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Middle School Teachers Chatboard

Classroom/student management advice....

by DM

Nov 24, 2012

lease share with me your best ideas and advice for student management...will be new to this (have only taught 3rd-5th)....especially from a positive discipline angle! Thanks!

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Debbie On 11/24/12, DM wrote: > Please share with me your best ideas and advice for student > management...will be new to this (have only taught > 3rd-5th)....especially from a positive discipline angle! > Thanks! Be consistent! Keep your classroom rules to maybe five or less. Here's mine: -Raise your hand to speak. -Cell phones are off and in...See More

Nov 25, 2012

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R Brown On 11/24/12, DM wrote: > Be consistent! Keep your classroom rules to maybe five or > less. > Debbie

My question is, how to enforce those rules? Some middle school students like to test you with minimal infractions, what to do with their test?

Throw them out of class? Put their name down and turn in to the office? If it is...See More

Nov 25, 2012

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Debbie On 11/25/12, R Brown wrote: >> On 11/24/12, DM wrote: >> Be consistent! Keep your classroom rules to maybe five or >> less. >> Debbie > > > My question is, how to enforce those rules? Some middle school > students like to test you with minimal infractions, what to do > with their test? > > Throw them out...See More

Nov 25, 2012

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Vet Teacher On 11/24/12, DM wrote: > Please share with me your best ideas and advice for student > management...will be new to this (have only taught > 3rd-5th)....especially from a positive discipline angle! > Thanks!

How many students in your room and what age? My answer to your question would vary depending on your answers to those ques...See MoreOn 11/24/12, DM wrote: > Please share with me your best ideas and advice for student > management...will be new to this (have only taught > 3rd-5th)....especially from a positive discipline angle! > Thanks!

How many students in your room and what age? My answer to your question would vary depending on your answers to those questions.

In any classroom though I strongly encourage the idea that the classroom is a community and we are all - me too - members of it. I also say and often that I want their time in my class to be positive time. Ideally - I say - I'd like this to be one of the classes you look forward to each day. I tell them I remember dreading certain classes in my own middle school years and that what I wish for all of them is that their school day overall is a positive one and I wish that each school day was such a good day that they'd look forward to coming back to school the next day.

And I mean that - I don't think it's inevitable that kids hate school and I see some things in school that if I were a kid, I'd hate those things too. Some teachers demean students and some teachers are bullies themselves.

I don't tell them that but I use the demeaning teachers and the bullying teachers as examples to myself of how I don't want to be.

I do tell the kids that I can't make their time in my class good time on my own. I tell them I sit up nights (and I do) trying to plan lessons that are interesting, even intriguing. I don't want them to be bored and I think it is my job to present my subject matter in as interesting a way as possible. I also think it's my job to be fair and even to bend over backwards to be fair - students are people too.

When you say things like that - when you believe things like that - I find it goes a Very Long way toward positive classroom management. I don't give out a list of rules. There's one guideline in my class - What we do here needs to be safe. We need to keep each other safe - physically safe and emotionally safe and that includes me. I can't bully kids or demean kids and then not expect kids to do the same.

I build Strong Relationships with my students and they come to want to do the right thing because they don't want to disappoint me. They do like the class and they do look forward to it and they mess up a good thing if they get out of hand. I can look them in the eye and ask "Do you want this to be one of the classes that you dread? Where all you do is copy notes from the board and take tests on the notes you copied from the board?"

No kid says yes to that and when they say no, I tell them again "Inappropriate behavior is exactly the reason that some teachers just have you copy notes from the board every day."I cannot make this a good class on my own. There are 22 of us here and each one of us has to pitch in. I welcome your thoughts and we are a discussion based class, I welcome your jokes and admire your insights but it takes a village to make a good class happen."

I don't give points or pizzas or pats on the head. I do let them know that I look forward to being with them each day. I let them know that they as people are important to me. I don't value them for the good citizens and adults they will become - I value them now and I value the less well-behaved ones as much as the very well-behaved ones. I do not ever play favorites.

I also don't assign homework on weekends or holidays and I try to be as circumspect with homework as possible and I tell them that I think they like me should have down time in the evening and that their weekends are family time. I give make-up tests and I never give a test on a Monday or after a holiday. I try to have my policies be fair and try to treat students with warm regard and sincere respect.

All that and a sense of humor has served me very well though 25+ years of teaching Middle School.

Nov 29, 2012

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