Classroom Management

   Teachers are always talking about effective classroom management. Personally, effective classroom management begins with the environment the students are in. Standards and expectations must be set at the beginning of the year with clear consequences if those are not followed.

   In our SK class we have the glitter bottle; the glitter bottle is something students use as a reflective, calming tool while they take a break from the other students to refocus (this idea was originally seen on Pintrest). This glitter bottle is very easy to make and is very effective for the little ones to calm them down. Once the glitter settles at the bottom of the bottle, students will have a quick reflective conference with their teacher and be back to focused work. Here is a link to a video tutorial on how to make a glitter bottle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=687Ww8Y3oeM 

Our Grade 1 class is full of talkers and for this we have a few different methods. Our most effective is our voice level poster. Following a lesson as a group we decided where our check mark belongs on our voice level poster. Students are reminded of this if they get chatty during their work. We find it to be very effective especially because we discuss it as a class before students are sent back to their desks (again, this was an idea adapted from Pintrest). Here is what ours look like: 

   In our Grade 3 class we have a lot of group work; as a group bonding and team building activity every time students switch seats they come up with a group name and poster that hangs from the ceiling. Points are awarded to each group on the positive points board for on task behaviour, cooperation and effective group work. At the end of the month, points are tallied and the winning team gets extra technology time during literacy (our students love the smart board so this is very motivating). Here are some photos of our class’s posters:

There are many different styles of classroom management; these are just a few of ours that we find to be effective.