Theresa: Classroom Management Woes

“Teacher…teacher…TEACHER!!!”

“I will call on students that raise their hands, and my name is not ‘Teacher.’”

“But why can’t I call you that? You ARE a teacher!”

Classroom management is something I really believe is one of my strengths. Yet this year, I feel like I’m having difficulty getting all of my students on board. I’m frequently getting outbursts like the ones above. I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing differently this year, but I think that it’s simply that the dynamics my students bring to the classroom are a lot different than what I’m used to.

This year presents a really unique challenge for me: My students will be as quiet as possible when I give them an in-class assignment to work on. It is sometimes so silent that I can hear a pin drop. (And yes, I know this is not a usual occurrence in special education resource rooms!)

But other times, my students will be the complete opposite and will not stop talking. Don’t get me wrong, I am so excited that they are comfortable enough to want to share their ideas. But it’s getting so bad that everyone is talking all at once.

What really works for me is “Give Me 5.” I think most students are familiar with the concept: The teacher counts down from five, and by the time she gets to one, the class should be quiet. (I am not claiming to have thought this up; I have just adapted it from different teachers I’ve seen and ideas I’ve come across on the internet).

I just made mine a little more specific—each number corresponds to a specific thing the students should do. By the time I get to one, all of the students should be looking at me. I always like to make sure I am in a different spot in the classroom when I do this, so I can ensure that I have the attention of the whole class.

My “Give Me 5” works really well when the whole class is talking at once, but now I’m finding that my students just talk out of turn when they have something to say. Once again, I’m super excited that they want to share their ideas, but they are doing so at the expense of their peers.

So now we’ve introduced “Hands Up to Keep it Full” to encourage the students to raise their hands when they have something to contribute in class. With this interactive chart, the students either take away or add a marble (with the aid of the Velcro) depending on whether they forgot or remembered to raise their hand. While this hasn’t ended the talking out of turn, many times the students will catch themselves if they talk before raising their hand.

I try to have my students work in cooperative groups whenever possible, as I think they can learn so much by working with their peers. However, my students really struggle with this. I really thought that I did a good job putting my groups together, but lately I’m getting a lot of one student doing the work while the other ones sit there. Or the students will tattle on each other constantly. I did go over norms and rules for working in groups at the beginning of the year, but I am now wondering if that is something I should revisit.

Some days I feel like I’m doing too much and introducing too many things to keep my classroom management under control. Other days I feel like I’m not doing enough. I would welcome any advice or tips on classroom management.

Any thoughts on what you think is working for me—or things that I can do better?

Comments

[Mashal J]

Classroom management strategies should be proactive and It is important to understand the principles of intervention planning, which help you provide effective classroom management strategies. Behavior is controlled by its consequences that must be consistently and immediately follow the behavior; strengthened by reinforcement and modeling; weakened by withholding the consequences that have been maintaining it, modeling, and punishment.

[Mashal J]

I really like your strategy when you encourage the students to raise their hands and I would like to share some ideas with you. Maximizing academic engaged time is one of the important factors that support positive classroom environments. Students' engagement in the classroom helps them to believe in themselves and their learning potential. In addition, there are many strategies that the teacher can use to engage students academically. For example, high-access instruction is the use of different effective strategies in the classroom to actively engage all students, maximize student participations, and improve diverse students' academic performances. The essentials of effective high-access instruction are (a) to engage all students, (b) to maximize time for thinking, (c) to focus on learning skills and content, and (d) to provide different instruction based on skill levels and learning needs of the students. Moreover, the teacher should maximize opportunities for the students to respond during the school day and in all settings. For instance, opportunities to respond (ORT) is an effective approach to develop academic and social behavior of students, such as the Think-Pair-Share strategy. Indeed, active supervision and related engagement activities with rules ensure successful engagement strategies. The teacher should plan his/her movement from one group to another and provide positive feedback. The teacher should have good communication skills and acknowledge the appropriate behavior.
Mashal J

[Lindsay Rhinesmith]

I love your ideas on classroom management. I agree with an earlier post that the students need to be working towards something and know what it is. Maybe once you have decided what they are working towards when the jar gets full, you can post a picture or symbol that shows this activity near the chart. This way when they look at the chart they will be reminded of exactly what they are working towards.

I have many of the ideas in the comments to be useful for my high school classroom. Although my kids are older, I teach in a self contained class, so many of the ideas can be adapted to meet their cognitive level and still be age appropriate.

[Alyse]

I really like those ideas that you have for reminders to talk when it's time. I really liked my classroom management class in college. Our professor stressed a lot about trying to figure out what your students need: Attention, Power, Fear of Failure or Revenge. Each students needs something different. This not only works for talking out of turn but for lots of behaviors. If a student needs power then the teacher needs to figure out how to give the student some power without interrupting the class. My professor would let his students take random papers to the office if they were getting disruptive in class. He had a deal with the office ladies and they knew that some of the stuff brought down wasn't really anything at all. Another thing he did was write sticky notes and casually place them on a student's desk when they were seeking attention. This way they knew that they were getting attention without the whole class knowing. He also came up with secret signals between a student. This student wanted attention so they came up with the signal that when the teacher touches his name badge, he is paying attention to you. Just some cool things that worked for him.

[Courtney]

I really like your idea of the "Hands up to Keep it Full" jar. This seems like something that works in many classrooms, but adding an incentive to this system may work even better! Figure out something that the students all enjoy doing and have the students work towards that goal using the jar of marbles. An example- If the jar is full at the end of the week the students are allowed 5 minutes of free time or maybe the students can be allowed to play a game at the end of the day. Those are just ideas!

I also like the idea that Muriel suggested; doing community or classroom building activities. I think this would help reduce the amount of tattling. Another idea would be to have the students come up with a list of 'rules' for working in groups, that way they may be more willing to follow those 'rules' since they are the ones who created them. Just another idea, hope these help! Thanks for sharing your story about classroom management!

[Muriel Rand]

I agree that you cannot do too much in the beginning of the year in terms of classroom management. Have you considered building in more community building activities? This will help the children to feel more a part of the group, and will cut down on the constant tattling. The goal is to get the children to sincerely care about one another through plenty of "get to know each other" activities, morning greetings, sending cards when a child is sick, learning about personal likes, dislikes, and always modeling respect and caring. I've found that classroom communities don't just happen - they have to be nurtured and worked at. Good luck!

[Karyssa]

Your strategies for getting students to get back on task sound great! I especially like the marbles jar - it helps to get students working together towards a goal and allowing them to keep each other on task. We often struggle with this issue in with our middle school students in my student teaching classroom. I love that the students want to have fun, but I've started to notice that they are using talk-time as an avoidance opportunity. One of the class periods with the most behaviors is right before lunch time, so my cooperating teacher suggested that the students be let out of class a minute early to go to lunch when they stay on task for the entire class period. The students responded really well to this because they are often last in the lunch line due to the location of the classroom in the building. What is nice about this is that the students are now keeping each other accountable, and my cooperating teacher and I have to give less prompts to stay on task. Not only do the students all want to go to lunch early, but they also want the approval of their peers, which keeps them more inclined to work together during the class. It's still a work in progress, but it seems to be working for now.

[Ashley]

Thank you Theresa for giving me a classroom management technique I can spin off of for my students! Like the students in your classroom they tend to blurt out a lot. I think the 'hands up to keep it full' strategy could work for my kids. Thanks again!

[Jesse James]

My school also uses the "Give Me 5" technique. With my students especially, I feel that sticking with one classroom management technique is the most affective. This does not always work with every classroom, but due to my students disabilities, change isn't something that they deal with very well. Also, this works well with them so I don't feel there is any reason to change it. There are a few students that I have additional BIPs for, but those are created for specific needs, and not for the entire classroom. I would have to say that if this is needed for certain students, it may be something you want to look into.

[Theresa]

Betsy, Thank you so much for your suggestions. Also thank you for sharing the links, such great information! Thanks again!

-Theresa

[Betsy Weigle / Classroom Teacher Resources]

For me, classroom management has always come down to setting expectations...and resetting them as needed. There is no one set of classroom rules that will cover every situation for the entire year; it is up to us to anticipate student issues and explain our expectations.

Then...and this is the critical part...hold kids accountable every time they don't meet them. This does not mean punishment. Rather, it means having students repeat an activity (even if that activity is quietly raising their hands) until the class can get it right, before moving on.

Take a look at this expectation setting page:

http://www.classroom-teacher-resources.com/teacher-expectations-and-student-achievement.html

And as for choosing (or re-choosing) partners, here's some information for you to consider:

http://www.classroom-teacher-resources.com/student-partners.html

Betsy Weigle

[Theresa]

Thank you all for your thoughts, comments and support. I have some new ideas that I am looking forward to trying out with my students!

[Carissa]

I feel like it is better to try different ways to have to class quite down than having one that works a little. With trying different strategies, it doesn't mean you have to implement all at once. I think trying different strategies works well depending on how often you try one strategy and how many different ones you implement. If you change all the time it can get confusing to the student and by the time they fully understand what is expected it changes again. But I have heard of the give me 5 but it is used in a different way. Rather than counting down from 5, the teacher holds his/ her hand up and waits for the rest of the class to hold their hand up, quiet down and focus on the teacher. The other suggestion I have is if there are certain students that constantly speak out, have an individual strategy for those students. It could be a reward system, making a tally for each time they talked out of turn etc. I worked with one student that did not even know that she would make outbursts and random noises throughout the day until we made a tally of it and came to over 100 in one day, by the last day I worked with her we get down to 10. Many students are use to saying what they want when they want to say it and not realize how many times they do it and how distracting it can be. I hope some of these ideas are helpful! good luck to you!

[Caitlin]

I am familiar with the Give me 5 system as well. However, I have only seen it used as a scale for how loud the students voice is. Not every classroom mangement style is going to work for all your students. Find out what your students are interested in and then use that information to build a more individual plan. I have found through my experiences that you will see more behaviors that you would like to when the student is rewarded with something that they like.

[Kayla]

Sometimes students need individual behavior plans. I have one student who gets a pom pom for every hour of the day. She loses them when she refuses to do work or does other negative behaviors (such as hitting or kicking herself). She is told when she is on the verge of losing a pompom and told to make better choices. She will get a last warning if she does not start to comply, and then she loses it if she does not comply. She will get upset when she loses one, so I ignore her and keep going with my activity and she will get started again. If she loses all her pompoms, she does not get a sticker for her sticker book with her general education teacher. If she loses 2 pompoms (1 for each hour she is with me) while in my room, she does not get a sticker for our sticker charts. If she does not lose all her pompoms by the end of the day, her teacher gives her an extra sticker. Her classroom teacher sings a song with motions that gets them to be sitting, with their hands folded, ears listening, and mouths shut. The students love it and they are quiet as soon as the song is over.
I also recognize positive behavior in my classroom as often as I can versus giving attention for negative behavior. I will say "I like the way so-and-so is ready to read the page with his/her finger under the first way" or "I like the way so-and-so is listening." This limits how much I have to say "Sally, please be quiet. Mouth closed and eyes on me." I think if you keep with your strategies and add some of those statements recognizing positive behavior, you might have more success. Also, look to see if you can see any differences in the school schedule lately. Maybe there is a change in their schedule that is making them act up now? Good ideas for classroom management and keep at it!

[lynne boley slavic]

You can't work too hard at this time of the year. That sounds silly but if you work hard now you can cruise later because the systems and processes have taught the students the skills to manage themselves and their classmates or the group as a whole. If you don't work now you will work alllllll year long. I always liked it when my kids were working harder than me. It takes awhile and it isn't magic. Your ideas are good and accentuate the positive to eliminate the negative. Good luck.

[Angel Read]

What about if you used a Talking Stick? Or talking feather. (A feather would probably be less likely to be used as a weapon.) I knew of some teachers who did this when I was a kid, and I was reminded of it when watching an episode of "The Middle." Only the person holding the special object can talk! That MIGHT work as a tangible way to let them know when it is not okay to talk and when it is!

[Megan Flock]

Classroom management is very important in every classroom. The students need to respect you as a teacher and respect their peers when they are sharing an idea. I am currently student teaching and the school that I'm in uses "Give Me Five". I have seen this to be very effective because it gets the attention of the students and it reminds the students of the five actions they should be doing, instead of the talking all at once. I take a student into a general education room during morning meeting time and the teacher in there uses this strategy over and over again to keep the students in line.

Students also get stars for good behaviors and earn a treat or an extra recess when they receive a certain number of stars as a class. I feel that it is important to find something that is important for the students to work for to influence good behaviors. This may be different for every student or age level. For example, students at the high school level don't care if they get a recess so you could reward their good behavior with eliminating a difficult assignment or giving them ten extra points on an exam. Finding something that is important to the students is critical when implementing a behavior management plan.

Also, I believe that the students need to see their progress on their behavior management plans. The marbles in a jar is a great idea and the students can see their progress on this. In another one of my placements, the teacher had a strike system. She had a sticker chart and if the students had a good day, they got a sticker. If they got in trouble, didn't complete an assignment, or behaved badly, then they got an "x". If they had three "x's", then they didn't get to participate in the end of the quarter party or the auction and had to do work while the other students got to watch a movie or something rewarding. This really worked with this population of students because it was third-sixth grade and this party was very important to them.

To conclude, I believe that classroom management is one of the most important attributes to teaching and a successful classroom. But a teacher must find what is important for their students to work for. With trial and error, a teacher is able to find which classroom management strategy works best.

[Rachael]

Classroom management is something I've noticed with being a student teacher. One of the classrooms I go into to provide service in the teacher feels see can't control her classroom this year. She keeps saying I don't know why after all these years of teaching why I can't control my class. She uses similar techniques like you and they seem to be getting better. I have some difficulty with one of my students, he receives rewards throughout the day and I have been having to tell him I have to take away 5 minutes from his reward. I will let him gain them back if he remains on-task and good behavior the rest of the lesson. Trying different things always seems to help figure out new ways of controling the class.

[Leighann]

When I was reading this blog I was struck as to how I had a similar experience when I went into an art classroom to observe and teach a lesson. When I first observed the class, the teacher was using the same tactics you were. She had a simple "Give Me Five" countdown, and at each number, there was a different task that had to be done. One example was for when it was five, the students had to sit in their chairs. This went on all of the way down to one. This was a great system, and one that I would be interested in trying out when I begin my student teaching next semester. I may have to adapt it a bit, because I will be in a special education classroom. However, I think that this technique could work very well for me, especially in group situations.

I also noticed that the art teacher I observed used the marble technique. Whenever one of the students did something that they were supposed to, such as raised their hand or picked up without being asked, the student got to put a marble in the container. When the container was full, the class got a free day. This worked very well in keeping the class motivated especially since the class was rather large, 35 kids or so. This system is another one I may want to try in my future teaching endeavors. I think it is very important that students have something to work for and a goal to aim for. The added benefit of the reward might to wonders in keeping the classroom manageable.

In previous experiences, I have tried to work in groups, even as small as groups of 2, and this was a difficult experience. I had never taught like that before, addressing a group of students at once, at least not for extended periods of time. Although, this went a long way in bettering my classroom management skills. I think that if I can continue becoming comfortable with this, I will become an even better classroom manager.

Thank you for sharing your experience, and for reminding me of useful strategies to use for time management.