My Classroom Management » Classroom Management Resources

Kindergarten Students Need Love Too…

jenniferw — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:18:30 +0000

It struck me today that an inordinate percentage of visitors to this site are here for tips on Kindergarten behavior plans and so I started wondering what it was about kindergarten that sent teachers searching for information.

The Typical Kindergarten Student

Kindergarten students are 5 years old, typically.
While some (or most, depending on the area) kindergarten students have been to preschool, this may be the longest these children have ever been required to focus, ever.
Kindergarten students love having fun and playing – anything resembling work is tedious and tiresome.
Kindergarten students typically like school and love to help and please others.

Classroom Guidelines for Maintaining Discipline in a Kindergarten Class

Kids thrive on boundaries. This does NOT mean that kids thrive on a super structured, every minute of the day planned out type of class. But kids do need to know where the lines are. It is difficult for a kid to please a teacher without knowing what behavior is acceptable (and thus pleasing).

That said, boundaries are often forgotten and always tested.

It is important to stick to your boundaries with two very important caveats.

It’s ok to change your mind. Saying no (or yes) and then changing your mind is ok – but try not to make a habit of saying no first, then changing your mind or else the kids will feel that they can get you to change your mind if they just push hard enough.
Kids need love too. Never substitute a boundary or “orderliness” for love. Depending on your school district, these kids need a lot of love that they don’t get at home, too.

There is no easy formula for managing any classroom full of students (any age!).

Do you have specific questions about managing a kindergarten class? Please send me an email or question in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer each question!

Homework Assignment: Student Reflection

jenniferw — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:51:53 +0000

Here’s your homework assignment for tonight: Sit down with a paper and pen or pencil and write down the names of all of your students. By this time, it should be easy (if you’re like me and you’re still struggling with names by this point in the year, don’t fear, you CAN learn them, keep trying!).

Now, look at the last 5 names on the list. Why did you think of these kids last? Think about each child individually. What does he or she need from you? Those kids on the top of the list are receiving the majority of your attention, thus the quick recall. Now it’s time to think about how to reach those kids on the bottom of your list.

Repeat this homework assignment each month – you will be surprised at how the names on the bottom of the list today may show up at the top of the list next month. Keep focusing on those names at the bottom of the list and you will reach each student in your class.

How Class Sizes Don’t Impact Your Students

jenniferw — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:15:51 +0000

With teachers headed back to school, final numbers are starting to come in. While some teachers are reporting classes at the elementary level as low as 18 -22 students, these teachers are in the minority. Most teachers are seeing 25, 30, or more students per class, even as young as Kindergarten. Some highschool teachers are seeing 40 or more per class!

Research, unfortunately for teachers, says that test scores are not impacted by class size. So as a result, those in charge of the school budgets, are saying great! Let’s get rid of some teachers, raise class sizes and we’re all good, the budget meets and test scores are not impacted.

Teachers all across the nation are trying to figure out how to manage a classroom bigger than they ever imagined they would need to, at every grade level except perhaps special education.

So how do large class sizes NOT impact your students?

1. Class size does not impact your students need for love and attention – love in a world where parents are too eager to ship their kids to school and attention when kids are too often ignored.

2. Class size does not impact your student’s need to learn life skills alongside of academics – skills that parents all too often expect teachers to take care of instead of teaching themselves.

3. Class size does not impact your students impact on the future – these children will become the future, so instead of waiting for politicians to change how things are now, try to focus on raising the next generation to care about their education.

It’s too bad that our current leaders don’t realize these things and don’t understand how packing kids into a classroom like sardines empowers teachers to experience stress, increased planning times, increased difficulties in classroom management and more.

How many kids are in your class this year? What are the increased class sizes going to make the most difficult for you?

Ten Last Minute Classroom Management Tips

jenniferw — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 19:31:34 +0000

Make all your class rules clear and visible
Demonstrate/role play how to follow the rules and classroom procedures
Remember to use positive discipline (rewards) whenever possible, but have consequences planned and ready for those students who simply will not respond to rewards.
Expect students to obey but be prepared down to every detail for misbehavior.
Remember – you are their teacher, not their friend, but at the same time, you can be their confidant.
Create parent alliances!
Reflect on how you handle management situations
Don’t be afraid to change your rules/classroom management plan, even 1 week into the school year.
Remember to praise students for anything you can!
Don’t forget to smile and have fun!

3 Ways to Beat the Summer Heat

jenniferw — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:20:43 +0000

Classroom management doesn’t end during the summer. Camp counselors and summer school teachers often find themselves in need of new classroom management ideas. Student behavior is often relevant to the summer heat in that hot children tire fast and tired children are often cranky and cranky children often act up.

Here are three ways to beat the summer heat while continuing with your schedule:

water, water everywhere – whether you use water guns, water balloons or a bucket, getting kids wet can cool things down in a hurry. Depending on the heat, they will dry quickly so the water is not likely to interfere with the next activity. For a targeted cool off spot, aim for the back of the neck.
Cool Treats – Anything frozen can be a great treat that doubles as a way to cool off. Experiment with different ideas and see what the kids like; anyone want to try a frozen marshmallow?
Plastic ice cubes – for indoor cooling off, buy some plastic ice cubes. These are filled with water but do not get you wet when they melt. I have some that look like fish. They are very cute, do a terrible job of cooling drinks down but can do a great job of sending a chill down your shirt!

How to Handle Racist Comments in the Classroom

jenniferw — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 22:37:33 +0000

Racist comments in the classroom should always be taken seriously. If a student confides in his or her teacher that another student said something racist that was hurtful, the teacher needs to take action and not allow this to slide. This is in fact a form of bullying and no matter what, students should not have to be the brunt of racist comments (black or white).

Racist Comments are a Form of Bullying

Racism is simply a social term placed on top of a school term. Racism is when one person of one race says something hurtful to another person of another race simply because of race. This is historically seen as Caucasian individuals speaking badly of African American individuals, a hangover from the days of slavery. The sad fact of the matter today is that African American individuals are just as likely to say degrading things about a Caucasian individual. This is also racism. When racist comments are made, it is teachers should not ignore or pass lightly over the incident.

Steps for Handling Racist Comments in the Classroom

1. Stop instruction and address the comment, informing students that this comment and other like it are not funny, and are not appropriate at any time whether in school or not. Some teachers may be surprised with younger students who may not realize what they are saying. Some have heard these comments at home and are simply repeating them without realizing that the comments are inappropriate.

3. The student or students who made the original comment needs to apologize to the student who was hurt. It is important that students know that these comments are hurtful and that an apology is the very minimum that must be done to reconcile the situation.

4. Have students take some time to brainstorm positive things to say about each student in the classroom. This will encourage students to build an atmosphere of encouragement and community.

5. If racist comments are habitual, it may be prudent to teach the background of where some of the common racist comments in America came from and open the instruction to student comments about why people may make derogatory comments about a particular race of people.

The guidance counselor in the school is another great resource for handling racist comments in the classroom.

Pre-K/Kindergarten Behavior Tool

jenniferw — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 17:40:52 +0000

While some children will respond to losing privileges and to warnings, many receive far too little praise for good behavior. Instead of drawing more attention to unwanted behavior in the early years of preschool and Kindergarten, consider a punch card behavior tool to focus on good behavior.

What is the Punch Card Behavior Tool?

Basically you take an index card, write the student’s name on it along with either the class rules or some expectation you wish to reward for good behavior and place it in a protective pocket pouch like this:

Then the child can “earn” hole punches in the bottom of the card. Choose either 5 or 10 punches for one card and then provide a larger reward for getting all the punches in one day.

Tips for Using the Hole Punch Behavior Tool
You may find this tool more useful for improving individual behaviors than for general class obedience.
To use for general class obedience, set a specific amount of time, like one activity/subject, and provide punches for those students who followed the rules during that time period.
Consider keeping track of earned punches for a larger class on a clipboard and punch all cards once during lunchtime and once while students are cleaning up at the end of the day to save time.
Yankee Trader or the Dollar Store are good resources for “prizes” earned when punch card is filled at the end of the day.

Establishing Classroom Management as a Tutor

jenniferw — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:17:32 +0000

When working as a tutor, classroom management and student discipline is a very different beast as one reader pointed out. There is no principal to sent the student to, parents are not always helpful and the child may not take the tutoring as seriously as “school work”.

The first step in establishing student discipline in a private tutoring setting is to set clear boundaries.

While you may not set clear rules like you would in a class, the boundaries need to be clearly communicated. In order to do this, you need to have specific behaviors you are looking to see in the student and acceptable alternatives. Here are some of the examples from my time as a private tutor.

First, I provided the parent with a list of expectations, separated into two sections:

What You Can Expect:

I will work with your children individually, and work to foster in them a love of learning.
I will provide a daily progress update for tutoring sessions that includes information on what we did, what I observed, and what you can do at home to help continue what we are working on.
I will keep all information regarding your family and your child confidential
I will provide make ups for scheduled sessions that you are unable to attend in cases of illness or emergency.

What I Expect:

I expect you to be prompt in bringing your child to sessions.
I expect you to be prompt in picking your child up from sessions.
I expect your child to be respectful and to try.
I expect you to call me no later than 30 minutes prior to a scheduled session if you must cancel.

These are vague and do not set clear boundaries for the students but it did make the parents aware that I expected the child to be respectful and willing to try, which provided me with a starting point.

More specifics of how I expected each individual tutoring session to go included:

1. Student would respond to me when spoken to or asked a question – I used a lot of humor to build a rapport with the student.

2. Students should ask questions when things do not make sense – this was an important lesson some of my students needed to learn, and I made a big deal of being excited about questions because that gave me something to teach!

3. Students should avoid negative words/comments. This was something I taught and reinforced at each session.

4. I expected students to do what I told them to. Honestly, I never questioned the fact that each student would just DO what I instructed them to do. If the student didn’t/couldn’t, I prompted them to ask whatever question he/she had and treated the situation as if I hadn’t done my job well enough yet, because when I had taught it properly, the student would be able to do it.

I incorporated these expectations into each day and each lesson. Students quickly became accustomed to these expectations.

In addition, one last point about teaching proper behavior – I used a ticketing system with my students. I had a ledger with each child’s name at the top of a new page. During the lesson, I would award tickets (find a roll of raffle tickets at any party store) for the things I wanted to see. For example I would give a ticket for:

Coming in with a smile/positive attitude.
Asking a good question.
Trying (especially when the try failed).
Telling the truth, etc.

At the end of the session, (for a one hour session) I added the tickets up and entered them into the ledger. I always ended 5 minutes early so that the student could then “shop” in my store. Everything in the store was bought at the dollar store and labeled with an amount of tickets.

How to Manage Students who Lie at School

jenniferw — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 13:45:22 +0000

What to do with a student who continues tell a lie in class no matter the consequences? This is a difficult situation, and one that every teacher faces at some point in time. Often the students who habitually tell lies are troubled and are trouble makers. There are times, though, when the child is sweet, friendly and easy-going. The question of how to handle a student who lies in class is often difficult no matter what the circumstances. Here are some quick tips that you can try today.

First, attempt to understand the basis for the lie:

Does the child realize that he/she is lying?

Does the child receive some sort of reward for lying? (ie. More free time, less work, the opportunity to leave the classroom, etc.)

Does the child have a psychological need that is not being met? (freedom, love, power, fun, belonging) So for example – is the student lying to gain importance in the classroom, to push the teacher’s buttons and get a rise, to earn a new friend, etc.

Once you have an idea why the lying is occurring, first try to rectify that situation. Remove rewards for lying (stop sending the student out of class, for example). Allow the child needing to gain importance in the classroom the opportunity to clean the blackboards each day. For the child who needs more friends, attempt to incorporate more group activities into the lessons for the day to encourage friendships.

Second, adjust the vocabulary you use during conversations with the child. Words to eliminate: lie, fib, believe, etc. These words will cause the child to throw up defenses and not listen.

Instead, use the word “I”. For example, “I am having trouble understanding what you said because Sallie doesn’t look happy about something. Can you explain it again to me?”

Often pathological liars will not stop at simply being caught and will instead defend themselves to the end of the conversation. Instead of getting caught up in forcing the child to tell the truth, reward those students who tell the truth in difficult circumstances and focus on building truthful relationships between students.

Classroom Management Grows With You

jenniferw — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:48:14 +0000

In talking recently with a third year teacher, I found a nugget of encouragement I wanted to share with all of you. He was explaining how his classroom management has grown even without him realized it, as he repeated an activity this year that he unsuccessfully attempted his first year. Not only did the activity go more smoothly, but the entire lesson was a much greater success.

As he grew as a teacher, his classroom management skills grew as well.

What can you glean from this?

First, don’t shy away from difficult activities just because you’re afraid of classroom management. Use your teaching skills to change the activity as necessary if it gets out of hand.

Second, if an activity goes poorly, reflect on it but do not throw it away. Pull it out again the next year or the year after and see how you have grown as a teacher.

Have you had an activity that went poorly the first time you tried it?