Monthly Archives: January 2019

Strategies for Classroom Management

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Section 2: Strategies for Classroom Management

Expectations…say them, repeat them and start the year with them. Be consistent and follow through. — Audrey Fisher

Discipline – something they don’t teach enough about in teacher preparation classes. Figuring out how you are going to handle discipline in your classroom ahead of time will put you ahead of the game. Rules are just like other instructional activities. They have to be taught, reviewed, and reinforced. Being consistent, learning from your mistakes and developing a rapport with your students is a longstanding goal of all teachers. There are a number of ways in which a teacher can promote good discipline in the classroom.

  • Treat students with the same respect you expect from them, keep confidences.
  • Get to know your students. Learn their names quickly and recognize his or her individual qualities.
  • All teachers have discipline problems. Effective teachers match their strategy to suit the problems.
  • Be fair, positive, and consistent. Be the kind of person young people can like and trust – firm, fair, friendly, courteous, enthusiastic, and confident. Admit your mistakes and keep your sense of humor.
  • Know your school discipline policies.
  • Let the students know you care. Determine jointly with the class what is and isn’t acceptable in terms of behavior and achievement.
  • Provide a list of expectations to parents and students. Make sure they are consistent with district and building policies. Limit your rules to no more than five. Post the rules in the classroom.
  • Begin class on time and in a businesslike manner. Have routines to follow each day as students enter and leave your room.
  • Don’t threaten or use sarcasm. Never use threats to enforce discipline. Never humiliate a child.
  • Avoid arguing with students. Discussions about classwork are invaluable, but arguments can become emotional encounters.
  • Be mobile. Walk around the room as students work or respond to instruction.
  • Minimize administrative referrals. Establishing your own classroom management will help. Ask your mentor or colleagues for help if needed.
  • Let each student start each day with a clean slate.

Want additional strategies and tips for effective classroom management? 
Check out the online class offered through the WEA Professional Development Academy. Credit is available for the class. Information and sign-up directions are given at https://pdalearning.org.

Mentors – An Initial Educator’s Best Friend: There is help available if you or your district is in need of high quality, flexible mentor training that coincides with Wisconsin Educator Standards. For more information, contact Debra Berndt, Director of the WEA Professional Development Academy at berndtd@weac.org or check out the information provided at weac.org under the WEA Professional Development Academy.

Managing Your Time 
Time can’t be saved; it is only spent. Although you can’t get any more hours from a day, you can develop habits that will make you more productive.

You may have already discovered that your teaching duties demand a great deal of time. You may feel that there’s no time left to manage after you schedule all your classes and assigned activities. Gaining control begins by discovering how you currently spend your time.

Determine which tasks must be accomplished early in the day when you have the most energy so you can avoid that frantic feeling throughout the day.

Procrastination is your number one enemy. Procrastination means performing low-priority activities rather than high-priority activities. It can result in more work, more pressure, the loss of self-esteem, and health problems.

Here are some coping strategies for each of the major reasons people procrastinate:

Dealing with an unpleasant task

  • Decide what to do and do it first.
  • Set a deadline.
  • Reward yourself after completing the task.

Dealing with difficult or overwhelming tasks

  • Use positive self-talk (focus on past accomplishments that turned out well).
  • Break the job into smaller tasks and complete those tasks each day.

Dealing with indecision (fear of failure)

  • Tell yourself that nothing is perfect and that in the past your best has been pretty good.
  • Set up a schedule and a target date for project
    conclusion. Make your decision on that date.
  • Do the one thing you fear most and you will conquer your fear.

Learn to say NO

  • Your challenge is to make good choices in how you cope with the countless demands on your time.

California Mathematics Project

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California Math Project aka CPM is the best curriculum for mathematics.  I have viewed many textbooks as a Mathematics Consultant and many borrow from the idea of this program but not able to create anything near as great. This project began in 1982 and is written by teachers for teachers. Students learn WHY they learn the mathematics and how it pertains to life. It’s answers the age old question of when am I ever going to use this.  If students don’t see the point of learning the math, they only memorize to pass a test.

I hear pros and cons to this project. I was an avid user of this curriculum and know how and why it works. Teachers that choose not to use it are either weak in their own math skills or aren’t properly trained to use the program.  This is what is best for students and teachers need to

You cannot pick and choose what to use in the pages, you must follow the order of how it is written for it to work.

I would love to see mathematics taught across the country in this fashion. I was blessed to have had the opportunity to utilize it and know that my students were better off for having the opportunity to learn this way.

The California Mathematics Project (CMP) is a K-16 network dedicated to providing students a rich, rigorous, and coherent mathematics curriculum taught by competent and confident mathematics teachers who foster ALL students’ proficiency in mathematics—achieving equity in quality. CMP enhances teachers’ mathematical content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge that is aligned to the California Mathematics Standards and Framework. ALL teachers and students become competent mathematical thinkers as they investigate, conjecture, and justify.

 

 

 

Phases of First-Year Teaching

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Section 1: Phases of First-Year Teaching

phases

It’s alarming but true: studies have shown that 35% of teachers leave the profession during the first year. By the end of the fifth year, 50% of teachers have left the field! — From Teachers Helping Teachers, Springfield Public Schools, Springfield, MA

The first year of teaching is a difficult challenge. If you are currently in your first year of teaching, the graph above probably applies to you. And you are most certainly not alone! Whether you are currently feeling extremely overwhelmed or abundantly triumphant, other first-year teachers are going through the same thing. The University of California Santa Cruz New Teacher Project has worked to support the efforts of new teachers. They have identified phases through which all new teachers progress. The phases are very useful for mentors and new teachers as they work together the first year. Teachers move through the phases from anticipation, to survival, to disillusionment, to rejuvenation, to reflection, and then back to anticipation.

Anticipation Phase
The anticipation stage begins during the student teaching portion of preservice preparation. The closer student teachers get to completing their assignment, the more excited and anxious they become about their first teaching positions. They tend to romanticize the role of the teachers and the positions. New teachers enter with a tremendous commitment to making a difference and a somewhat idealistic view of how to accomplish their goals. This feeling of excitement carries new teachers through the first few weeks of school.

Survival Phase
The first month of school is very overwhelming for new teachers. They are learning a lot at a very rapid pace. Beginning teachers are instantly bombarded with a variety of problems and situations they had not anticipated. Despite teacher preparation programs, new teachers are caught off guard by the realities of teaching.

During the survival phase, most new teachers struggle to keep their heads above water. They become very focused and consumed with the day-to-day routine of teaching. There is little time to stop and reflect on their experiences. It is not uncommon for new teachers to spend up to seventy hours a week on schoolwork.

Particularly overwhelming is the constant need to develop curriculum. Veteran teachers routinely reuse excellent lessons and units from the past. New teachers, still uncertain of what will really work, must develop their lessons for the first time. Even depending on unfamiliar prepared curriculum such as textbooks, is enormously time consuming.

Disillusionment Phase
After six to eight weeks of nonstop work and stress, new teachers enter the disillusionment phase. The intensity and length of the phase varies among new teachers. The extensive time commitment, the realization that things are probably not going as smoothly as they want, and low morale contribute to this period of disenchantment. New teachers begin questioning both their commitment and their competence. Many new teachers get sick during this phase.

Top 5 Concerns of New Teachers

1. Classroom arrangement and management

2. Curriculum planning
and pacing

3. Establishing a grading system that’s fair

4. Parent conferences

5. Personal sanity

Compounding an already difficult situation is the fact that new teachers are confronted with several new events during this time frame. They are faced with back-to-school night, parent conferences, and their first formal evaluation by the site administrator. Each of these important milestones places an already vulnerable individual in a very stressful situation.

During the disillusionment phase, classroom management is a major source of distress. New teachers want to focus more time on curriculum and less on classroom management and discipline.

At this point, the accumulated stress of the first year teachers, coupled with months of excessive time allotted to teaching, often bring complaints from family and friends. This is a very difficult and challenging phase for new entrants into the profession. They express self-doubt, have lower self-esteem, and question their profession commitment. In fact, getting through this phase may be the toughest challenge new teachers face.

Rejuvenation Phase 
The rejuvenation phase is characterized by a slow rise in the new teacher’s attitude toward teaching. It generally begins in January. Having a winter break makes a tremendous difference for new teachers. It allows them to resume a more normal lifestyle, with plenty of rest, food, exercise, and time for family and friends. This vacation is the first opportunity that new teachers have for organizing materials and planning curriculum. It is a time for them to sort through materials that have accumulated and prepare new ones. This breath of fresh air gives novice teachers a broader perspective with renewed hope.

They seem ready to put past problems behind them. A better understanding of the system, an acceptance of the realities of teaching, and a sense of accomplishment help to rejuvenate new teachers.

Through their experiences in the first half of the year, beginning teachers gain new coping strategies and skills to prevent, reduce, or manage many problems they are likely to encounter during the second half of the year. Many feel a great sense of relief that they have made it through the first half of the year. During this phase, new teachers focus on curriculum development, long-term planning, and teaching strategies.

Reflection Phase 
The reflection phase, beginning in May, is a particularly invigorating time for first-year teachers. Reflecting back over the year, they highlight events that were successful and those that were not. They think about the various changes that they plan to make the following year in management, curriculum, and teaching strategies. The end is almost in sight, and they have almost made it; but more importantly, a vision emerges as to what their second year will look like, which brings them to a new phase of anticipation.

It is critical that we assist new teachers and ease the transition from student teachers to full-time professionals. Recognizing the phases new teachers go through gives us a framework within which we can begin to design support programs to make the first year of teaching a more positive experience for our new colleagues. — Ellen Moir, New Teacher Center, University of California, Santa Cruz

SOS! Survival of Substitutes

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Section 2: SOS! Survival of Substitutes

No one can give you better advice than yourself. — Cicero

You aren’t thinking about it right now, but sometime in your future you’re going to miss a day of school.

This is the IDEAL time to begin preparing for that event because the questions you have now are the same questions a substitute teacher might have. Later, with a routine established, you may forget to think about such details.

Label a file folder or notebook “Substitute,” and keep it in a place anyone would logically look.

Here are some suggestions to include for your substitute:

  • Your schedule of classes including regular classes, special classes (day and time), and an alternate plan in case special classes are cancelled;
  • Names and schedules of students who leave the classroom for special reasons such as medication, remedial or gifted programs, speech, etc.;
  • Opening activities: class roll, seating chart for regular activities and special work groups, attendance procedures, lunch count, etc.;
  • Lesson plans or where to find the plan book (include alternate plans in case the lesson depends on resources only you have);
  • Classroom expectations and discipline procedures (include any district policies and notes about special cases);
  • Location of manuals and other materials to be used (including procedures for use of AV materials/ equipment);
  • Names and schedules of ESP and/or volunteers, name and location of a teacher to call upon for assistance, and other faculty and staff likely to be encountered;
  • Names of pupils who can be depended upon to help;
  • Procedures for sick or injured children (location of nurse’s office, district policy on dispensing medication, notes on allergies or special needs, etc.);
  • Procedures for regular and early dismissal; Floor plan of the building and procedures for emergency drills.