LINKS

Class Room Management

Why Your Students Need Breathing Room Article from Smart Classroom Management.

http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2012/07/14/why-your-students-need-breathing-room/

(This article talks about the need for students to have more ownership over what they do, and to take more responsibility for their learning)

How To Manage Whole-Class Behavior While Working With A Small Group

http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2013/01/05/how-to-manage-whole-class-behavior-while-working-with-a-small-group/

(This article talks about the need to scaffold students to become independent learners. Includes key tips.)

Timeout only works as a a mangement technique if what's happening in your classroom is something kids don't want to miss out on.

http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2013/02/02/why-rules-and-consequences-arent-enough/

QUOTES

Ken Robinson quotes about creativity.

“My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”

“if you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original.”

Imagination is not the same as creativity. Creativity takes the process of imagination to another level. My definition of creativity is “the process of having original ideas that have value.” Imagination can be entirely internal. You could be imaginative all day long without anyone noticing. But you never say that someone was creative if that person never did anything. To be creative you actually have to do something. It involves putting your imagination to work to make something new, to come up with new solutions to problems, even to think of new problems or questions.

You can think of creativity as applied imagination.

Evan Weinberg:

I need to be a lot more aware of the level of my own excitement around activity in comparison to that of the students. I showed one of the shortened videos at the end of the previous class and asked what questions they really wanted to know. They all said they wanted to know where the bird would land, but in all honesty, I think they were being charitable. They didn’t really care that much.

Dalai Lama

We have to think and see how we can fundamentally change our education system so that we can train people to develop warm-heartedness early on in order to create a healthier society. I don’t mean we need to change the whole system, just improve it. We need to encourage an understanding that inner peace comes from relying on human values like, love, compassion, tolerance and honesty, and that peace in the world relies on individuals finding inner peace.

Why Rules And Consequences Aren’t Enough

By Michael Linsin

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 09:54 AM PST

Lately, I’ve been receiving emails from teachers wondering why they have so many students in time-out every day, so I think it’s a good time to revisit a few core principles of Smart Classroom Management.

When you implement a classroom management plan for the first time—or strictly follow one for the first time—one of two things is likely to happen: Either behavior is going to get a lot better or it’s going to get worse.

If it gets worse, and you find yourself sending multiple students to time-out, the problem isn’t your plan. And it isn’t who is on your roster or what neighborhood you teach in. The problem is that your students don’t care enough about being in your classroom to make your plan effective.

In other words, you don’t have any leverage.

If sitting in time-out doesn’t remove your students from something they want to be part of, then it isn’t a consequence. They must genuinely like and enjoy being a member of your classroom or your consequences will prove ineffective.

The responsibility to make this happen, of course, is with you. Any expectation of simply showing up and having a ready-made, self-motivated class isn’t realistic. Nor is believing that rules and consequences alone are enough to curb misbehavior.

Certainly, there are students who enjoy school no matter who the teacher is, but this is a small percentage.

Typically, greater than half of most classrooms, and sometimes every student, need something more. They need a reason to listen and learn and care about sitting in your classroom.

Most of the strategies on this website either detail simple ways to provide that something more or show you how to respond to misbehavior in a way that preserves and enhances that something more.

Generally—but not always—they fall into one of three broad categories:

1. Relationships

The relationship you have with your students is the most important factor in gaining the leverage you need to create the well-behaved class you want. If they like you, trust you, and respect you, then your rules and consequences will have power, and you’ll have strong and sure influence over their behavior choices.

2. Routines

Routines are about students knowing what you expect of them throughout every minute of the school day. They not only make your job a lot easier and maximize learning time, but they move each day along swiftly and purposefully for students, keeping them sharp, engaged, and focused on learning and enjoying school.

3. Lessons

You must be able to present your curriculum in a way that causes students to wantto listen and learn, so that misbehavior is the last thing on their mind. This runs the gamut from how to speak to students to how to make the material more compelling. Much of your day is spent in this mode, and thus if your students are bored and uninterested, then misbehavior will be a constant presence.

Relationships

It's always good to be reminded about the most important things.

Here's a great clip from an amazing teacher. She learnt from example by an amazing teacher- her mother, that kids need you to care about them....and that they all need a champion - someone who believes in them.