Sep

28

Three easy strategies for creating and maintaining a positve classroom climate

Filed Under Behaviour Management | 5 Comments

Julie Berlin -Flickr cc

Once upon a time, a long time ago when I was an eager young student teacher, and before I actually had my own class, I thought my job would be to teach my students everything they needed to know about the subject I was teaching. Was I ever naive.

When I finally got my own class, my struggling/reluctant “at-risk” students set me straight. They taught me that some days teaching content was the least of my challenges. Teaching appropriate behaviour was. Who knew. I had so much to learn.  I must give my students credit though, they were  persistent in teaching me the lessons that I needed to learn, and it wasn’t long before I knew that

1.  Make sure your students know that you care about their progress in your class.

Some students need the teacher to really care that they attend class and do their work because no one at home does.

I can’t tell you how many times students that I give support to tell me they’re not attending class, not handing work in, not, not, not because the  teacher doesn’t care. Some of them even tell me “I know, Miss, I should care. But the teacher doesn’t care”. They can’t seem to get past the teacher not caring even when they know that it’s in their own best interest that they themselves care. They know that intellectually, but emotionally they can’t handle it when the teacher doesn’t care.

These troubled, troublesome and troubling kids need someone to care. They’ve usually frustrated their parents to the point where the parents are at the end of their rope and have given up on them. Some parents actually tell their kids that they don’t care what they do anymore. But, kids need someone to care. We all need someone to care. That’s why belonging to a gang is so attractive to some kids. The gang members care for one another even if the adults in the kids lives don’t.

I found that it doesn’t take a lot of time to care about my troubled, troublesome and troubling students. At the beginning of the semester, I make sure that I spend a few minutes each day talking to the students, and getting to know them  better. Before I know it, these students are  waving  to me in the halls when they see   me or give me a high five as we pass in the hall even though in their  crowd it’s not cool to like teachers. This actually happened last Friday.  I’d spent a few minutes  earlier in the day in my class talking  to a student  about a project in another class  When I saw him later in the hall he waved. I knew he knew that I cared and that my caring would enable me to have some positive influence on him in my class as well as in his other classes.

Recently, I heard this strategy called The Two-by-Ten Strategy. I like the name. It’s catching and easy to remember. Basically what happens is you spend two minutes each day for ten days in a row talking to one of your troublesome students. Research has shown there’s an 85% improvement in behaviour. That’s spectacular but it  seems about right to me.

2. Take the time to teach your students how to behave in class.

Some students need to be taught appropriate classroom behaviour because they honestly have no idea
what’s appropriate. Their life circumstances outside of school might be so difficult and harsh that what they need to do to survive there is different from what is expected in the classroom.

I teach appropriate classroom behaviour by having the class come up with a set of classroom agreements. at the beginning of the semester. I’ve explained in detail how I do this here. So I won’t do that now. I’ve even included the Power Point Presentation that I use to sum up the agreements. If you want a copy, just email me. I’ll send it to you as an attachment. I’ve had lots and lots of requests for it.

I have the kids create posters for each agreement and have them put the posters up so that they can remind us about what we’ve chosen as appropriate behaviours. Then I review them at the beginning of the class to remind everyone.  It doesn’t take long to do this- a couple of minutes at most.

3. Redirect inappropriate behaviour using a quiet voice.

Students have told me that they don’t like it when  teachers yell at them. No one really , come to think of it. So when I’m trying to redirect inappropriate behaviour, I  get as close as possible to the student and speak in a quiet voice reminding him of our classroom agreements.   OK, I’ll admit it. Once in a long while I’ll lose it, but later I’ll apologize and say that I’m sorry that I yelled. I shouldn’t have but I was frustrated and remind them that I’m  human first and a teacher second.  I’m not perfect.  They’re actually cool with that.   Often,  they’ll even say “Oh, that’s OK Miss.”.  I’m trying to model appropriate behaviour and what to do when the behaviour isn’t appropriate.

Notice not one of the three strategies have anything to do with content,  graphic organizers or Web 2.0 technologies or tools.  :)

Aug

9

Reviewing the steps to take to prepare for the first day of school

Filed Under Behaviour Management, Dealing With Stress, motivating students, positive climate | 6 Comments

The first day of school is fast approaching, and I really need to start to  think about getting ready for it.  I’ve been teaching for a while so there have been many first days, and I’m pleased  to say ( actually I’m quite relieved to say ) that I’ve found steps to take that make that first day and that first week a success. That first week is so important because it sets the  tone for the rest of the semester.
I’m going to remind myself of what to do to have a successful first day and first week by reviewing the strategies I use for each step.  I invite you to review each step  with me, so just click on the link I’ve provided in each step.

Step 1- Reduce Stress

Just thinking about  the first day of school itself can be stressful,  but it needn’t be.      Here’s why.

Step 2- Think positively


Think positively. If you have a positive attitude you’ll believe and act as if all students will be successful in your class. If you have a positive attitude there are no losers in your classroom despite what you’ve might have heard. Students will live up to your expectations. Think and act as if students are trouble, believe me they won’t disappoint you. Here’s why.

Step 3- Remember the nine lessons your students taught you about classroom management

Your students will tell you by their behaviour what they like and don’t like all you have to do is ask them. Here’s what my students told me.

Step 4- Create the class rules or agreements collaboratively

Create the classroom agreements together and students are more likely to buy into them.  Here’s how I do that and the Slideshare Video I use to review our agreements.

Step 5- Remember respect in the classroom is a two way street

Step 6- Get your students   to tell you how they feel about different aspects of school

Remember respect is a two way street going from the teacher to the student and from the student to the teacher.  As much as I would like it to be, respect for teachers  isn’t always automatic.  It must be earned. Here’s what I do.

Step 6- Get students to tell me how they feel about different aspects of school

It’s good to get students to reflect about different aspects of school in and out of the classroom.  The information that I get from these questionnaires help me better understand my students and informs my interactions with them.  I ask these questions.

Step 7-  Realize that a students emotional state will affect a student’s learning and behaviour

Realize that the emotional state of a student can thwart learning.  Consider this.

Aug

6

A positive attitude is key to maintaining a positive classroom climate

Filed Under "At-risk" students, Behaviour Management, Uncategorized, motivating students, positive climate | 22 Comments

A positive attitude is key to maintaining a positive classroom environment.

I couldn’t agree more with Wade Boggs when he says

A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results.

In an earlier post, I wrote about how I set about establishing a positive classroom climate at the beginning of the semester and included the Slideshare presentation that I created to summarize  the classroom agreements and what they meant.  If you want a copy of the Slideshare presentation I’ve  created , just email me I’d be delighted  to send it to you.

Implementing the  classroom agreements of mutual respect, appreciation/no put downs,  attentive listening and the right to pass establishes a positive classroom climate where students can feel save and valued.  Of course establishing a safe, positive climate and maintaining it day in and day out are two different things.   What’s the key to maintaining that safe, positive classroom climate once it is established. Without a doubt, it’s a positive attitude.

If you have a positive attitude you’ll believe and act as if all students will be successful in your class.  If you have a positive attitude there are no losers in your classroom despite what you’ve might have heard.    Students will live up to your expectations. Think and act as if students are trouble, believe me they won’t disappoint you. I’ve learned that the hard way in my early years of teaching.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. I’ve found that often well meaning colleagues will give me a heads up about the troublemakers they’ve had in their classes. When they find out I’ll be teaching these kids,  they tell me how bad the students were.  Just for a nanosecond I think great. Just what I need- trouble making students. But then I quickly remind myself that attitude is not a useful attitude to have about these new students whom I don’t even know.   I really try hard not to prejudge them.  I figure even if these kids were troublesome in the past, it doesn’t mean they are now.  Things change.

A few years back I had  two students whom I’ll call Chris and Kyle, not their real names of course. They came to my class with a negative reputation and promptly started living up to it. After a few days I decided that I wasn’t going to  engage these kids in their battle.  It would be totally counter productive to use all my energy  battling with these two fourteen year olds, and besides they’d probably win the battle. So I decided that I needed to sit down and talk with them to see what’s going on.

Chris and Kyle proudly told me about their reputation for being bad in class. I told them I didn’t believe they it. They couldn’t believe that I hadn’t heard about them, so  they promptly gave me all kinds of proof to support their reputation.

I decided that I would show them I didn’t believe that they were trouble makers  and would treat them with respect and worked extra hard to develop a positive relationship with them.  Whenever they were disrespectful to me, I’d go to them quietly and ask them why they were being disrespectful to me when I wasn’t being disrespectful to them. I did  the same thing  when they weren’t listening attentively or showing appreciation. They’d actually apologize for their inappropriate behaviour.  I figured being disrespectful had just become a habit with them, and they would learn to be respectful over time.  It wasn’t easy,  but these two students got to see that they didn’t need to live up to their reputation as trouble makers  because I refused to see our relationship as student vs teacher, as them vs me.  I really did respect them as human beings and really did expect them to respect me as a human being.

I thank the classroom agreements of mutual respect/no put downs , appreciation, attentive listening and the right to pass for establishing a positive framework that enabled mutual respect to develop.  Chris and Kyle became my biggest boosters and did all kinds of positive PR for me and even came back to visit all the time to laugh about how immature they were in grade nine and how they were not like that now.  They were proud of being respectful and not of being troublesome.

I truly believe that a teacher’s positive attitude does cause  a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. A teacher’s positive attitude is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results. Just because  I believe this doesn’t mean that  I don’t forget this lesson too from time to time because I get distracted by the challenges of my own life, and I regretfully adopt a negative attitude towards a student. I know better, but I also know I’m human and not perfect.  When this happens, I apologize to show my respect for them. I want them to see mutual respect in action in my classroom.

 
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