Classroom management and academics are the cornerstone of the elementary school classroom. For this reason, knowing ways to encourage and provide incentives is crucial. One way is to have a day in the week when you play a game with the kids who earn it.ADVERTISEMENT
We are currently trying something like this we call “Fun Friday.” [...]
White dry-erase boards are an excellent way to check for understanding (CFU) during and after a lesson. They are also a great way to avoid wasting paper in your lesson plans. Instead of printing up a class set of the material I am covering in a lesson, I print up one for each class I [...]
We talk about the methods of great teaching and we talk about our objectives. One thing we don’t talk about enough is the physical proximity and presentation of our lessons.
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This post is part of the podcast category. Use the player below to hear the episode or click on the microphone image to browse the archives.
In episode 11 I,
talk about taking my family to the pumpkin patch,
perform a tune by Jackson Browne,
rant about vampire frenzy in Hollywood,
talk about the psychology of when work isn’t [...]
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:24 — 10.4MB)
Try as we might as teachers, we don’t always get classroom management right. Then we must be open to change. Sometimes this requires tweaking little things here and there and others it means a complete overhaul of your lesson plan and classroom management approach. Even when you’ve been at it many years, you are never [...]
The target audience of this podcast is teachers like myself but I already know specific non-teachers are listening. Teaching is my thing, it’s what I do. I thought I’d start a talk show on a topic I knew something about. If you are not familiar with the podcast genre, you are in for a treat. It doesn’t replace this blog but it is an extension of it.
Every year we do the same thing as public school teachers: create rules for students to follow. We model them and talk about rules at length throughout the year. When kids follow them, we reward them and when they break them we deliver consequences. This year I have a new experimental set of rules for me instead of my students. They are in the form of promises
Calling a child’s parent on the spot in front of the class has worked child behavior miracles for me in the past. I feel very confident recommending it to you. There are couple things I have learned about “how” to deliver the “public phone call home” method and I’d like to share those with you. Jaded and troublesome kids will play games with you and your head all year if you let them. It takes a tough and smart teacher to not fall for it, call their bluff and call their mom and dad in front of the class.
Most teachers I talk to agree the beginning of the year is the time to establish authority, rules, and expectations. What they don’t all agree on is how to do it.
I used to push myself to get things done asap. When I would see other people weren’t done, I would say to myself, “See I am so much better than them.” I have come to respect the person who is not done more now because they had the wisdom to stop, gather ideas, and come back later with better ideas.
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