Classroom+Procedures+&+Rules

8/31/11 Every morning the students do their morning work quietly, and then they all go sit on the big rug where they review calendar, time, numbers, and money. They also do hip and lip in the hallway (one finger on the lip, and one on the hip). They all also each have an assigned seat on the rug.

9/1/11 When the students line up for recess, they know to quietly line up at the door, and they do "hip and lip" in the hall. The students also have to move their clip on "clip man" when they misbehave. If their clip stays on green then they have been good, yellow is a verbal warning, orange is timeout for 5 minutes, and red is 5 laps at recess or timeout 10 minutes and possibly a note home to parents.

9/6/11 Mrs. Self will tell them I want to see a bubble, or she will say "body check" to get them to be quiet.

9/13/11 They have calendar time every morning right after they do their morning work.

9/23/11 The students go to the media center every tuesday morning to listen to the librarian read them a story, and to check out books.

9/26/11 Tips for GOOD classroom management:
 * Working together-work as a team, and teach the students that it is important to get along well and respect themselves and each other.
 * Sign language-{example: have students tap their heads if they need your assistance to keep the noise down} Teachers and students can both use "sign language" to communicate for all sorts of things such as needing assistance, needing to go to the restroom, etc. Visual clues for important tasks.
 * Visible management-should be taught so often that it is instilled into the students brains so that they know what to do and what to expect. Also, label important things in the classroom such as the basket to turn homework in, etc.
 * Listening to students-try to find time to get to know each one, and truly listen to what they have to say.
 * Parent contact-make sure that you keep in contact with the parents, such as writing a note every couple of weeks letting them know what their child is doing that is **//good//**. This will show each parent/guardian that you really care about their child.
 * Class schedule-have the schedule posted somewhere in the room so that the students can refer to it if they want to know what they are doing at what time that day.
 * Posted rules-post the rules somewhere in the classroom for the students to see.
 * Consistency-goes along with visible management, being proactive, have meaningful lessons, the way you hark on something with the rules/procedures is by being consistent; try to not change the rules unless something is NOT working at all.
 * Positive environment/praise/language-keep the environment of your classroom very warm and positive, and make the students feel comfortable in your classroom.
 * Least invasive
 * Puzzle pieces-everyone got a piece of a puzzle and put it together. Purpose:so that the students can get to know each other, and to show that everyone can work together to make one big team.
 * Clear expectations-The students cannot behave the way you want them to, unless you make your classroom rules/expectations CLEAR!
 * Believe-have **//faith//** in your students that they can perform at the best of their ability.
 * Mass punishment-it does NOT work, you need to punish the students individually to be fair to the other students unless the mass punishment works best in certain situations (such as walking in the halls together as a team, etc.).
 * Meaningful lessons-teach the students what they need to learn, and follow the standards in your lessons. Make the lessons interesting so that they students can easily become engaged in the material being taught.
 * Flexibility-as a teacher, you should always be flexible and learn to //enjoy// change.
 * Proactive
 * Know students-know your students and understand
 * Discipline buddy
 * Introduction, model, practice reinforcement-model GOOD behavior, set an exemplary example for them to follow, and always practice reinforcing the rules so that the students know that you mean business!
 * Individual tasks
 * Describe behavior/reasons
 * Organization- explains itself.

9/27/11 The students go to centers at the end of almost every day (Mrs. Self's class).

10/8/11 Mrs. Dickens uses the "clip policy" like Mrs. Self does. If someone is really misbehaving, then they have to pull their clip from "good standing". Mrs. Dickens is also quick to state if someone in the class is not following directions or misbehaving. She has good classroom management, and her usually well behaved classroom reflects that.

10/9/11 Mrs. Dickens picks a random clothes pin out of a bucket each morning. The clothes pins all have each student's name on them. Whichever name she draws she pins it to the bucket, and that person is like her "helper" for the day. The student does tasks such as telling Mrs. Dickens who wants what lunch choice, who brought their lunch, etc. Whenever she draws a new name out of the bucket, she places the name from the day before in a different cup so that the same person will not be picked twice. I really like how fair everything is in this classroom.

10/11/11 In Mrs. Dickens' classroom there are two buckets, on that says "Sharp pencils!" and another one that says "Need to sharpen!" The students all share community pencils, so when they feel one needs to be sharpened, they will simply walk to the front of the class and place that pencil in the "Need to sharpen!" bucket. Then they will get another pencil out of the "Sharp pencils!" bucket. In the morning when I first arrive to placement, I sharpen the pencils and place all of them in the "Sharp pencils!" bucket. This way students can trade out their dull pencils for sharper ones throughout the school day.

10/18/11 Mrs. Dickens recently printed five sheets of paper with a few students names on each paper to create small groups for reading activities. She labeled the groups group A, B, C, D, and E. There are four students in each group. These groups allow the class to stay organized during reading time, because when Mrs. Dickens tells the class to get in their reading groups, they already know which group they are in.

10/21/11 The students expect there to be many tests on Friday mornings, because Mrs. Dickens always administers tests on Fridays. These tests consist of spelling, reading, and writing.

11/3/11 Mrs. Dickens will make a student work on an assignment during their recess time if the student did not follow directions in class, or if they were simply being lazy and not doing their work.

11/11/11 On many Fridays, Mrs. Dickens allows the students to play at centers during math time. The students get so excited about centers! Some of the centers include: making shapes out of play dough, making shapes out of connecting magnets, playing with dominoes, playing math card games, and creating things with legos.