Monday, June 4, 2012

Classroom Management- NOT recreating the wheel

Even with my limited experience in managing my very own classroom, I know it is crucial that students are given procedures to follow, specific expectations to rise to, as well as consistency in each and every individual situation. I have a few ideas I have found on the Internet, heard about from a colleague, or created myself listed on this post (my very first and most exciting blog post ever posted!)


"Business cards" created to send home to my STAR student... Parents will love receiving positive notes on the back of these as their child goes above and beyond shining star status! :)

This is a great way to know where each and every student is at, at ALL times.  Grab some clips, sharpie on some names, and put some small magnets on the back- VOILA! :)

Wonderful ideas for those students who always finish early. You could easily cater the ideas to the curriculum of the week, or make them broad enough to encompass many content areas. Once you see the same students over there pulling sticks, it might be a wise idea to start incorporating and planning some enrichment activities!

Grab some GET UP & MOVE activity sticks if your kids have the wiggles!

You could use any method to get kids to choose from this catalog (star student cards could mean you get to choose one, off the chart, above green all week, etc.). All of these ideas (found on pinterest) are... FREE. A good way to begin motivating the students who lack that intrinsic desire!

I will DEFINITELY be making one of these... Put the students on one wheel who you don't want to be in a group/pair together, and put the other group on the other wheel... Spin and that tells you your groups for that activity, with no behavior clashing!

Also, another definite. I like the idea of providing motivation to attain "compliments" outside of the classroom, or from other adults in the building (or especially on field trips). Once the kids get a compliment, as long as they don't ruin it by celebrating too loud, they add another piece on to Mr. Potato Head... Once he's all put together, the class can come up with a reward (game day, cookies, juice, extra play time...). Only at your discretion, of course.

A "WOOPS" basket for the students who don't get worked with much at home and who need extra time to complete their homework. Turn it in late, within a week, and they have somewhere special to put it, so you know it isn't recent work.


Many of these ideas were found on Pinterest.