Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Classroom Management
Through your experiences as a student in elementary, middle or high school, describe a classroom management technique that a teacher used (don’t worry about the name of the technique, just describe it). How did you feel about the management technique as a student? If you were the teacher would you use the same technique? Why or why not?
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A classroom management strategy that many of my Elementary teachers used was the Give Me Five strategy. The teacher would hold her or his hand up in the air and simply state "Give me five," then quietly wait when regrouping students from an activity or wanting to get their attention. Students were expected to raise their hands in return in order to indicate that they are indeed listening and paying attention. This was wide spread in school during my later elementary years and posters served as reminders of what the "five" was: Eyes on teacher, mouth is quiet, ears are listening, hands are free and still, and body is still. Sometimes the teacher would close the lights to further indicate that we, the students, need to pay attention.
ReplyDeleteAs a student I found this strategy a great indicator for when I need to check myself and be sure I'm paying attention. I liked how the teacher did not repeatedly state it was time to regroup, rather when I saw her hand up and heard her say "give me five" then I would stop what I was doing and start paying attention. The strategy never felt mean or nagging like some attention getting strategies are. I also liked how most students paid attention to themselves rather than one another since the strategy served as a self check mechanism.
As a teacher I would use this technique because it is a a quick and effective way to get students attention without nagging the students. A teacher is also able to see who is paying attention, as indicated by raised hands, and students are taught to take charge of their own behavior by checking the "five." Though there are some instances that this strategy doesn't always work, as is the case with most classroom management strategies, there are ways to tweak it and enhance it to match the needs of the group of students one teaches. I think this will work well to give quick instructions on how to transition or to tell what's going to happen next. It can also serve as a reminder that students are becoming too rowdy when they should be working. Nonetheless, I think it's important to keep in mind that classroom management strategies, including this one, need to be practiced and explicitly taught in order to work effectively. You need to take a little time out of teaching time to learn it in order to maximize teaching time in the long run!
When I was in elementary school, a classroom management technique my third grade teacher used was the "traffic light." On the right hand side of the whiteboard, my teacher placed a paper traffic light - red on the top, yellow in the middle, and green on the bottom. Every student had a name magnet, and at the beginning of each day we all were located in the green portion of the traffic light. Green = good, yellow = warning, red = consequence. As we went about our day, if a student was not paying attention or causing a disturbance during our learning, my teacher would go to the board and move their magnet to the yellow zone. If the same student wasn't following directions again they were moved to the red zone which meant they would have to deal with the consequence. Depending on how bad the situation was, these consequences ranged from going to the principal's office or a note home to their parents.
ReplyDeleteAs a student, I enjoyed this strategy of classroom management. It was nice that my teacher didn't stop what she was doing to discipline the student, rather she just walked to the board, moved the nametag, and usually that was enough for the kid to stop what he or she was doing. This strategy allowed for teaching and activities to still occur which I definitely appreciated as a student.
In my future classroom I plan to use this strategy. I like that the "traffic light" at the front of the room is a constant reminder to students to be on their best behavior. I also think it's nice that I can silently tell a student to focus on the task in front of them in a non-disruptive manner. Classroom management strategies are crucial to have in a classroom in order to create an environment where learning can occur.
One of the teaching techniques that I can remember from elementary school was having our teachers stand at the front of the classroom and wait for silence. At the time, the technique seemed funny because they would just stand there, but eventually there was silence, meaning that it worked. This was something I noticed that more than one teacher did and can remember seeing teachers in high school do this even.
ReplyDeleteI think as a student I felt that this stratagy seemed a little funny until I realized that it almost always worked. The teacher would wait until we were all quiet and paying attention.
I think that this technique is a little bare for controlling a classroom of younger children, such as elementary, but I rememeber that in high school this worked because we could control our attention spans and were able to focus on the teacher, even when we were speaking. I would probably try this on older children, but for elementary school I would probably incorperate a more detailed way to control the class such as a raised hand or stop light.
There is a technique that I have witnessed being used many times and I feel that it is very effective, especially in an elementary level classroom. It is the call and response type technique that has the teacher clapping or saying a phrase, and the students then return the expected response.
ReplyDeleteI have seen many versions of this, and I feel that you can tailor them to the needs of any classroom. I remember this being used as an elementary student, usually signaled with a clap. I also remember thinking it was strange and childish when a teacher did it in middle school. No matter my feelings about it, there was no doubt that it worked. I have since come to realize that if you want students’ attention, and you don’t want them preoccupied with whatever is in their hands, do the clap. They are forced to stop, drop what they’re doing, and respond.
I do plan on using this technique in my future classroom, because I know that it works so well. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to just get the attention of the whole class at one time. This method takes care of that with minimal interference.
I remember when I was a junior in high school, we had a teacher try to use the "turn off the lights" classroom management strategy to quiet the class if we became to loud or disruptive. This also occurred in several classes during my elementary school years. Whenever the class was doing something that was inappropriate or to loud, the teacher would go turn the lights off and wait until the classroom was silent and had moved their focus to the teacher and then would turn the lights back on.
ReplyDeleteIn the younger grade levels it seemed like an okay strategy, because it was a quick way to get students attention, but in high school I felt that this was more of an insult to the students intelligence. Elementary students sometimes need a more direct strategy to get the teachers point across, but in high school I think a teacher should have just as much respect for the students intelligence as the students should have for their teacher and make it a more even and appropriate teacher-student relationship.
I would most likely not use this technique in my classroom, and instead use more modern techniques that the students will respond better to. For high school students, this is not an option for classroom management, because I think it is an insult to their intelligence. Overall, I think that teachers need to create a relationship with his or her students that reflects understanding and compassion.
I can recall in my elementary grade levels the most difficult classroom management skill was trying to get the students seated or lined up at the door and to remain quiet while the teacher is giving instructions.
ReplyDeleteThe most common technique my teachers would use is standing in the front of the room with her hand up or flashing the classroom lights. If the teacher had her hand up, it meant to find a seat and be quiet. The flashing of the lights meant line up at the door and be quiet.
Although these techniques sound silly looking back, they were quite effective in classroom management. By using these strategies, the teacher got her point across without actually having to ask us to be quiet or raise her voice.
I believe I will attempt to use this strategy in my younger elementary classrooms, because it has been proven to work.By flashing the lights or standing in front of the classroom with your hand up, it will allow you to be a more compassionate teacher that does not raise her voice to get the result that you want. It is important to create a friendly and helpful relationship with your students.
Good posts! What you have written are common strategies used by teachers to get students' attention. It is important to remember that as Brittany pointed out relationships in management is really important. After my first day of teaching 23 years ago a veteran teacher came to my room and said that he believed you could do anything to a student as long as they knew you loved them. That "old school" advise has stuck with me all these years and I try to focus on relationships.
ReplyDeleteWhether you use the "Gimme Five" the traffic light or some other form of management it will be useless if students don't have their basic needs met. Enjoy your students they are going to grow just like you are growing as a teacher! Thanks for your comments!
I remember when I was in elementary school, the biggest problem for classroom management was getting the student's to quiet down and listen for the next task. One effective way my teacher got us all to be quiet was to tap one student who then had to tap the student next to him and on down the line.
ReplyDeleteI felt this strategy worked well because once we were tapped, we (the students) new when to stop what they were doing and be quiet. I know sometimes being at such a young age and thinking boys had cooties, I was never okay with touching a boy.
I am unsure if I would use this in my classroom because I feel there is a boundary with personal space. I feel if I were to do this, the one thing I would change is to pass an object down the line instead of tapping each other. Because some people were uncomfortable with touching the other person leg, arm, hand, etc. Passing an object down would be better because once they got that object they would know to be quiet and no one would feel uncomfortable.
I've never seen or heard anyone use the tapping technique you've described, Hope, but I think you're right, it may be a little too touch especially for upper elementary when boys and girls begin to separate out into their same-sex groups. Keeping the comfort of all the students in mind is definitely important when considering classroom management techniques. I love your idea of passing an object around though! Elementary students would love this and lots of games could be made of this as well, but it may be somewhat time consuming. Still I can see this strategy working effectively when students are standing in line to have them check themselves that they are quiet.
ReplyDeleteI remember when I was in elementary school, most of my teachers used the 'give me five' technique. Each of the fingers represented five different reminders for the children to use to help make for an easy transition. The reminders included: 1. mouths closed 2. ears listen 3. eyes on the speaker 4. body still 5. hands free. This strategy was used all throughout my k-5 experience.
ReplyDeleteAs a student, I think this particular strategy worked if it was enforced correctly. I remember it working really well with those teachers who had great classroom management; and it worked very poorly with those teachers who did not have total control over their classroom.
As a teacher, I think it will be one of the many strategies I will use. If this technique is stressed from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, I think it could be very successful. I won't rely solely on this technique; but it will be one of my many classroom management strategies that I hope to use in the future.
I have also never heard of the 'tapping' technique Hope described. I don't think this strategy would be very successful, for the elementary grades, because I think it could potentially turn in to some sort of game for the children to play. I think the students could take it too far and could possibly be an ineffective technique.
ReplyDeleteLike Sarah said, I have noticed several teachers using the call and response type technique. I think this is a great strategy and the teachers I have seen using it in the classroom seem to implement it in a good way. The technique is not overused, but calls for all the students attention and gives them a quick signal to listen up and look for the teacher. I have seen stomping responses, clapping responses, and different word responses that seem to work great in the classroom and students seem to respond to it well.
ReplyDeleteThinking back to what Sarah mentioned, the call and response technique. I have seem this being modeled in many elementary classroom during my observation time here at UNI. I feel this is a very effective strategy used in the elementary age students. This gives the students the idea of when they need to pay close attention to the teacher.
ReplyDeleteClassroom management is one of the most important skills a teacher can have. Having a good classroom climate is crucial for student learning. If a class is constantly disruptive then it is going to be hard for any student to learn. I think the most effective strategy that I have experienced when it come to management is expectations. If a teacher starts out the year with high expectations, and shows that she will actually implement consequences, then the students know that misbehaving is just not acceptable in your classroom. I can tell right away, just by the teacher's attitude if the classroom is going to be structured or not.
ReplyDeleteI agree with sarah about the call and response technique. My major is elementary education and I think this technique is very effective for lower level ages. I think the most disruption during elementary grades come from non-relevant student conversations. If everyone in the classroom is responding to the teachers call, then they won't have anyone to talk to and will do what the rest of the class is doing.
ReplyDelete