Classroom Management 101

Since it is almost back to school time (less than a month for me), I thought I'd share some of my favorite classroom management tips that I've learned!

I'm a big believer in procedures.  I guess you could say that I'm pretty old school and believe their should be a procedure for EVERYTHING, that teachers teach the procedure, lots of time is spent on this during the first week of school, and then the classroom runs smoother (because you can always say, "What is my procedure for....?").

You can download this freebie to keep you organized.  It includes tips, a checklist, and a document to keep track of when procedures are taught.  I've used this for the last two years when I've worked with first year teachers, and they have been very appreciative :)

Here is just a sample of some of the procedures I like to cover at the beginning of the school year.

The great thing about having a community of teachers that blog is that I can continuously receive professional development.  Here are a few of my favorite classroom management tips from other teacher bloggers!

The Clutter Free Classroom has a great section on her blog focused on classroom management.  There are tabs with different areas of classroom management, such as managing transitions, managing book buddies, and taking attendance (just to name a few). The list of topics is very thorough, and she includes so many topics that teachers of all grade levels can find something they would like to implement in the fall.

Source:  Clutter Free Classroom

Something that is very near and dear to my heart is being positive in the classroom.  I learned in college that teachers need to give five positive comments for every negative comment.  Recently I was told the ratio should be 15:1!

Somedays when you feel like you will either pull your hair out or you would like to run away (on the 30th day in a row of indoor recess), being positive seems almost impossible!  One of my favorite classroom management posts is from A Teeny Tiny Teacher when she explains her gold tag system.  Essentially, students earn gold tags for positive behavior.  Teachers can give an unlimited number of gold tags.  Then on Fun Friday, students redeem their gold tags for activities.   Her post goes into all the specifics (like what to do when someone steals gold tags) and is one of my favorite blog posts EVER!

Source: A Teeny Tiny Teacher

Speaking of being positive, Tamara Russell's classroom also does Fun Friday, but as an entire grade level.  Her blog post shares some of the fun activities on Fun Friday.

On the positive note, I love using fun attention grabbers to get student's attention.  I have found they work quickly, and if you have an observer in the room, they think you have it together.  Attention grabbers involve the teacher saying part of a phrase, and the students completing it.  As soon as the students hear the teacher say the first part of the phrase, they stop what they are doing, respond to the teacher, and focus their attention on what the teacher will say next.

Some of my favorite attention grabbers are:

Teacher:  Classity Class

Students:  Yessity Yes

Teacher:  Ready to learn?

Students: Ready to listen.

Teacher:  Everybody rock!

Students:  Everybody roll!

Miss Nelson and Traci Clausen have great freebie posters with numerous attention grabbers you can use in your classroom to calmly gain your students attention.

My final resource that I have had for many years (and it has been updated a few times) is The First Days of School by Harry Wong.  It covers many topics such as setting positive expectations, lesson planning, and classroom management.