Quiet Challenge

This has been used several times in the last few weeks in my classroom. My students have had trouble with not talking when I am talking, or interrupting me, or not listening to my directions because they are talking to themselves. All of the teachers reading this are nodding right now because they know exactly what I am talking about. It is one of the biggest struggles that we face. How do I get my kiddos quiet for the 2 minutes it will take me to say what I need to say?!?

This challenge is one that has 2 adaptations. I’ve enjoyed using both several times, but it takes a lot of dedication on your part as well as on the student’s part. If they won’t buy in, this will not work for you. If you do not fully commit, it will not work.

Adaptation 1: The Quiet Class

For this adaptation, the class is the quiet group. It is a competition. Every kid for themselves. Whoever is the quietest will win the game. I generally use this if I know I need to give a longer set of directions. It begins by telling the class that we are going to play a game. Every kid for his or her self. If you talk, you face the consequences. No one else. If a student talks or makes a noise, the teacher will write their name on the board (KEY POINT: Do not stop teaching! Just write the name and keep going like nothing happened). If they make noise or talk again, they get a tally mark. 5 tallies and you are out! No, sneezing and coughing do not count as noise. Yes, if you laugh it counts. No, if you move your chair to see better it does not count. Yes, if you ask to go to the bathroom and don’t use the signal that counts. If you have a question and I call on you, that does not count. If you call out to ask a question that does count. These and many other questions you will get. I try to address them up front.

This will only work once a day with the sam group of kids. I’ve tried to use it more than once and the game looses all effectiveness and I can’t use it again for another month or so.

Adaptation 2: The Quiet Teacher

I have a lot of fun with this. I did it last Thursday and it made my one student actually focus more than he has in weeks!!

This one is very simple, but takes a lot of teacher power. You cannot talk. You do no talk. You give all your directions in writing or by pointing. The students will need to pay close attention. If they do not follow directions, there are consequences. In my small group, I wrote our directions for the class on the board. The boys took turns reading it as I pointed to the direction and to them. I was only allowed to read the questions on the page and answer questions if they had any. Outside of that, I said nothing. If a student messed up reading a word in his book, I leaned over and tapped the word, or pointed to the other child to help him out. If they did not get the answer right to the question, I made them read the page again. All by pointing. I honestly think that I said 50 words for the whole 30 minutes of my small group, and that was just reading questions off the page! My boys really had to buckle down and concentrate in order to complete the work for the day and earn a stamp towards our goal.

As with everything that I post here, these are just the skeleton concepts for activities you can do in your room. Customize it to fit your needs and your students. Every room is different and every teacher has a way they like things done. So make it your own!

And remember…SHH!!!

Let’s Get The Ball Rolling (Morning Meeting)

This is a morning meeting greeting game that I got from another teacher. It is something that most of us have seen at some point in our teaching careers.

This game is very simple and is a lot of fun…if the students act appropriately.

Start with a small ball. I recommend a wiffle ball or a soft stress ball. The students should be sitting on the floor in a circle. The teacher starts with the ball and establishes a greeting with the class. Will you say “Good Morning”, “Hello”, “How are you”? Tell the students to first say the name of the student and give them the greeting (ex. Good Morning Jack!) and THEN they can roll the ball. The student must say the whole greeting before they can roll the ball. This way the other student is prepared. Once the second student receives the ball, the return the greeting. Then they greet another child and roll the ball to them. This continues until the teacher is the only one who has not yet gotten a greeting. Then the last student greets the teacher, and the ball returns to the start.

While this seems like a very simple game, you need to establish all your rules are the very beginning. You are not allowed to throw the ball. You must roll the ball softly. You have to say the whole greeting before the ball leaves your hand. You have to roll the ball to someone who has not had the ball yet. Add your own rules if you need to. Just make sure this is all controlled and you will have a fun greeting during your morning meeting!

So let’s get the ball rolling on another great day of school tomorrow!

The List!

We all know the tales of Santa Claus and how we are all on his list (that he checks twice). We are either naughty or nice and that determines the presents (or coal) that we get. Hopefully you have all been good this year and will be working towards making sure that you are on the nice list.

This idea came from working with a class of fifth graders. These students were a fantastic class, but had a problem with always following directions and being quiet. So I developed The List!

The List is the simplest and most fake tool I’ve ever used as a classroom management strategy, but somehow, the stars aligned and it worked perfectly. I hope it has the same effect for you.

Here is how it works:

1. Get a post it note or piece of scrap paper. This is not something for the class to see so it does not need to be pretty.
2. Wait until you need the students to stop doing something before making your announcement. “Oh no. I see some of you are having a problem with directions. Well I’m going to write your names down here. If your name is on here you will not get [insert reward here].” Students will generally get very quiet.
3. Write down the names of the students who are acting poorly. If you are a sub and don’t know the kids’ names, just write down the chair they are in, or scribble something down so it looks like you know them.
4. DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT ANY CHILD. Keep them guessing about who you are writing down. Look around the entire room.
5. Tell them that they can get off the list. Once they are performing the behaviors that you want, you will scribble their name off of the list. Really scribble it so no one can tell what names were there.
6. As you go through, announce how many students you add to the list, or take off of it. Thank the students (again, not by name) for following the directions or completing the behaviors you want.
7. Continue this as long as you need to.
8. Follow through. If you are giving your reward at the end of class, then give it. Generally, the students will have all earned the reward so you never need to call out a single student.

When I did this, the students were working for a week off of homework. The definitely earned it. It also helped me with remembering students’ names.

So don’t forget to make your list, check it twice, and know it is always okay when you have to teach on the fly!

Teacher Tip: The Pause.

This is more of a tip for teachers. Not for management. Not for punishment. This is for you.

Most people think of the long pause as the “I’ll wait” equivalent. What I’m talking about is the pause you take when all you want to do is reach across the table and yell at your student! This has happened to me several times this week.

I’ve finally hit the point where I’m not just the fun new teacher. I’m the learning support teacher. I give you work that challenges you a bit. I’m the one that takes you out of class when the rest of the kids get on laptops and you have to miss this because you have a testing accommodation. I’m the one that doesn’t let you get away with anything because you are in a room with one other student and I see everything that you do. I’m not fun and nice. I’m a teacher now.

While I’m going to miss my initial status of fun, and while this is a change from my last placement where I was in the top 10 teachers at the school (yes this is a little braggy. But I was a favorite to many. I miss that fame 😥  ), I need to make sure that my students know that I mean business. Sure we can party and have fun, but the work comes first. This is where my pause comes in.

Whenever I get so angry that I just want to yell, I stop. I close my eyes for a second and just take one big breath. Usually this silent pause lasts about 5-10 seconds, depending on my level of frustration. While this is used to calm me down, it actually helps to change the atmosphere of the room. The students see the flash of anger for a second and then get that weird calm that comes right after a huge storm. The calm that you know can either last all day…or just a few seconds. They generally all get silent and wait. They wait to see what I will do next. Will she yell? Will she punish us? Will she be okay? What is happening? I actually had a student once apologize the second I took my breath. He knew that this was not a good thing.

My new students are starting to notice this. The last time I took the pause for myself they all got very quiet. One looked kinda nervous. While this is not the intention of the pause, it is a nice side effect. After that the students and I had a better day.

I generally follow up my pause by just moving right along as though the incident had never happened. It gives me a fresh start, as well as the class.

So take a moment. Take a breath. Take a pause. And just keep going.

Classroom Management: Music

 

As you might have come to learn on this blog, I love a lot of things. One that is very near and dear to me is music and all things musical. I’m a person who studies with music. I also had the pleasure of growing up with a music teacher for a mother. I learned about music genres, musical theater, and the benefits of music on the brain. It was great. As I’m writing this post, my mother is sitting at the piano and amazing me with musical number after musical number.

One consistency with music for me is that it controls my emotions. I use music to pump me up, to calm me down, or to help me concentrate. There is a ton of research on this! Hit up Google Scholar next time you have a free moment and look into the study of music on the brain. It is fascinating.

I’ve taken my passion for music and turned it into a teaching tool. This is not an original concept here, however, I’ve put my own “on the fly” twist to it. During the summer I was a head teacher for language arts. Each morning my students entered the room the the pump up song of my choice. This ranged from newer songs like Shawn Mendes’ “Something Big” to the classic “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor. The kid’s really liked it. But there’s more! I made this our unpacking routine. Most of the songs that I chose were between 2 and 3 minutes. The perfect amount of time for students to enter the room, fully unpack, and set up their desks and themselves for the day. Some days I would even stop the song early because they finished so fast. It was a challenge for them, a great way to get them excited, and a great way for me to get myself pumped for the lessons.

I also liked to incorporate music into our independent work time. Using the glorious YouTube, I found a lot of concentration mixes that were several hours long. Generally if you type in “quiet relaxing music”, “quiet instrumental music”, or “music for studying” you will be set. Below I’ve linked to a few of my favorites.

Music is a wonderful and so helpful to help control the feeling of your room. Make a playlist for studying and concentration. Make a pump up list. Make a list for just you to calm you down after a stressful class. There is a ton of music out there. Ask your students, they will have a bunch of recommendations for you as well.

As always, enjoy your teaching, enjoy your students, and enjoy the music!

 

Here are some links to some music mixes that I’ve loved:

Brain Break: GoNoodle

Everyone needs brain breaks now and then. Especially students who have trouble focusing. My first year I had another support teacher introduce me to this amazing website. It is called GoNoodle. This is the best website ever!!! My students love it and love working towards our movement goal.

This site is filled with different movement activities that students can do. Some are guided dancing, some are running, some are moments of mindfulness, yoga, and free dance. Our favorite channel to watch is Koo Koo Kangaroo. The songs are fun and the movements are silly. We even have the students singing the songs at recess.

This is an activity that has stuck with us for three years now and it has spread throughout the school. It also promotes exercise for our students. Many have gone home and gotten GoNoodle for their house. It is great to watch them move and sing. They are really able to come back and focus on their work right afterwards.

 

Enjoy and GoNoodle!