice a younger child misbehaving, redirect his/her attention to another activity. Distraction is an excellent tool to help manage students. Of course, this does not mean that you never have consequences. You will also have those students who deliberately set out to defy and misbehave. You begin with redirection, and the positive reinforcement, but be ready to use consequences when the action calls for it.
(Tips Continued…)
Featured Book(s): Survival Kit for New Teachers and Survival Kit for New Secondary Teachers
Survival Kit for New Teachers: Empowering Educators for Classroom Success is a comprehensive guide for new teachers. This book includes 418 pages of information that answer the most frequently asked questions of new teachers. Topics include before school starts, first day of school, lesson planning, parent communication, assessment, reading & writing across the curriculum, brain-based classroom, motivating students, and more! Reproducible forms are included. Survival Kit for New Teachers and Survival Kit for New Secondary Teachers are both available in print and as an ebook. Click on the blue links to learn more.
Tips Continued…
Teachers who focus on consequences and set up a discipline system that relies on punishment, or even losing potential rewards (which is also a punishment), set themselves up for disappointment. Students continue to behave immaturely because they are treated as immature. Misbehavior continues because it is assumed automatically that students will misbehave. The focus is entirely on the negative and not the positive. In many cases students will deliberately misbehave to see how many “marks” they can rack up in one week. A particularly bright student might say to himself, “Well, I’m always in trouble anyway, so let’s see how far I can push it.” It is goal setting – negative style. A negative focus almost always results in this type of negative thinking by students.
Our students will live up to our expectations, whatever they might be. When we expect students to fail, they fail. When we expect them to misbehave, they misbehave. When we expect them to act immaturely, they act immaturely. On the other hand, when we expect students to achieve high goals, they reach for high goals. When we expect them to behave, they behave. When we expect them to act more maturely, they act more maturely (well, most of the time. J ). You get the gist of what I’m saying. As the leader of the classroom, our focus sets the stage for student actions and behaviors. So, where does your focus center? How do you set the stage for your students? And what results do you get in return?
Inspirational Thought
“The chief lesson I have learned in a long life is that the only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him; and the surest way to make him untrustworthy is to distrust him and show your distrust.” ~Henry L. Stimson (1867 - 1950)
Featured Website Resource:
Thoughts for Reflection
What type of school environment exists where you teach? Does this environment motivate you to come to work and do your best? Why or why not? How does this environment affect your own classroom environment? How would you describe your classroom environment? How would students describe your classroom environment? Think about taking your own class as a student. How would you respond to the teacher? What might you change, if anything, to encourage a more positive environment? What types of behavior do you expect to see from your students? Do they live up to this expectation? How do you think changing your expectations would change student behavior? What type of discipline system/behavioral system do you have set up for your classroom? Is the focus of this system positive or negative? How effective is this system for you? Is it motivating to students? Why or why not? What might be more motivating to your students?
Feedback
Want to respond and share with other ways you develop a positive environment in your classroom? Respond to this email and we'll combine them all together in our Idea Share!
Have a great week!
Emma
These thoughts and ideas are brought to you by Emma McDonald co-author of Survival Kit for New Teachers AND the AWARD WINNING Classrooms that SPARK! Find us at www.inspiringteachers.com
If you love these strategies and want more, check out all Survival Kit for New Teachers (Newly Updated) has to offer. Available in elementary and secondary editions.
Veteran teachers, check out the Teachers' Choice Winner Classrooms that SPARK!
Both of these great resources are available as eBooks as well! Click on the links to learn more.
The entire contents of this e-zine are Copyrighted by Inspiring Teachers and Emma McDonald. If you would like to reprint all or parts of this e-zine, please contact Inspiring Teachers at 972-496-7633 or toll-free at 1-877-496-7633 or via email to info@inspiringteachers.com