Nothing is more conducive to a peaceful and productive year for you
and your students than successful classroom management. Classroom
management, however, seldom depends on a solid grasp of educational
content or on the originality of an integrated curriculum. It's usually a
result of successfully dealing with the nitty-gritty -- the 1,000 small
moments that arise throughout the day.
No one knows more about successful classroom management than
teachers who struggle with it on a daily basis. This week, Education
World brings you the benefit of their experience as we explore six of
the best "teacher tips" sites and sample the practical teacher-generated
tips we found at each of them. Most of these sites offer you the
opportunity to share your own ideas and tips, so be our guests! Join in
the fun and make these great sites even greater!
BUSY BEE ACTIVITY PAGE
We begin our exploration at the activity page. This site, maintained by
Canadian teacher Kevin Kearney, contains a number of teacher-tested
activities you can use from the first day of school to the last. Tips
are arranged within a number of topics and categories. Below is a
sampling of the tips Kearney has compiled:
- First Day of School -- Another Time Capsule Idea. Have
the kids write a letter to themselves. In that letter, have them
describe how they feel about being in their present grade, what they
think they will be learning during the year, who their "best" friends
will be, what they would like [the teacher] to do during the year, and
so on. Put the letters in a potato chip can and seal it. Reopen the can
during the last week of school so students can reread their time capsule
letters.
- Classroom Management Tips -- Open House Ideas.
On each group of four tables, put a clear plastic cup containing a
goldfish. After your opening remarks to parents, provide foot-long
thermometers -- or whatever you have -- and tell the parents to take the
temperature of the goldfish. This is a great ice breaker! (By the way,
to get the fish temperature all you have to do is take the temperature
of the water; the cold-blooded fish is the same temperature.)
- Elementary -- Portfolio Holders. Use large
cereal boxes. Have each child cover and decorate the box with
self-created artwork. Cover the artwork with contact paper. The box can
be used throughout the year to hold paper projects, audiotapes, and
videotapes.
- Computer -- Computer in the Classroom. Create a
database with students' information. Include fields for first and last
name, middle initial, phone number, parents' names, and so on. Once the
information is in the database, it can be used to make desk tags, locker
tags, birthday cards, certificates, labels for each student, report
card comments, and on and on and on.
When you're done reading other teachers' secrets on Kearney's
site, click the bullseye to share your own!
WORKS4ME TIP LIBRARY
One of the most comprehensive sites we found for classroom
management tips is the NEA's Here, you'll find more than 400 archived tips from
the NEA's Works4Me Classroom Tip of the Week, an e-mail message sent
weekly to subscribers. Teacher-tested tips are organized into seven
categories. On the Tips Library site, click on the following categories
to read teachers' tips:
- Teaching Techniques. A first-day assignment I use with my
students is to have them interview one another. After I start class
with a mini lesson on asking questions and follow-up questions, I have
them line up by birthday without talking, only communicating by hand
signals. Then I split the line in two and have them pair up with a
person across from them. They interview their partners and take notes.
The next day I ask each student to bring in a picture, and the students
introduce each other by reading the interview and posting it with the
picture on the bulletin board.
- Getting Organized. To prevent a mix-up of puzzle
pieces from different puzzles, I label the back of each puzzle piece
and the box or puzzle tray with an identifying mark. For example, a
puzzle of a kitten will have a K on each puzzle piece and also on
the box. This helps me when children choose to work different puzzles
on the same table and the pieces get mixed together.
- Managing Your Classroom. I've included a small
picture of each child on my seating charts with tape under each for when
I change seating. I staple a sheet of transparency film over the chart
and can make notes on the transparency. This is also a great help for
substitutes, who can quickly put the face and name together.
- Relationships. In the fall, we hold the
traditional open house for parents to meet the teachers. One idea that
has worked well for me is to videotape the students working on a project
a few days prior to the open house. I keep the video short (four to
five minutes) and make an effort to film every student at least three
times. Parents love it, and my evening is far more relaxed spending part
of each period narrating video rather than my presentation being the
center of attention for the whole period.
- Using Technology. I've developed lesson plans
for using newspaper editorial cartoons as a teaching tool in social
studies, art, journalism, and English from elementary through high
school. My husband, a syndicated cartoonist, created our Web site, which
includes current cartoons from 24 editorial cartoonists.
There are still 400-plus tips left in the Library! When you've
reviewed those tips and implemented the best ones, don't forget to
submit a tip of your own!
TAMMY'S TECHNOLOGY TIPS FOR TEACHERS
You'll find tips -- many, many tips -- for using technology for
classroom management Tammy Worcester, an instructional
technology specialist for the Educational Services and Staff Development
Association of Central Kansas (ESSDACK), provides ideas for many
creative and useful ways for making technology one of your classroom
management techniques. The site includes directions on how to
- create and manage computer learning stations;
- use a template to design student projects;
- create an electronic portfolio;
- create a database of integrated technology activities;
- use a ClarisWorks database to document sources of text and
graphics taken from the Internet;
- design a technology workshop;
- use a spreadsheet to create a word search;
- design, proof, and publish a school newspaper;
- create on-line databases using FileMaker Pro;
- create a hyperlink hot list.
Take a look at the tips Tammy provides. If you have one to add,
why not drop her an e-mail?
TOPICS PAGE
you'll find many ideas submitted by teachers to
the Teacher-2-Teacher listserv. The tips are arranged by topic within
categories; the categories include Classroom Decor, Classroom
Management, Getting Organized, Classroom PR, and Back to School. Here
are just several of the teacher tips you'll find in this great resource.
But, remember, these tips are just the "tip" of the iceberg!
- Classroom Management -- SURPRISE! Pick out a surprise
activity, such as an extra recess or a small treat, then write
"SURPRISE" on the chalkboard. Throughout the day, if the class gets
noisy or students are out of their seats without permission, erase a
letter starting at the end of the word. Add missing letters when
everyone is behaving well. If the complete word is intact at the end of
the day, students get the surprise.
- Getting Organized -- Organize Those Stacks of Paper.
You've got bunches of papers held together with those giant-sized paper
clips, and the stack is so thick, the clip is all twisted out of shape.
Use spring-type clothespins instead. They stick out to the side when
you have all the stacks piled up on your desk, and you can tape scraps
of paper to the clothespins to identify what's in the stack.
- Classroom P.R. -- Weekly Parent Activity. Our
school is installing a Parent-Teacher Hotline, a telephone system that
allows teachers to record messages to their parents. Parents can call
in, enter the classroom I.D. number, and hear the teacher's message
regarding homework, upcoming activities, permission slips that need to
be returned, etc. We'll be using ours to include a Home Activity for the
Week, a simple learning activity designed to involve parents in the
learning/teaching process. But you don't need a high-tech scheme to pull
this off. Dream up a short activity, run off copies, and send it home
with students.
- Back-to-School -- To Tell the Truth. Have each
student write down three sentences describing himself or herself. For
example: "I have attended 11 schools," "I have an aunt and an uncle both
named Laverne," and "I love to vacation in CancĂșn." The catch is, two
of the statements are true and one is false. The students then share
their three statements with one another or the entire class and vote on
which they think are true and false. You are sure to learn some
interesting trivia about your new students.
- Classroom Decor -- Bulletin Board Headlines.
Whether you buy ready-made letters or cut your own for bulletin boards,
there are some tricks for putting them up. If you're centering the head
on the board, mark the center of the board with a piece of tape, then
lay out the letters on a table. Find the center of the headline, and
begin putting up the letters from the center, working your way out to
both ends. A mistake often made is to space letters too far apart.
Headline letters are usually set tighter than small letters; it won't
hurt if the letters touch. Rounded capital letters like O and C
are really taller than squared-off letters like A and M.
Make sure they extend beyond the imaginary top and bottom lines formed
by the other letters.
IDEAS FOR MANY AREAS OF CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
The idea of managanement of class Web
site includes a number of great ideas from teachers who've used them!
Some of the best tips from this Classroom Connection site include:
- Organization. Make a substitute folder early in the year.
Include class lists, fire drill rules, seating charts, alternative
schedule information (like late-day schedules), and a generic plan for
the day. Then create a form on the computer for your regular class
schedule. On this form, you can also include the location of teacher's
guides, a list of helpful teachers, procedures from the office, and your
discipline rules.
- Bulletin Boards. Collect baby pictures and
current pictures from your students. Place the baby pictures on one side
of the bulletin board and the current pictures on the other side. Give
each baby picture a number and each current picture a letter. Have a
contest to see who can correctly match the pictures. A variation is to
do this with pictures of the staff and faculty on a bulletin board the
whole school can access.
- Icebreakers and Energizers. Play People Bingo!
Make a 5 x 5 grid, like a bingo grid. Write "FREE" in the center space.
In all the other spaces, write things such as "Born in another state" or
"Youngest child in family." Fill in all the grids with items of
interest to the students. Make a copy for each student. Have the
students get the signature of a person who meets the criteria for each
block. The first person with a completed card wins.
- Grading. Break writing assignments and other
long projects into several small steps. Then grade and record these
steps in class as you move from one student to another.
RESOURCESMusic Therapy
Education Tips
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