classroom management

Reaching and Teaching the Impoverished Child

by Kendal Privette on April 17, 2012

How many of the students with whom you regularly interact are disorganized, frequently lose papers, bring many reasons why something is missing, don’t do homework, are physically aggressive, like to entertain, only see part of what is on the page, only do part of the assignment, cannot monitor their own behavior, laugh when they are disciplined, don’t know or use middle-class courtesies, or dislike authority? These, according to Dr. Ruby Payne, author of A Framework for Understanding Poverty, are characteristics of students who live in an impoverished culture.

When I read the checklist of behaviors above, I actually laughed out loud because it aptly described more than half of my students. Obviously, this population commands excessive amounts of my attention during class, but I had no idea that they most likely live in poverty and come to school with skills for surviving in the world of poverty but not the world of middle-class school.

Dr. Payne writes, “One of the reasons it is getting more and more difficult to conduct school as we have in the past is that the students who bring the middle-class culture with them are decreasing in numbers, and the students who bring poverty culture with them are increasing in numbers.”

I bring a middle-class culture to my classroom and expect middle-class behaviors and attitudes from my students. After all, that is what I know, but this leaves around half my students struggling to survive. How can I relate to them? How do I help them succeed in this foreign world?

The book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty, is an excellent starting point for answering these vital questions and happens to be the best professional book I have ever read. Ruby Payne’s website, aha Process, also includes a plethora of information, resources and professional development opportunities for teachers and community leaders who work with students who come from poverty. In the following video clip Dr. Payne and Rita Pierson demonstrate the different voices with which students speak.

Reaching the impoverished is vital to the success of the schools in my area. How about you? What population in your area is hard to reach, hard to teach? What is your school doing to reach them?

Kendal blogs at a spacious place

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Teaching Tip to Make Cooperative Learning Easier

by steve_reifman on April 10, 2012

Teaching Tip Tuesday:  Appointment Clock.

An Appointment Clock is a classroom management tool that teachers can use when students will be working in pairs. Appointment Clocks save valuable class time, empower kids to make meaningful choices, ensure that students have the opportunity to work with a variety of classmates, and facilitate smooth transitions.

Here’s how Appointment Clocks work. Imagine that you are planning a classroom activity in which you would like your students to work in pairs. When you have finished explaining the directions and are ready for the kids to begin the activity, you ask everyone to find one partner and get started. Though this request may seem simple enough to follow, many students will struggle. Some may not feel comfortable approaching a classmate, others may not be able to decide how to choose one friend over another, and still others may choose the same friend every time you attempt cooperative learning. The potential exists for wasted time, hurt feelings, and a loss of focus from the activity itself.

All these potential problems can be avoided through the use of Appointment Clocks. This tool is simply a sheet of paper with a traditional clock printed on it. Though there are twelve hours on a clock, I have my students use only six of the hours (from 1:00 to 6:00). I have my kids complete these hours on their Appointment Clocks at the beginning of the year, before we ever attempt cooperative learning.

Before having my kids fill the clocks out, I explain that everyone should use these sheets to record the names of six different people with whom they would like to work over the coming months. I emphasize the importance of choosing people with whom they will get along and be able to focus. I have found that having six different partners on the clock works well for middle grade students because it ensures variety while still providing the opportunity to work frequently with close friends.

It usually takes about 20-25 minutes for the students to walk around and find their six partners. When almost all students have completed this task, I call them back together to check for accuracy. When I say “1:00”, all the kids stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their 1:00 partners. If some students accidentally wrote a name in the wrong space or if some students do not yet have a 1:00 partner, we can make any corrections at this time. I proceed through all six hours of the clock until everything is correctly recorded. If necessary, some students may work with the same classmate for more than one hour on the clock, and if your class has an odd number students (which, by the way, is very different from having a number of odd students), each hour of the clock will contain a trio.

You can download and print a blank clock worksheet here.

With our clocks complete, organizing cooperative learning is much easier. I attach a 1-6 spinner to the top of the white board. For our first pair activity I point the spinner to the “1” and have the kids work with their 1:00 partners. Next time around, I move the spinner to the “2” and ask everyone to work with their 2:00 partners. The spinner enables me to keep track of where we are in the sequence so that students work with all their partners the same number of times. It also keeps me from having to remember where we are in the sequence. Students will quickly memorize their six partners. Until they do, I have them tape a small list of their “Clock Partners” at the top corners of their desks for easy reference.

Now, for example, whenever I need students to work in pairs, I simply say, “You will work on this activity with your 4:00 partner.” Our transition into the activity is a smooth one, and students are happy because they have the chance to work with someone that they, themselves, have chosen. I have found that there is a certain psychological comfort in this fact. Students are more invested in the activity because they were the ones who chose their six partners. Later in the year, I often have my students complete the rest of their Appointment Clocks so they have the opportunity to work with a wider variety of classmates. With these six new spaces on the clock, I’ll allow them to repeat one of two of their original six partners.

How do you make working in partners or cooperative learning easy for your classroom?

Want More Teaching Tips? Using an I-Pad in the Classroom  |  Make Your Class Kinder  |  Classroom Management That Works  |  Top 5 Energizers

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Technology Timesavers for Teachers

by Jill Scott on March 29, 2012

Teachers today are fortunate to have access to technological tools that make our jobs easier and minimize the paperwork involved in educating our students. I didn’t grow up with computers like today’s students did, but I’m very much on board with becoming more tech savvy and, yes, even accepting help from my students when I have technical difficulties.

About a year ago I bought myself an iPad after saving for it for months. It was going to help me organize my life, both at home and at school, and guess what? It did. I love my iPad and I can’t see myself living without it. Today I want to share with you some of my favorite apps and websites that I use in the classroom.

The first tool I use is DropBox and you don’t have to have an iPad to use it. It’s the icon with the red arrow pointing to it. It’s a free app that I have downloaded on my PC at school, my Mac and my laptop at home, my iPhone, and my iPad. The fact that I’m using it on windows driven computers and Macs interchangeably doesn’t matter one little bit.

DropBox is a way to store your documents “in the cloud” so that you have access to them wherever you are. You can even access your documents from any computer that has an internet connection, regardless of whether the app is loaded on the computer you’re using or not.

I cannot tell you how liberating it was for me to kick my jump drive to the curb. I can start my lesson plans on my computer at school, and when I turn on my computer at home, DropBox automatically updates any changed files. I work on my lesson plans at home as well as at school, and I can go back and forth like that as much as I want. With DropBox I’m always working on the most up-to-date copy without having to remember which computer has the most current file.

I also don’t have the problem of having some files on my computer at home and some on my computer at school. I have everything I need, no matter where I’m at.

That makes this control freak happy, let me tell you.

The other website and free app I use is Dictionary.com. I love it not only because I can look words up super fast and appear smarter than I am, but check this out.

Do you see that little blue speaker up there in the upper right corner? That magical little button enables you to hear the correct pronunciation of the word.

Imagine!

Is it me, or are there some words that no matter how many times you look them up, you still cannot remember how to properly pronounce them? Like scythe. That one slays me every time. I think I finally have scourge down. Probably because it is so fun to say.

The nifty thing is that students love to learn when they can use fun tools like this. Whenever I struggle with a word or how to define a word, they are quick to encourage me to look it up on the computer. In fact, they want to do it for me. They’re young and limber and very comfortable with technology, so why the heck not? Educate me, Little People.

One app I use is Teacher Assistant. I’ve only been using this one for a couple of months, but so far I love it. I use it to collect data about behavior, good and bad. I’ve tried many different ways to collect behavioral data and all of them were cumbersome and did not work for me long-term. This app is working for me, so Yay!

I got this screen shot from the Teacher Assistant website, so don’t worry, it isn’t one of my students. I wanted to show you an example without infringing on my students’ privacy. That, and I was too lazy to make a bogus student and their accompanying entries.

The next app I’ve been using for a while is called Stick Pick and it enables me to call on students randomly.

I can have multiple classes and groupings, so this app would work great for secondary teachers as well as elementary teachers.

This is what the sticks look like when I’m using them to call on students. I just touch the large can and it makes a shuffling noise before this next screen comes up.

I can choose to reset the stick if I want. I reset the sticks when I don’t want the students to get complacent thinking they’ve already been called and they can relax without worrying about being called on again. I can also mark the sticks as used, and that enables me to make sure everyone gets a turn. The beauty of this app is that the students never know whether I’m resetting the sticks or not, and they never question whether or not the selection is fair because I’m not the one calling on them, the robot that lives in my iPad is. They trust technology and that’s a beautiful thing.

This next app, Smart Seat, is a new app for me and I loooooooooove it. It makes changing seats a breeze. Before I found this app, I tried another app that didn’t work out so great. It was called Seat Charter and it stank, so I want you to stay far away from it. Please make sure you don’t waste your money on it. It had nice graphics, but I couldn’t control the graphics or group the students’ names with their desks. It was seriously more trouble than it was worth so I deleted it off my iPad in a fit of rage. And it wasn’t free. I’m still mad about it.

Smart Seat doesn’t have cool graphics but it works, and that’s what’s important anyway, isn’t it? What I like most about it is that I can make seating charts and tweak them on the fly. For example, the last time we moved seats I noticed that I had made a bad choice, so I just put my finger on the student’s name that I had to move, and I moved him. It was that easy. This screen shot shows me doing just that. While the desk is in transit, it’s yellow and larger. When I plop it into place it will look like all the others.

Skippy John Jones was naughty so I moved him to Alaska. The rest of the class is in the contiguous United States and Alaska is not, so that’s what we call the desk that is separated from the rest of the class.

I can also e-mail my seating charts to myself in pdf form so I can print them out for a sub. I love that.

The last app I want to share with you is more of a preview of what’s to come. With the Common Core Standards coming into play, I think we’re going to be seeing more apps and more flexibility within the apps. I have this app, CommonCore, because it was free and less cumbersome than flipping through my district provided standards that are printed on legal-sized paper in a 3-point font. You know how helpful that is, don’t you?.

This app has Math and Language Arts standards for all grades, but it is much easier to read than the spreadsheets that are posted online or that our districts print out for us.

This screen shot shows the 6th grade math standard 6.NS.1.

This particular app doesn’t allow you to make notes, it is just the standards.

I envision having access to an app that would allow me to make notes on each of the standards with regards to curriculum and resources I use and can use to teach each standard. How cool to have all of that information in one place and be able to access it anywhere. It blows my mind.

I hope you have the opportunity to use some of these technology time savers that I use in my classroom.

- Jill Scott, Controlling My Chaos

What about you? What do you use and love that you couldn’t live without? I’d love to try something new.

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My Classroom Management Approach in Action (Part 2)

by steve_reifman on March 9, 2012

Under the approach I mentioned in Part 1 of this post, rather than administer rewards and punishments to control student behavior, I need to bring my kids together, much as a basketball coach does during a time-out. I need to call attention to what I see happening, explain why I believe that behavior to be problematic or counterproductive, and refer my students to our Class Mission Statement, a set of ideas that the kids themselves wrote at the beginning of the year detailing who we are, what we want to become, and the principles and goals that distinguish us as a unique group of people with a unique set of priorities.  

This way, ideas guide us and hold us together, not carrots and sticks. So, on that day when things began to break down, I called my kids up to the rug in the front of the room and opened a discussion. I talked about respect, kindness, teamwork, discipline, and other key ideas that we talk about all the time. We discuss these ideas every Friday morning when we review our mission statement, we talk about them Tuesday and Thursday mornings during our Quote of the Day activity, and we talk about them throughout the week as the need and opportunity arises.

When our difficulties continued throughout the day, I continued to call everyone together and refer to these larger ideas.  Our day still wasn’t one of our best, but things did improve, and I was pleased with my response to the things that were happening.

When difficult moments occur, I’ve learned that I can use them as learning opportunities, not as occasions to lose my temper and escalate the controlling use of carrots and sticks.  Stephen Covey, author of some wonderful books including The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, also mentions the bonding power that mission statements offer.

My approach is absolutely more difficult to employ than traditional management approaches because it takes more time, more effort, more patience, and more problem solving. The results, however, are far more effective, far more lasting, far more empowering, and far more satisfying.  Children want to be part of the solution to any problem that may be occurring.  We just need to open the door and invite them to participate in the problem-solving process.

-Steve Reifman

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Okay, this is a good one for discussion– Which theory do you use to motivate classroom behavior?  Intrinsic or extrinsic motivators? Benefits, drawbacks, examples, practical insight?

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My Classroom Management Approach in Action (Part 1)

March 9, 2012

A Note from the Editor:  This is an exciting time for our contributor, Steve Reifman. Steve has two new books coming out this month. Chase Against Time, the first installment in his Chase Manning Mystery Series for readers 8-12, comes out March 15th. Each book in the series features a single-day, real-time mystery thriller that occurs [...]

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Classroom Management That Works

February 6, 2012

One of the first things I learned in my first year of teaching is that I had to find a classroom management style that I was comfortable with. I learned very quickly that my students didn’t seem to be aware that sometimes I have no idea what I am doing. I know. The horror. However, [...]

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Top Ten Classroom Management Ideas and Resources

October 18, 2011

Classroom Management. Whether you are looking to control a rowdy class, capture the heart of a disrespectful student, or encourage kids to turn in their homework on time, effective classroom management is an ever-moving target. Class personalities, student ages, season of the year, the presence of that one student {yes, you know the one}, can [...]

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The Marble Jar

March 10, 2011
character education is important

A positive behavioral modification idea that’s as simple as a jar of marbles.

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Teacher, Your Words Matter

January 20, 2011

A story of a teacher’s words that left my own little one in tears at the end of the day.

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