Musical Chairs

A colleague of mine shared an interesting technique she uses in her classroom for a seating arrangement.  After all, you know how it is, all students want to sit with their friends, but then they're just too chatty! In this classroom, there is no ownership over desks so the technique works quite nicely. The students come into her class and sit anywhere they like. However, if they are too chatty, the teacher immediately plays a bit of music, the music means,  it's musical chair time and the students have to change where they sit. The students know exactly what to do when the music is played. The teacher indicated that she used to play music much more often at the beginning of the year, however, now the students know what the expected behavior is in order to sit with their peers.

Got a tip? Share it here. After all, we get our terrific strategies and tips from educators who share.
See my favorite classroom management strategies.

Book Talks

Book Talk

Having a book talk within the classroom mimics what many adults do for a hobby. This works well when you have multiple copies of a few age appropriate books. Each student selects from 4-6 books, the book chosen forms the groups. After the students have read portions of their book, they meet and discuss what they've read. Students should be prompted to think deeply about what they read. Some sample questions to get students talking should be available for students which could include:

• Why did the author give the main character those traits?
• This book reminds me of......
• Why did the author select this setting? How does it contribute to the story?
• Could the events be real? Why or why not?
• What makes you uncomfortable in this book?
• If you summarized what you've read so far, what 3 points would you make?
• What has surprised you or disturbed you?
• What have you learned from reading this?
• Predict what you think will happen next and why.
• Talk about one of the characters and discuss who that character reminds you of and why.

See also: Book Response Worksheets and Elements of a Story Worksheets

Working on Christmas Worksheets

I'm a bit late topping up my Christmas worksheets this year but better late than never. I have just finished a category of word problems involving Christmas Menus, Shopping Lists and Wish Lists. These worksheets start with the basics of adding 2 digit dollar amounts and move to shopping lists with discounts and taxes.

I'm also working on a problem solving category but have a ways to go yet. Problem solving is slightly different than word problems as you want the children to discover a method to solve the problems and of course, show their work.

I'm always looking to fill the needs of homeschoolers and educators and although I have much to do, I'll take your requests and add them to my to do list.

Have a great week educators, the holidays are just around the corner.

Correcting Inappropriate Behaviors

Daily Progress Report

Let's face it, some children need a lot of support and guidance to correct their inappropriate behaviors. Personally, I have found that total respect, 1 to 1 conversations, positive reinforcement and a fair and consistent approach goes a long way to a winning relationship with a student who exhibits challenging behaviors. I also find it quite helpful to use a tracking sheet/behavior contract of some sort for a defined period of time to help support behavioral change. Check out the daily progress report along with the other behavior contracts found here.

See also: Analyzing when inappropriate behavior happens with these FBA worksheets.

Great strategies should be shared, if you like what you discover here at Worksheetplace, share with a friend. Have a great teaching week.

Dar

Greater Than or Less Than Worksheets

Although it seems like a pretty easy concept, greater than and less than symbols are quite confusing for young learners. Last week, I heard one of the more comical ways of remembering these symbols, it was just  too good not to share so here you are:

"The guy with the big nose, always looks down at us so he is the biggest number!"

The students laughed and a parent told me her son won't forget it.

Give the strategy a try and here are the greater than and less than worksheets to see if it works. Have another great tip? Share in comments.

It's just over a month until Christmas, are you ready? Have a great teaching week!
Dar

Success Criteria for Good Character

Do your students know what being responsible looks like? Do they understand how to be responsible? We talk about great character traits like cooperation, respect, courage and optimism etc. but we don't often consider how it looks to a student in our classroom. Take a trait or two each month(s) and make it the focus. For instance, let students set goals about how they will become more responsible. Develop a success criteria with the class and post it for the month or two that the trait will be focused on.

Brainstorm what being responsible looks like with the students and come up with 5 or 6 items to post. It may look lilke:

RESPONSIBILITY1.  Always come prepared for each class.
2.  Follow routines and rules appropriately.
3.  Complete tasks to the best of our ability.
4.  Take responsibility for our own behavior.
Each time a new character trait is introduced, develop a 'looks like' or sucess criteria with your class and focus on the looks like throughout the month(s).

Have a great teaching week!
Dar

Organize Your Chart Paper

If you don't yet have a SMART/White board to organize your files from one year to the next with ease, this tip is for you. I used to write out morning messages, problem solving strategies, success criteria and just about anything worthwhile on to chart paper. Storing it was always a challenge.

Take a hanger and some clothes pins and start hanging all your chart paper keepers. Use the sticky yellows on the side of each to indicate what they're about. AND, if you can have a bracket that shows about 6 inches or so, hang it there where they're readily available.

Do you have a favorite tip? Please comment and share with fellow educators.

Word Walls for Older Grades



For Word Walls

 Sometimes word walls can get too crowded, especially when they're used in higher grades. One trick that works well is binder rings of words. Simply laminate small cards of words and using a single whole punch, put all the words for each given letter on the binder ring. On your bulletin board, you will need 26 push pins to hang each group of words. This makes the words handy for students. When students need the spelling of a word that begins with t, they grab the ring containing all the t words.

Word walls should be growing all year, those pretty word walls that become static are nowhere near as effective as a growing word wall.

See the ready made words here or check out the word families.

Getting Your Students to be Quiet

When you want your students' attention, you've probably tried every trick in the book. A flick of the lights, a ring of a bell, hands on your head, countdown 3 - 2 - 1, you name it. Are you ready to change it up? Here's one the students love. Each month pick a new one and it needs to be related to a favorite team, event or holiday. For instance, for the month of October, you would say 'Trick or Treat', that's the cue to have your students stop talking and listen. Or if you have a favorite sports team, you would say 'Go Jets, Go'. The students love coming up with the phrase each month and it works quite well. And if all else fails, perhaps your students need to set goals about becoming better listeners. Try these goal setting worksheets.

Have a great teaching week.
Worksheets by Dar.

Too Many Hands? or No hands?

Pick me, pick me, Miss Nelson, you never pick me. Sound familiar? When you ask a question you either get no hands up or too many hands up. Well, here's a strategy to ensure all of your students are listening. Get popsicle sticks and put your student's names on in permanent ink (on the ends). Stick the sticks in a can with the names down. Each time you ask a question, reach in, grab a stick and read the name. That student is responsible for answering. No tuning out anymore. All students are listening, they don't quite know when their name will be pulled out of the can!

Student Voice

Student Voice Box

Want your classroom to run smooth? Want your students to have better respect? Want to minimize the bullying and conflict? Do something different this year, give your students a voice by creating a voice box.

What you need: A cardboard box with an opening for submissions, placed conveniently near you.
Paper slips: I like to print and cut slips that have a heading at the top. (Some slips need the title Gripe, others need to be called Good Deed) You can determine the names for the slips, I've seen Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down, Cheers and Jeers, 1 Step Forward, 1 Step Back, Hits and Misses.

Now is the time to explain to your class that they have a voice. Each time they see something positive, they print it up on the slip and put it in the box. (For instance, I saw.........picking up litter that somebody else left.) If there is something negative, any student can put in the negative slip and it can be anomynous. (For instance, Thumbs down to a person who was teasing another student about wearing braces.)

Decide when you will have 'Student Voice' time. It should be for a few minutes each day or every other day. This is very important, you need to honor student voice and make it a regular happening. Read the notes and have a mini discussion. This also gives you an excellent strategy to focus on developing great character.

See more strategies for classroom management.

Have a great teaching tip to share? Please do!

Back To School Routines

Classroom Management

You really only get one chance to make that first impression with your students. If you had one of those years last year where you said to yourself  'Next year will be different, I won't do that again', then be sure to learn from those mistakes.

I have some great tips and hints for you to excel at classroom management and discipline that have been used effectively by some of the most experienced educators. Learn from the best and you'll have a great year with your new students.

Tip of the week:  When your students are talking when you are, stop talking! Put the timer on. Each minute they take will need to be paid back. When the bell goes (hopefully you don't have supervision duty.) They pay back their time. By giving up a few minutes of your time, you will be teaching them that they don't speak when you are. If you begin raising their voice over them, you will be teaching them that it's okay to speak when you are. Some of our most effective teachers will tell you that this is a big no no. Learn from the best.

Have a great teaching week!

Getting Ready to Go Back to School

Be prepared for the upcoming school year. Take some great advice on classroom management, set it up right from the beginning and you'll have a great year. You'll find advice on teaching routines, what to do when the rules get broken and you can go through the classroom management checklist to make sure you're all ready.

Once you have your strategies for classroom management and setting up routines, you may want to select a few of these behavior contracts for those little tykes that push you to your limits.

Summer Countdown

Do you find that your students aren't behaving as well as you would like them to? All too often, classroom management is a struggle as any holiday approaches. Sometimes, you just need to get down to business and claim back a little more authority. Try the countdown approach to those students who continue to be an ongoing challenge. I also like the I can do it behavior contract.

Another strategy I use is the reward system. Let's say you have 30 days left until the holidays. Establish 2-3 goals (e.g., always raise your hand before speaking, class becomes silent on the 3-2-1 countdown, nobody interupts when the teacher is speaking). Once the goals are established, start providing 1 point for a reasonably good day and 2 points for an outstanding day. Each time the class gets to 20 points, reward the class with either free time, an outdoor period, pizza party etc.

Share what works for you, educators are always looking for new strategies.

My Math Rant

If you are teaching math in North America, chances are that your curriculum is ridiculously daunting. Is it any wonder that the teaching of it is often referred to as the inch deep, mile long approach? Plain and simple, there is too much content! Teachers have an impossible job. How can children possibly understand so many math concepts? The truth is, they can't! I'm sure that when these math courses of study or curricular documents were put together, they were done by complete math specialists. Great, in their minds, everything is important. However, with approximately 50 minutes a day for about 180 days 'everything' can't be LEARNED, regardless that everything is taught.

My advice? Use your flexible common sense. Look at that curriculum, tease out those important concepts or Big Ideas and eliminate the rest! Less is more and if we are going to teach our students anything, we need to ensure that they are learning.  If you're not sure what's important in math, I'd be concerned. However, ask a colleague. Dig deeper and teach less of those concepts, your students will then learn.