IDEAS FOR NEW MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHERS
GRADES: 6-9
1. In order to teach, you must have control over your classroom. This does not mean you should act like a dictator. If you try to teach without establishing control, then the quality of teaching will suffer.
2. In order to have true respect, you must give it. This does not mean that you accept undesirable comments in the classroom nor does it mean that you can run a classroom without some consequences.
3. In order to have discipline there will be consequences for bad decisions. This does not mean that consequences must be harsh to accomplish its job. Harsh consequences do not accomplish much except for breeding hatred. Consequences should fit the offense. Often the natural consequence is the best.
4. In order to be the authority figure in a classroom, there is an imaginary line that you shouldn't cross. Does that mean you cannot be a friend to your students? No, it means that if the friendship gets in the way of education, then it has crossed the imaginary line. (For instance, others may see such conduct as playing favorites and it could undermine your relationships with them.)
5. A teacher should always strive to fairly apply the rules.
6. A positive classroom will accomplish much more than a classroom that is filled with negativism--don't threaten your students.
7. If you discipline in anger, your judgment can be in error. Learn to be calm in the face of problems. It will be a healthier approach for you, and your students will learn from your problem solving abilities. Don't take your students' remarks personally--students at this age may hate a teacher one day and love him/her then next. It is a sign of their age, not their overall opinion of the teacher.
8. It is important to act, not react. Give students choices--for example:
1. You may stay here and make changes in your personal choices.
2. You may stay in the room, but change your seat to an area where you agree there will be fewer problems.
---When you give students choices, they have power--power to make a good choice and continue receiving instruction.
9. If the emotional and/or physical well being of a student is at risk, then the offender should be removed from the room--no choices.
10. Classroom control, like teaching, requires personalization--what works best for your is what you should do.
The above list is generalities that work. Think about using them.... Whatever you choose, keep a positive atmosphere in the classroom.
START THE DAY THE RIGHT WAY
Words of welcome. Start each day by greeting students at the door. A warm personal welcome sets the tone for the day and gives the teacher a chance to assess each student's mood and head off problems before they start. One teacher reports that she offers her younger students a choice of three greetings -- a handshake, a high five, or a hug. Their responses, she says, tell her a lot about how each student is feeling that day.
A sea of calm. Kids who arrive at school wound up or upset often calm down, experienced teachers say, if classical music is playing as they enter the classroom. Some teachers also turn the lights down low and project the morning's brainteaser or bell ringer activity onto the chalkboard with an overhead projector. That spotlight in the dimly lit room helps focus students' attention on the day ahead.
TIME'S A WASTIN'!
For most teachers, there are never enough hours in a day. Saving even a few minutes of your time can make a big difference in what you accomplish this year.
On the move. Increase flexibility in seat assignments -- and make life easier for substitutes -- by creating a visual seating chart. Take a digital photograph of each child in the class. Print the photos and write the student's name at the bottom. Attach a Velcro dot to the back of each photo and to a seating chart created on laminated poster board. The Velcro allows seats to be changed as necessary, and substitutes love being able to easily identify each student.
Make it up. When distributing work sheets, place copies in folders for absent students. At the end of the day, simply label each folder with the absent students' names, and missed work is ready for the students' return.
Would you sign in, please? Avoid time-consuming attendance routines by following the technique used by a Washington teacher. Write each child's name on a strip of tag board, laminate it, and glue a magnet to the back. Each day, post a question and possible answers on a whiteboard. Students can "sign in" by placing their magnets in the appropriate answer column. Questions might be personal, such as "Do you own a pet?"; trivial, such as "What was the name of the Richie's mother on Happy Days?"; or curriculum related.
Write on Wipe off – laminate a seating chart of your room, use a sharpie to write down student’s names. Then use a vis-a-vie pen to mark a quick grade, attendance, participation. You can use different colors on different days and enter grades in the computer when you have time.
Make attendance count. If you prefer to take attendance individually, make it meaningful. Instead of calling out students' names and waiting for them to say "Here," ask each student a quick question related to the previous day's work.
WHERE'S MY PENCIL?
The average teacher spends $400 a year of his or her own money on classroom supplies. At that price, holding on to the supplies you have can be a priority. But who has time to search every child's backpack for borrowed pencils? These teacher-tested techniques can save your money and your sanity.
Forget-me-nots. A South Dakota teacher uses floral tape to attach large silk flowers to the tops of the pens and pencils she keeps for student use -- turning the writing tools into hard-to-forget flowers. The "flowers," kept in a vase on the teacher's desk, also serve to brighten up the room.
Do you have a shoe to spare? If you find the flower pens cumbersome, try the technique used by an Iowa teacher. She allows students who forget their pens or pencils to borrow one -- if they give her one of their shoes. Students only get the shoe back when they return the pencil. No half-shod student ever forgets to return that borrowed pencil!
Neither a borrower nor a lender be. This tip comes from one of Education World's regular contributors. It developed, says Brenda Dyck, a teacher at Masters Academy and College, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, because she grew tired of dealing with students who came to class without pencils, texts, or homework. In Dyck's classroom, each student starts the term with 100 points toward a "Preparedness Grade." If they come to class with a pen or pencil, textbook, and completed homework, they get to keep the 100 points. Every time they show up without any one of those things, however, one point is subtracted from their grade. The students' report cards include a category called "preparedness," which counts toward their final grade. "For some reason, keeping their 100 points is quite motivational for my middle school students," Dyck says. "Unprepared students have become almost nonexistent in my classes. I've been amazed!"
MOTIVATION
Discipline problems, experienced teachers say, can be greatly reduced if students are properly motivated -- to come to school, to arrive on time, and to work diligently while they're there. Some simple techniques can make doing the right thing even more fun than misbehaving.
Round 'em up. First you have to get them there. Discourage absenteeism by randomly choosing one student's desk or chair each day and placing a sticker beneath it. The student who arrives to find the sticker under his or her seat gets to choose a small prize. If the student is absent, of course, the prize is forfeited. (And the other students are always happy to pass along that news!)
Don't be late. A teacher in California discourages tardiness by inviting students who are not in their seats when the bell rings to go to the front of the room and sing a song. "Sometimes we have a duet, a trio, and even a choir," she says. "It puts a smile on everyone's face and starts the class in an upbeat way. And no one has been more than 30 seconds late since I started using this technique!"
Can you spell homework? A simple group motivation technique can be helpful in encouraging students to complete their homework. Every day all students in the class complete their homework assignments, write one letter of the word homework on the chalkboard. When the word is completed, treat the entire class to a special reward.
Not a minute to waste. Do you find yourself losing precious minutes as you attempt to change activities? Tell students that they are going to be rewarded for the time they don't waste during the day. Explain that you will give them 3 minutes a day of wasted time. They can use up that time each day or save it up and use it for something special. Agree on something students could do with the "wasted" time and decide how much time they will need to save for that special event. Tell students that as soon as they've saved the required amount of time, they will be able to hold their special event. Each day, give students three minutes. When they waste time during the day, start a stopwatch, time the amount of time wasted, and subtract it from the three minutes. You'll be surprised at how quickly your students learn the value of a minute!
The door swings out. Sometimes it seems as though you have a swinging classroom door -- leading straight to the restroom. How do you determine if those restroom requests are legitimate or just an excuse to leave the room? Stop guessing! You can discourage middle and high school students from asking to leave the room unnecessarily by providing an unwieldy or embarrassing hall pass. Some suggestions: an old wooden toilet seat or a huge stuffed animal.
YOU DONE GOOD!
Many new teachers make the mistake of thinking that discipline is all about dealing with poor behavior. In reality, the best discipline is the kind that encourages good behavior. Try one of these strategies for encouraging students to do the right thing.
The victory dance. At the beginning of the year, help students create a classroom victory dance. When you want to reward them, either individually or as a group, allow them a minute or two to perform the dance.
Cheers. Reward students for good work and good behavior with a silent cheer.
And the winner is ... Throughout the week, "catch" students in the act of doing something good -- whether it's good work or a good deed. Write down each student's name and good behavior on a slip of paper, and place it in a jar. At the end of the week, draw a few names from the jar and hand out small prizes to the winners of the drawing.
I spy. Create character "tickets" by writing the words I Spy, along with a list of positive character traits, on slips of paper. When you see a student demonstrating one of those traits, circle the trait and write the student's name on the paper. At the end of each month, count the papers and name the student with the most tickets "student of the month." Display his or her picture on a classroom bulletin board, and at the end of the year, reward all students of the month with a pizza party or another special treat.
Snaps. This is a safe way for students to compliment each other without worry of embarrassment. Label a coffee can for each class and allow students to drop in a positive compliment to other students. Students should write the name of the person they want to compliment and a short specific compliment of something they’ve noticed during class (example: “good job participating in class,” or “
Poppin' good. Each time the entire class receives a compliment from another teacher, completes their homework, or behaves particularly well, place a small scoop of un-popped popcorn in a jar. When the jar is full, have a popcorn party.
Campfire. A great reward and a chance to bring your class together. If a class has earned a reward you may consider a Friday ‘campfire.’ Turn the lights down, use a small lamp, or your overhead to make the classroom seem more like a late night campground. Move all the desks and have the students sit in a circle. Have students play team building activities (you can even tie in your current curriculum) have students share their thought and concerns on how the class is going and any thoughts on how it could be improved.
Now what?
What are you going to do with all those great tips to make sure you don't forget them? Print this article and cut it up into individual suggestions. Paste each idea to an index card and file them under an appropriate category in a recipe box. It's a sure-fire "recipe" for a successful year!
Model. Model. Model. As needed, the teacher models many of the following expectations.
* How to move safely in the classroom.
* Proper voice levels for different activities (outside volume, partner work volume, silent volume, stage volume, and so on.)
* Quiet signals.
* Circling up.
* Active listening.
* Sharpening a pencil. (how and when is the right time.)
* Raising hands.
* Organizing backpack to go home.
* Announcment routines.
* Entering classroom if you are late.
* Entering another classroom.
* Holding the door as you walk down the hall.
* Friendly greetings to classmates and visitors.
According to Fred Jones' Positive Classroom Discipline, "The most widespread management technique at home and in the classroom is nag, nag, nag."
It's also probably the least effective.
How can you avoid making that technique your own and create a "climate for learning"? This week, Education World looks to the experts -- teachers who've "been there, done that" and found a better way -- for answers.
Howard Miller, Associate Professor of Education at Lincoln University (Jefferson City, Missouri) suggests 12 steps teachers can take at the beginning of the year to promote effective classroom management.
1. Develop a set of written expectations you can live with and enforce.
2. Be consistent. Be consistent. Be consistent.
3. Be patient with yourself and with your students.
4. Make parents your allies. Call early and often. Use the word "concerned." When communicating a concern, be specific and descriptive.
5. Don't talk too much. Use the first 15 minutes of class for lectures or presentations, then get the kids working.
6. Break the class period into two or three different activities. Be sure each activity segues smoothly into the next.
7. Begin at the very beginning of each class period and end at the very end.
8. Don't roll call. Take the roll with your seating chart while students are working.
9. Keep all students actively involved. For example, while a student does a presentation, involve the other students in evaluating it.
10. Discipline individual students quietly and privately. Never engage in a disciplinary conversation across the room.
11. Keep your sense of perspective and your sense of humor.
12. Know when to ask for help.
MINUTE-BY-MINUTE MONITORING
Of course, the most frequently used management techniques are those that prevent small problems from escalating into big ones. Many classroom incidents can be prevented by a simple technique suggested by Hartford, Connecticut, teacher Robert Bencker. Bencker, who teaches at an inner city alternative high school program, suggests that teachers set the tone for the day by greeting each student personally as he or she enters the classroom. Use the opportunity, he says, to establish rapport, and to deal with such minor problems as gum chewing, boisterous behavior, bad moods, or unwanted materials, quietly and discretely -- before they can erupt into public confrontations that threaten control and disrupt the class.
But don't stop there. Once students are in the classroom, you'll want to continue with some of these teacher-recommended techniques for maintaining control without confrontation:
* Establish eye contact.
* Move around the room and increase proximity to restless students.
* Send a silent signal.
* Give a quiet reminder.
* Re-direct a student's attention.
* Begin a new activity.
* Offer a choice.
* Use humor.
* Provide positive reinforcement.
* Wait quietly until everyone is on task.
* Ask a directed question.
And, when all else fails, try something else!
Creating a climate for learning is probably the most important -- and most difficult -- task a teacher faces, but it can be even more difficult for beginning teachers. As former U.S. Department of Education teacher-in-residence Mary Beth Blegan says, "Setting the classroom environment is key. For a new teacher that means pretending that you know what you're doing."