Tips for Classroom management for new teachers

Tips for Classroom management for new teachers

Top Ten Tips

1. As a teacher you will never stop being a student

·         Remember whatever happens this year, next year is a new year. The important thing is to learn from every new year. Evaluate your own lessons and activities. Decide what worked well and what did not work at all. Keep in mind that every teacher is a student of methods and strategies. New developments and ideas come along all the time, so teachers need to stay on top of the latest trends. You will never stop learning from yourself and changing things from previous years teaching. Set up precedents and high expectations. Make sure kids understand what you expect in your classroom. To help them be successful. School is a fun place to learn. Kids are followers.

·         Ask yourself what should you do again and what should you do differently.  Learn from your reflections. Never stop reflecting.

2. Keep an attitude of confidence and service.

·         If you want to learn how to do something, find someone who does it better than you. Once you find that person, learn everything you can about the skills you seek. I believe teaching is one-part self-confidence and one-part service. The greatest leaders know when it is time to serve. An attitude of humility is essential for all teachers. This way they do not choose favorites in the classroom.

3. Begin the year out firm since it is easier to soften over time.

·         Be very firm when setting up classroom expectations for the room. Smile when you start off the day during introduction. First few days are setting tone for classroom. Not as a friend, but as the educator. Lay down the law. Make sure they know you are there for them. Set high expectations. Instruct from the very beginning, the classroom is where the learning will take place. It is the only job you have as a child is to be ready for life. Set up that as long as they are following the rules. Teachers job is to be creative and help them to learn.

·         Be consistent.  If you say that you are going to do something. Do it. Follow through every single time. There will be times where grace and flexibility are needed.  However, as soon as you start to give in or not follow through with something, students will begin to take advantage of it, and the remainder of the year you will spend your time trying to reign them back in.
 

4. Develop a positive behavior system.

·         Develop a positive behavior system where students get rewarded or reinforcement for their positive behavior.  When you focus on the positive (thank you for doing this, great job with how you did that) your attitude tends to stay more positive.  If you focus on the negative (don't do this, don't do that), your attitude tends to spiral into the negative rather quickly.?

·         When giving rules and having them give you their own do not take yourself too seriously. Have students develop rules of the classroom ahead of time. Most children know what they should or should not be doing. Have them come up with some rules you can narrow down and you can agree with in the start. Make sure they know they will never be alone. Someone else may also not understand stuff. Positive behavior in school rules. Reinforce those rules and setting expectations for what it will be like. Tell them if they get kicked out they will be missing out from something. Put it on them that it’s their choices they are making. Set up rules and consequences. And positive behavior systems as well. Set up the system as far as rules ahead of time. Get a reward as much as possible. Raffle tickets work really well. Take them up every week and draw classroom at end of the week. Those kids who win can get something out of the fun drawer. So they do things just to earn a ticket. Reward incentive. Computer time as free time. Points for class or for table groups. Can have them work at table groups if they follow directions quickly. Put points on the wall as they go. So they can earn something with their points as a class like a movie Friday or pizza. Something fun. Set up system in the class to focus on the positive ways to be rewarded. Do not want to set up classroom management only about punishments and consequences. Set up the rules.

·         Seven rules.

o   Rule number one: respect one another.

o   Two: help your partner or each other.

o   Three: do your own work. (we help each other but we do not get lazy or cheat. Talk through the answer do not simply writing down the answers. Big difference between helping and cheating)

o   Four: ask three before me. (Be a problem solver)

o   Five: raise hand for permission.

o   Six: Follow directions quickly.

o   Seven: keep teacher happy. (Just look at that student and say “seven” seriously)

·         The best advice your students can give at the end of the year to the next years class: the teacher is awesome just do not make the teacher mad.

5. Develop ongoing parent communication

·         Parent communication from day one is very important. Sending a letter home to parents regarding communication. Anything above fifth grade weekly check in with the parents if they are doing all their work and reading. A system to communicate with parents every week. Send home a paper to students to help me get to know me students. So parents can give the teacher information. Like what are my childs weakness and strengths. Fills in the background for students. From the beginning.

·         Make it a priority to let their parents know that you care and that you are available.  Don't wait until conference week to do this.  Contact parents the first week of school. Ask them questions about how their child learns best and how you can best support them.

6. Children learn from each other

·         Kids are going to talk because they do. You cannot expect the classroom is going to be silent. Children learn from each other. Put them in group situations and partner situations as much as possible. They will learn from each other more than anything else. Set up lesson and facilitate and share with each other. To work together and to help each other as much as possible. There is a difference between collaboration noise and being out of control. They should be able to turn to their neighbors and share what they are thinking. Letting kids be in table groups in fours as much. Giving them a chance to share with each other because they will make connections. The learn best throughout collaboration. If they know they will be given an opportunity to express themselves later since it is the teachers time not their time. Count down or up loudly. Allow them to talk and express themselves.

7. Collaborate with everyone

·         Collaborating with other teachers in other subjects and grades. Be free with your material and share with other people. Feel free to give and share with other people you work with. (best friend you will ever make on campus are the secretary, custodian, librarian – they will do more for you than anyone else). Get to know them and be friendly as possible with others. Make friends with coworkers. Avoid teachers’ lounge in a school has a lot of drama. Do not isolate yourself in the classroom. Spend some time in other teachers classes and after school activities. Be aware teachers tend to act like the students they teach when they are together. Be aware of those around you to spend time with.

8. Be a listener not a talker

·         Let people tell you stuff. Never tell people anything. Let them gossip to you and tell you about stuff. Just smile and be active listener. Do not share back or participate in conversation. Avoid gossip circles. You cannot get that reputation back. Get to know people.

9. Build positive relationships with your students.

·         One great tip is morning meetings. Only one person at a time is allowed to speak. Usually, we have an object of some type that the speaker holds. You can talk about issues in the classroom, events, curriculum, anything you want. You can do this once a week, or every day. With any type of classroom management, this will work better with some classes than with others. Classroom meetings give you, the teacher, an opportunity to build those, oh so important relationships with your students.

·         Regardless of age or grade level, establishing a relationship and rapport with each of your students should be your number one priority.  Students need to feel respected, safe, that they can trust you, that you care for them, and that you are there to help them be successful. - How do you do this? Get to know their names quickly. Greet them at the door. Expect students to respect each other while they are in your room.  Allow them to get to know you.  When they walk through your door, they should know that they've just entered a family.

10. Repeat everything and expect response. 

·         Repeat everything. Have them respond to you. Make sure they repeat everything to you. Make sure they are responding back to you get them to talk to you. Gets them to reiterate and reemphasizes their own learning.

·         Establish clear and concise procedures and expectations. If your procedures and expectations are too lengthy or there are just too many of them, students will get confused on what they can and can't do and it will be difficult for the teacher to keep track of them all.  If they are too few, then students will find loopholes.  Will you get them right the first year? Most likely not.  Each year, as your experience grows, you'll develop better and more clear and concise procedures and expectations.