I think you literally have to have procedures for EVERYTHING
in a classroom. I have procedures for even moving from one
area of the room to another. If you don't, things can get
confusing and chaotic. Over time as you get to know your
kids and they grow with you, I think you can loosen up a
bit, but it's better to have procedures and not need them
after awhile than not have them for a long time and need to
implement them late in the year.
I definitely use seating charts, and for the younger grades
I rarely let them switch. I try to mix the kids by
personality, but I do try to put girls by girls and boys by
boys because I find they are more likely to sing that way.
The only exception is really rowdy boys--I try to put them
in between quiet girls.
I try to have various areas in the room that are used for
different things, although that can be tricky. I have chairs
where they sit to read books, and we have a big carpet space
where we do recorders and rhythm cards and circle games. I
have an instrument area, and I also created 5 "stations"
around the room, because when we split into instrument
groups or other types of groups, the kids pick a station to
go to and that's their designated spot.
I definitely have rewards and consequences too. I have a
behavior bulletin board, but I actually don't really use it
much because I don't really need it this year. I started
doing "stars" and "talking tallies" on the board, and that
really works. The kids try to rack up stars during the
course of a class, and they try to avoid getting "talking
tallies" for talking when they shouldn't be. It's a system
that I plan to tweak next year--like I said, this has been a
really good year for me, behavior-wise, so I don't really
use a system religiously, but I have had other cases where
I've really needed it, so it just depends on the class and
the year. This year I've relied more on taking away recess
for a kid who is a problem. The issue with me this year is
that all of my behavior-problem kids have an official
behavior plan (a 504) that I HAVE to follow, so it's really
hard because each kid has his OWN indiviualized plan that I
have to use, which is different from the class behavior
plan. I hate that, but what can I do.
Anyway, over time you end up teaching procedures without
even meaning to. The kids know that when they watch movies
they have to sit in a certain place and not sit in other
places. When we do listening, they can move around the room,
lie down, and we turn out the lights. It's coming up with
the fun little details that make your room your own.
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