Just for Teachers

 This Charlie Brown cartoon illustrates what it means to your students, that you know 'who they are', and 'where they have come from'. After all, without knowing these two things, it is impossible to 'know where they are going (in life)'. 

My Prac Class

This is my experience of my first prac class. Year 4 (names have been changed)

Day 1:-You walk into the classroom and suddenly, you have 29 students in front of you. Eyes all looking at you for inspiration and guidance. But little do you know what they are thinking, what has happened/or is happening in their lives as they look at you.

Suzie:-Little do you know that Suzie and her family are living on the streets and on these cold winter mornings she has no jumper and has had little to eat. But she is here at school because to her, this is a safe and loving environment where she knows she will be safe and looked after. She is always well organised and takes very good care of the little she has.

Nicky:-Quiet little Nicky sits there and appears to be listening, but what she is realy thinking about is how many more days until her dad comes to visit-(will he actually turn up this time?).

Joey:-Joey's, the 'class clown'. He likes to be heard and likes to make his mark on the class, but what is really going on with him? He comes from a large family (8 kids) and strives to be heard. He wants and needs some attention and will do anything to get it. He just wants to be 'somebody'.

Brady:-Little Brady, walks into school late.....I could be angry at this, but little do I know that he is one of 9 kids, whose dad has long gone and mum spends most of her time passed out on the lounge. This morning Brady has already got his brothers and sisters up out of bed, given them some sort of breakfast ( yes ice cream can be good for breakfast). He has found them all some sort of clothing that loosely resembles a school uniform (doesn't really matter that it hasn't been washed for days). He has attempted to give them some sort of food to take to school for lunch and then he has walked them all to school. I'm impressed he is here at all, let alone before 10 o'clock!

Don:-Then there is Don. Don has been away for a few days and has had a sore knee for a couple of weeks. Mum has just informed us that he has a growth on his knee and they are testing it for cancer.........He doesn't know yet. He knows his knee is sore and that he has to travel to the city on Monday to see a special Dr. Mum is stressed because she doesn't know how she will handle telling him, let alone cope on her own with this, his 2 year old sister and special needs brother.

Jane:- Jane's dad has been unwell and has had to go away for a while- What has actually happened is that dad has been arrested for stealing and drug possession. Jane believes dad is really sick and can't understand why she can't go to visit him. Jane is living with her neighbour who is one of dads 'best friends' and yes, the police did visit them this morning too.

And this is only a few examples of the lives of my students.

I can't stress enough, how important building relationships with your students will be. You need to know where your students have come from, to know where they are going.

Building relationships with your students will give them the confidence and build the trust they need to be able  respect and to be able to talk to you. After all, you are often the only stable adult in their lives that doesn't let them down.

Once you have established this, you will find that students will want to work harder and behave better for you.

3. Classroom Rules

In Mark Davidson's (2009) Essential skills for classroom management he discusses how, when creating your classroom rules you should have a limit of 4 or 5 maximum.These should be worked out in a class meeting, with every student having the chance of input. Have the rules clearly and colourfully displayed around your classroom and discuss them on a regular basis.

An example of the 4 rules could be:-

1. Learning/effort
2. Respect
3. Safety
4. Self Responsibility

These simple rules can have a few simple descriptors eg.

Learning/effort ( arrive prepared, stay on task, always do your best.

Respect ( use a respectful voice, listen when others are speaking, be nice to others)

Safety ( keep hands and feet to yourself, always walk in classroom)

Self Responsibility ( be prepared to take responsibility for your own actions)

4. Be Consistent

I find this probably the most difficult one to follow, but it is essential that you remain consistent in your behaviour management approach. This allows the students to understand the classroom rules and allow them to follow them consistently. Being strict with one student and lax with another with send the message that you don't value the rules and therefore, why should they.

It is difficult, however, when you know a student is 'off' due to an incident that has happened at home or in the playground. Try talking privately with this student and let them know you understand the reason that they are upset, but they will still be expected to follow the classroom rules.

5. Routines

Routines are an important part of behaviour management as this allows the student to know where he should be, when he should be there and what he should be doing.

Each morning I put my timetable up on the Interactive Whiteboard. I take the students through the timetable and briefly explain what we will be doing in each activity. I then ask students for any questions about today's lessons. I also put any reminders on the timetable to help both myself and the students remember eg. please remind me to hand out newsletters, tuckshop orders need to be in by 9.30 etc.

After each break I again bring the timetable up just to remind students what will be happening in the next session. If there are any changes in routines, I make sure that I explain to students in advance (as advance as possible) so they can prepare themselves for the change. This is especially important for students with ASD.

I try to keep each day of the week as similar as possible to help put routines in place. This allows students to know that every Friday afternoon we will be doing Art, every Monday middle session we will be doing Science etc.

 Charlie Brown teacher-sourced from www.youtube.com

  6. Strategies

Every teacher in every classroom will have a set of strategies they use for behaviour management. Some work with some classes, but won't work with others. It is essential that you have a few up your sleeve to use in any situation. This includes the classroom, playground and excursions.

The strategies that I like to use are based on Mark Davidson's (2009)Essential skills for classroom management:-

1. Establish expectations
2. Give clear concise instructions
3. Waiting and scanning
4. Cueing with parallel acknowledgment
5. Body language encouragment
6. Silent Signals
7. 3 Strikes
8. Incentives
9. Saying 'Thanks'

Establish expectations:-

Create clear boundaries and make sure your students know your expectations.

Give clear and concise instructions

These strategies are dealt with in length under their own tabs within this website.

7. Expectations

 Image Stress-sourced from iclipart under creative commons licence.