Can you believe the new school year is already here! Summers go by way too fast!!! I always remember packing up my classroom and leaving for summer vacation thinking I have so much time!
As teachers one of the hardest things for some of us to grasp is classroom management. As the new school year is upon us, I thought I would share some of my useful classroom management tips and resources that I have found helpful over the years. I will say this did not come naturally to me, and it was something that I got better with over time.
One of the biggest things when it comes to classroom management is consistency, fairness and follow through. The things I will be talking about on the blog today are about general discipline, missing work and requests to retest for students.
As student teachers, we walked into a classroom where the rules and expectations were already set up. When it comes to running your own classroom for the first time, you then realize that YOU have to set your classroom rules and expectations. This is anything from bathroom passes, to locker passes, to hall passes, to discipline, to tardies, etc., and the list goes on and on. This can become very overwhelming quickly!
Over my ten plus years of teaching, in multiple teaching environments, I feel that I have learned and failed enough to be able to give a few pointers. Here is what I have found of what works and what does not work, depending on your classroom level.
*I will mainly focus on middle school and high school classroom management, as that is what I have experience in. You can take this information and use it to fit the needs for your classroom management style and expectations.
When it comes to my classroom management resources, I guess you can say I am a little bit “old school”. A lot of my classroom management resources are pen and paper based. This is just my preferred style to address these types of issues in my classroom. Also, I feel it makes the students more accountable when they see it, write it and physically turn something in.
Below are some of the items I have used in my classrooms over the years.
*These are brief descriptions of the resources, please visit my TPT store for more detailed directions and guidance.
General Discipline & Discipline Log:
Many things that I have learned over the years, is that when it comes to discipline in the classroom you need to be consistent and fair.
What does it mean to be consistent? If you say you are going to do something, you better do it! Your students will remember if you follow through or not. The first time you do not follow through with what you said you would, forget it! They will remember that and the control you once had in your classroom will be gone. And may take some time to recover.
What does it mean to be fair? I didn’t care who you were, if and when you broke a rule in my classroom… you ALL got the same consequence. And my students knew that. Each and every one of them knew all the rules in the classroom applied to each of them equally. This gave me less problems because all students knew what was expected of them on a daily basis.
One resource that I used to help keep track of this was my discipline log. I would print out a bunch at the start of the year. I would then file the logs in a binder by French level and period. I would then fill out the discipline log on an as needed basis per student when the time came. This way I could keep track of behaviors and consequences in my classroom so when I had to call home, had a parent teacher conference or wrote a referral to administration, I had proof of the steps I had already taken to try and correct the behavior.
The dreaded “I don’t have my assignment, because… yad yad yadah….” . I got so tired of trying to keep track of who turned in what and who didn’t, that one day I decided this is not my job! At some point the students need to become responsible and held accountable for their assignments and grades. That is when I decided to put the accountability and responsibility back on them and created the Missing Work Slip.
This resource is used when a student did not turn in their assignment on the due date. This gives the student the responsibility of owning their mistakes and taking responsibility for their actions. It is a way for you to track work that was not turned in daily. This is also an opportunity for students to explain themselves and come up with a plan for when you can expect the assignment to be turned in.
I used this resource in my classroom to help students who did not fare well on assessments. I myself had major test anxiety as a student and I wanted to help my students in any way that I can. We all have good and bad days as well as understanding one topic more than another. That is when I decided to implement the Request To Retest in my classroom.
This resource is used when a student did not do well on their assessment (i.e. failed), and gives them an opportunity to retake that assessment. (Please make sure this aligns with your school’s policy on testing before implementing.)
Permission de Pipi (Permission to leave the Classroom):
Have you ever felt like your classroom had a revolving door? Well I can say that I have been there and done that! Although we would like to treat our students like the young adults that they are, sometimes they still need that extra guidance and support. We all know what class or classes that maybe 😜. That is when I created the Permission de Pipi. This was a way that I could keep certain classes under control a little better with an incentive for them at the end. Please make sure this resource aligns with your schools’ policy on restroom/locker use before implementing.)
Merci,
Amanda