1. On-Your Feet Crowd Control—Teaching is an “on your feet” job. The most successful way of Crowd Control is to arrange your room so that you can teach from any corner of the room Successful teachers use the proximity of their bodies as an instrument of classroom management. THEY CONSTANTLY MOVE. This technique is called “Working the Crowd.” The longer a teacher is away from students, the more likely they are to goof off. Arrange your classroom so that there are walkways and it is easy for you to cover the whole classroom. (Examples of room arrangements are enclosed.)
2. Rules and Procedures—Rules/procedures must be taught and retaught from day one. Spend time explaining the expectation so that you can be proactive instead of reactive. Use classroom rules that describe the behaviors you want instead of listing things the students cannot do. Instead of “no-running in the room,” use “move through the building in an orderly manner.” Instead of “no fighting,“ use “settle conflicts appropriately.” Instead of “no gum chewing,” use “leave gum at home.” Refer to your rules as expectations. Let your students know this is how you expect them to behave in your classroom. Make ample use of praise. When you see good behavior, acknowledge it. This can be done verbally, of course, but it doesn’t have to be. A nod, a smile, or a “thumbs up” will reinforce the behavior. BE SURE THAT YOU TELL YOUR STUDENTS THE CONSEQUENCES WHEN THE RULES ARE BROKEN.
3. Consistency--Never make a rule you are not willing to enforce every time. When we’re consistent, we train children to accept that “no means no." When we are inconsistent, we train children to test us constantly to see if we will “crack." If you are consistent, you can use smaller and smaller consequences to govern misbehavior. If you are inconsistent, you must use larger and larger consequences to govern misbehavior.
4. Non-Verbal Cues-- A standard item in the classroom of the 1950’s was the clerk’s bell. A shiny nickel bell sat on the teacher’s desk. With one tap of the button on top he had everyone’s attention. Teachers have shown a lot of ingenuity over the years in making use of non-verbal cues in the classroom. Some flip light switches. Others keep clickers in their pockets. Non-verbal cues can also be facial expressions, body posture and hand signals. Care should be given in choosing the types of cues you use in your classroom. Take the time to explain what you want the students to do when you use your cues.
5. Weaning the Helpless Hand raisers—Most lessons go smoothly until Guided Practice when, usually the same students, begin waving their hands. While the teacher tutors, the noise level rises. Here are some techniques:
a. Praise, Prompt, Leave—Praise or tell the student what is right so far, Prompt or focus the student’s attention by telling them what is the next step and then leave. It takes 30 seconds for this verbal prompt and 10 seconds for students to get noisy. Two ways to reduce the time are:
b. Visual Instructional Plan or VIP—a VIP is a string of Visual Prompts that are step-by-step and can be written on chart paper, on the board or on your computer if you can display your screen. With this visual guide, you can tell the student to look at a certain step as your prompt. VIPs can be presented as a list of steps with a picture for each step or as an outline or as a mind map or letters that give students clues about each step.
c. Say, See, Do Teaching—Teaching a concept that meets the needs of all types of learners will also cut down on helpless handraisers. SAY or let me explain what to do next. SEE or Watch as I show you. DO or Now, you do it. This cycle is repeated as often as necessary in order to complete the lesson. Do not go to independent practice until you are sure that the majority of the class understand the process.
6. Three Phases of Lesson Design—Here is a simple model of a lesson that incorporates Say, See Do.
a. Setting the Stage—represents the preliminary decisions by a teacher as to what the students need to have in mind before they are exposed to new material. Why is the lesson important? What skills from yesterday need to be reinforced? What will the students learn?
i. Acquisition—Say, See Do teaching of the lesson or explanation, modeling and structured practice. Walk through these steps slowly and repeat as necessary.
ii. Consolidation—is Practice. Guided Practice and Independent practice, or teaching variations to a theme or delineating correct from incorrect performance. There should be less need for handraising if step b has been thorough. Cruise the room and check the assignment as they are doing it.
7. Fight-Flight Reflex--Imagine that you catch some goofing off in your classroom out of the corner of your eye. Does it bug you? You are having a fight-flight reflex. The fight-flight reflex will raise your blood pressure. A room full of students can trigger the fight-flight reflex quite often during a school day. Calm is strength. Upset is weakness. When you are calm, you can bring all of your wisdom, experience, and social skills to bear in solving a problem. When you become upset and downshift, none of that knowledge or wisdom is available to you. As the saying goes “My life is in the hands of any fool who can make me angry.” The more skillful you become at relaxation, the more quickly you can relax in response to something upsetting. With mastery, relaxation can be almost instantaneous. It takes only a few seconds for the concentration of adrenaline to build in your bloodstream. That gives you a brief window of opportunity in which to “put on the breaks.” During that brief period, you can override the fight-flight reflex with a learned response. That learned response is relaxation -- the physiological opposite of fight-flight. But how do you relax in the face of a provocation? You practice, of course. It’s a skill like any other. For starters, you relax by learning to breathe properly. A relaxing breath is slow and relatively shallow. It’s the way you would breathe if you were watching television or reading a magazine. It lowers your heart rate and your blood pressure. Your muscles relax, and your face becomes calm and expressionless. Emotions are contagious. If you are calm, you will have a calming effect on those around you. If you are upset, you will tend to upset those around you. Our objectives in managing classroom disruptions are two-fold: Calm the students. Get them back on task. These objectives are two sides of the same coin. You must calm students in order to get them back on task. If students are upset, they will not be able to concentrate. If they cannot concentrate in order to study, they will find something else to do -- probably some form of disruption. HOW DO YOU DO THIS? If you are helping another student, Stop and tell that student to excuse you, stay down and take a breath, then stand and turn in a regal manner, point your head, shoulders and feet in the direction of the disruption. Relax your facial expression so that it shows nt emotion and stare them down. If this does not work, go to the disruptive student and invade his personal space. Lean over and rest your weight on one palm. Speak quietly about the disruptive behavior and give them a visual prompt first and then a verbal prompt if the behavior does not stop. Rest your weight on both palms and lock your elbows as if to say, that you have all day. When the disruption stops, do not leave too quickly so that the students know you mean business.
8. Backtalk--one of the most annoying behaviors is backtalk. The Cardinal Error in dealing with backtalk is to speak. The student will play off of whatever you say in order to create a melodrama. Do not get into a shouting match with the student. In response to continued backtalk go to the student, bend one elbow and gently move closer or you may prefer to come from behind the backtalker. State quietly so only the student can hear what you want the student to do, and the consequences when they don’t, then stop. There cannot be an argument if only one person is arguing. Remain calm and show little emotion. Students may try to keep the show going for a while, but they cannot keep it going all by themselves. Remember the ultimate goal of meaning business is reconciliation. You want the two of you to be able to co-exist. Let them know that you recognize their problems and care about their success. No management technique can carry a teacher who has failed to create a personal bond with his or her students.
9. Time Management--To teach students time management, you have to give them time to manage. It is their time and like an allowance. They can earn the time and lose the time.