These are just some of the strategies and routines I hope to implement in my future classroom to help it run more smoothly.
My classroom is going to have many routines that will help it to run smoothly but I feel that every classroom has one routine that is more important than others. For my classroom the morning routine is going to the most important. It is what is going to kick start he day and get it started on a good note.
When the students arrive in the morning they will be required to place their planner in his or her assigned cubbyhole along with their homework folder if it is a Friday. They will then place their book bags in the bins located under the shelf that holds the cubbies. After that is done, they will go to their seat and start reading one of the books that is in the basket on their table. It is fairly short routine and shouldn’t take more than five minutes tops.
To teach this routine I will start out on the first day of school by having their new planners with their names on them in his or her designated cubbyhole. I will teach them that where they just took the new planner out of will be the spot they will put it every morning. I will show them that each hole has their name placed on the outside of it just incase they forgot where the exact placement is. I will have it in alphabetical order as well so when I collect their homework out of it and grade it, it will be in order and easier to place in the computer.
Each day of the week during the first week of school will be dedicated to teaching them a new step in the routine and then the following week have them start doing the routine as they enter the room in the morning. Having the book bags in bins will stop them from trying to place things in them or take things out during the day and causing a distraction to other students. I feel that this routine will teach the students that if they have something they are going to need throughout the day in their bags, they need to get it out before class starts because after that, they cannot have access to their book bags. It teaches them to be responsible. This will benefit me as well. All assignments that are to be turned in will go there and that keeps everything in alphabetical order. If grading, it will be easy to input them into the computer because I can just go down the list. It will save time for me and let me spend more time on lesson planning and analyzing data for the different content areas.
Besides having good routines in place, having good management strategies is important as well. If a student is misbehaving in my classroom, after having moved their number to yellow, I will have a bottle that is filled with water, glitter glue and just regular glitter. The student will have to shake it up and sit completely quiet and still until the glitter settles on the bottom. If the student talks or doesn’t calm down they will have to shake the bottle again and start the process all over again. I will have many different colors that the students can choose between. It is a quiet and non-distracting way to get a student to calm down. Most students are fascinated with the bottle that they calm down and are able to return to the classroom discussion. Instead of telling a student to settle down multiple times, you just say their name and then tell them to pick a bottle and they will know what to do. You can explain it to them within the first week of school and then start implementing it as soon as the situation arises.
Another strategy I hope to use in my classroom would be for when I call on students to physically participate in a lesson. I will have an empty coffee can that hold Popsicle sticks with the student’s names written on them. Each time I need a student to do an activity on the SMARTboard I will pull a stick out of the can. I will leave the stick out so they cannot be called back up to the SMARTboard until everyone in the class has gone at least once. I believe that having this strategy in place will cut down on the arguments of who has gone to the board already and who hasn’t. It will ensure that I don’t call on some students more than others. I will explain that I do have a right to put a student back in the can if I pulled them out and at the current time they were misbehaving. They will not miss his or her turn, they will just have to wait until they are pulled out again. Putting a name back instead of letting them go to the board will show that just because your name was called, you need to be paying attention and not causing a distraction for other students to get to do the fun activities. This strategy will teach the students to be patient and to wait because their turn will come eventually and it will help me to keep track of who had been up and who hadn’t been without running the risk of forgetting someone or letting someone go more than others.
All strategies and routines are important and help a classroom run smoothly. They should not only benefit the teacher, but benefit the student as well. Some might benefit just the teacher and some might benefit just the student but that is ok because it is the most effective way to facilitate learning and keep the classroom running in an orderly fashion.
When the students arrive in the morning they will be required to place their planner in his or her assigned cubbyhole along with their homework folder if it is a Friday. They will then place their book bags in the bins located under the shelf that holds the cubbies. After that is done, they will go to their seat and start reading one of the books that is in the basket on their table. It is fairly short routine and shouldn’t take more than five minutes tops.
To teach this routine I will start out on the first day of school by having their new planners with their names on them in his or her designated cubbyhole. I will teach them that where they just took the new planner out of will be the spot they will put it every morning. I will show them that each hole has their name placed on the outside of it just incase they forgot where the exact placement is. I will have it in alphabetical order as well so when I collect their homework out of it and grade it, it will be in order and easier to place in the computer.
Each day of the week during the first week of school will be dedicated to teaching them a new step in the routine and then the following week have them start doing the routine as they enter the room in the morning. Having the book bags in bins will stop them from trying to place things in them or take things out during the day and causing a distraction to other students. I feel that this routine will teach the students that if they have something they are going to need throughout the day in their bags, they need to get it out before class starts because after that, they cannot have access to their book bags. It teaches them to be responsible. This will benefit me as well. All assignments that are to be turned in will go there and that keeps everything in alphabetical order. If grading, it will be easy to input them into the computer because I can just go down the list. It will save time for me and let me spend more time on lesson planning and analyzing data for the different content areas.
Besides having good routines in place, having good management strategies is important as well. If a student is misbehaving in my classroom, after having moved their number to yellow, I will have a bottle that is filled with water, glitter glue and just regular glitter. The student will have to shake it up and sit completely quiet and still until the glitter settles on the bottom. If the student talks or doesn’t calm down they will have to shake the bottle again and start the process all over again. I will have many different colors that the students can choose between. It is a quiet and non-distracting way to get a student to calm down. Most students are fascinated with the bottle that they calm down and are able to return to the classroom discussion. Instead of telling a student to settle down multiple times, you just say their name and then tell them to pick a bottle and they will know what to do. You can explain it to them within the first week of school and then start implementing it as soon as the situation arises.
Another strategy I hope to use in my classroom would be for when I call on students to physically participate in a lesson. I will have an empty coffee can that hold Popsicle sticks with the student’s names written on them. Each time I need a student to do an activity on the SMARTboard I will pull a stick out of the can. I will leave the stick out so they cannot be called back up to the SMARTboard until everyone in the class has gone at least once. I believe that having this strategy in place will cut down on the arguments of who has gone to the board already and who hasn’t. It will ensure that I don’t call on some students more than others. I will explain that I do have a right to put a student back in the can if I pulled them out and at the current time they were misbehaving. They will not miss his or her turn, they will just have to wait until they are pulled out again. Putting a name back instead of letting them go to the board will show that just because your name was called, you need to be paying attention and not causing a distraction for other students to get to do the fun activities. This strategy will teach the students to be patient and to wait because their turn will come eventually and it will help me to keep track of who had been up and who hadn’t been without running the risk of forgetting someone or letting someone go more than others.
All strategies and routines are important and help a classroom run smoothly. They should not only benefit the teacher, but benefit the student as well. Some might benefit just the teacher and some might benefit just the student but that is ok because it is the most effective way to facilitate learning and keep the classroom running in an orderly fashion.