I Can Do It
Heather Sparks, NBCT
Oklahoma City Public Schools
June 5, 2009 Hugo Public Schools
Session 1: Training Goals
Let’s Get Started
KWL Chart
What you
What you want What you
What
I Learned
knoWhat
w: I Know tWhat
o knIoWant
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Training Goals
Participants will:
1. Learn about the elements necessary for
successful classroom management.
2. Discover communication styles and how they relate to
student/teacher/parent communication.
3. Learn about interventions for selected difficult behaviors
encountered in the classroom.
4. Have opportunities to find out about hints that help
create the smoothly flowing classroom.
5. Acquire information that will help build
successful parent/teacher relationships.
6. Have the opportunity to link with a support partner at or
near one's grade and/or content level.
Agenda
9:00-10:15
Sessions 1-3
10:15 Break
10:25-12:00
Sessions 4-6
12:00-1:00 Lunch
1:00-3:00
Sessions 7-9
Objectives of
Classroom Management
• Ensure the safety of staff and
students.
• Create an engaging learning
environment.
Session 2: Getting to
Know Your Students
Creating Classroom Communities
Personal Responsibility
Community
Bonding
Safety
Survival
Come To The Edge
Come to the edge.
It’s too tall.
Come to the edge.
I’ll fall.
Come to the edge.
And they came.
And you pushed them.
And they flew.
Creating Acceptance
•Make eye contact with each student
•Call all students by their first or preferred name
•Move toward and stay close to the learners
•“With-it-ness”
Enhancing Acceptance
COMFORT
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Room Temperature
Furniture Arrangement
Physical Activity
Breaks
Bulletin Boards/Walls
Climate (Humor and Tone)
Order
1. Routines
2. Guidelines
3. Perception of Safety
CLASSROOM
CLIMATE
• What I will do to help students:
_____ feel accepted by the
teacher and their peers
_____ perceive the classroom
as a comfortable and
orderly place
Responding the Right Way
These are power behaviors that influence a student’s sense of acceptance
and thereby enhance his or her creativity and engagement with the lesson.
Provide Wait Time
Pausing to allow a student more time to answer instead of moving on to another student
when you don’t’ get an immediate response
Dignify Responses
Giving credit for the correct aspects of an incorrect response
Restate the Question
Ask the question again using the same words
Rephrase the Question
Use different words that might increase the probability of a correct response
Provide Guidance
Giving enough hints and clues so that the student will eventually determine the correct
answer
WAIT TIME
WAIT . . . THREE SECONDS AFTER
ASKING A QUESTION BEFORE
CALLING ON A STUDENT
WAIT . . . THREE SECONDS AFTER
CALLING ON A STUDENT FOR
THE RESPONSE
WAIT . . . FIVE SECONDS AFTER A
STUDENT’S RESPONSE BEFORE
ASKING ANOTHER QUESTION
OR CONTINUING THE LESSON
Session 3:
Rules and Routines
How Do I Get Started?
The chief source
of the “problem of discipline”
in schools is that…a premium is put on
physical quietude; on silence, on rigid
uniformity of posture and movement;
upon a machine-like simulation of the
attitudes of intelligent interest. The
teacher’s business is to hold the pupils up
to these requirements and to punish the
inevitable deviations which occur.
John Dewey
Democracy and Education
SCHOOL/CLASSROOM CHARACTERISTICS
ASSOCIATED WITH DISCIPLINE PROBLEMS
Rules are unclear or seen as unfairly or inconsistently enforced.
Students did not believe in the rules.
Teachers & administrators did not know the rules.
Teachers & administrators disagreed on responses to student
misconduct.
Teacher & administrator cooperation was poor.
Administration was inactive.
Teachers had punitive attitudes.
Misconduct was ignored.
Schools were too large.
Schools lacked adequate resources for teaching.
John Hopkins University Researchers, Gottfredsons
CARS Newsletter, April/May 1995
Formula for Success
Voice + Choice = Loyalty
Tomorrow is the most important
thing in life
Comes in to us at midnight very
clean.
It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts
itself in our hands and hopes we’ve
learnt something from yesterday
John Wayne,
Actor
(1907-1979)
The number one problem
is not discipline;
it is the lack of
procedures & routines!
Independent Activities
Students Should Know:
• Where to get
materials
• What to do if they
have a question
• Where to work
• Where to put finished
work
• What the classroom
rules are
• How to focus on the
task
• What the limitations
are
• If and why the
teacher is unavailable
How to Establish Rules
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Involve the class in making rules.
Keep the rules short and easy to understand.
Phrase rules in a positive way.
Remind the class of the rules at times other
than when someone has misbehaved.
Make different rules for different kinds of
activities.
Key children in to when different rules apply.
Post the rules and review them every so often.
If a rule isn’t working change it.
Session 4: Reinforcements
Rewards and Praise
If you punish
a child for being naughty, and
reward him for being good, he will
do right merely for the sake of the
reward, and when he goes out into
the world and finds that goodness
is not always rewarded, nor
wickedness always punished, he
will grow into a man who thinks
about how he may get on in the
world, and does right or wrong
according as he finds of advantage
to himself.
Immanuel Kant
Education
Selecting Appropriate
Reinforcers
1. Ask the child.
2. Observe the child’s preferences.
3. Use what worked elsewhere.
4. Give the student choices.
5. Reinforcers lose value over time.
Instructions for
Give-One-Get-One
1. Jot down three (3) of your own ideas.
2. Get up and find someone from another table. Share
your lists.
3. Give one new idea from your list to your partner. Get
one new idea from your partner's list.
4. Move on to a new partner and repeat Steps 2 and 3.
5. If your list and your partner's list are identical and you
have no new ideas to exchange, you must remain
together and brainstorm something that can be added
to each of your lists.
**Note: Exchange no more than one idea with any given partner.
Session 5: Polishing Your
Technique
Tips and Hints
Session 6: Smoothly Flowing
Classrooms
Signals, Transitions and Sponges
SIGNALS
Use a classroom signal for attention
Whatever signal you use -- be consistent!!!
GIVING DIRECTIONS
Plan your directions ahead of time
Use 3 step directions
Give directions immediately before the activity
Get the attention of every student
Get feed back from students
Tell them and show them
Keep your voice low
Use signals for whole class response
Thumbs up = yes
Thumbs down = no
Fist = question or I don't know
Smoothly Flowing Classrooms
Transition Problems
1. A few students always seem to be slow during transitions
delaying the rest of the class.
2. Students frequently find reasons to wander during
transitions.
3. The teacher delays the beginning of activities to look for
materials, finish attendance reporting, returning or
collecting papers, or chat with individual students while
other students wait.
4. Students talk loudly at the beginning of the period. The
teacher is interrupted while checking attendance, and the
start of content activities is delayed.
Smoothly Flowing Classrooms
Transition Problems
4. Students socialize too much during transitions, especially
after an assignment has been given, but before they
have begun working on it. Many students do not start
their assignments for several minutes.
5. Two students argue, even after being separated.
6. Whenever the teacher attempts to move the students
from one activity to another, a number of students don’t
make the transition but continue working on the
preceding activity. This delays the start of the new activity
or results in confusion.
7. While the teacher gives directions during a transition,
many students do not pay attention. They continue to put
their materials away or get new materials.
Session 8: Home/School
Communication
Two-way communication
Instructional
Individual
Program
Students
Home & School
Communication
Engaging
Families
HOME AND SCHOOL COMMUNICATION
HINTS
*KEEP A LOG OF PARENTAL CONTACTS
*KEEP YOUR PRINCIPAL INFORMED – GIVE HIM/HER
COPIES OF YOUR HOME COMMUNICATIONS
*SAVE E-MAIL COMMUNICATIONS IN FOLDER
*WEB SITES – BLOGGING (USE CAUTION)
Session #9: Dealing with
Difficult Behaviors
Carousel Brainstorming
GOALS WHEN DEALING WITH
DIFFICULT BEHAVIOR
 Attention
 Avoidance
 Power
1. To eliminate or minimize the behavior.
2. To maintain student’s self esteem.
3. To maintain the lesson.
Discussing Inappropriate Behaviors
Do It:
Quietly
Calmly
Privately
Every Time You Can!
Whenever you are dealing with
unacceptable behavior always
question whether the behavior in
question is an isolated event or a
recurring symptom of a greater
problem.
Don’t major in minor problems!
KWL Chart
What you
What you want What you
What
I Learned
knoWhat
w: I Know tWhat
o knIoWant
w: to Know lea
rned
:
Phases of First Year Teacher’s
Attitudes Towards Teaching
Anticipation
Anticipation
Survival
Reflection
Rejuvenation
Disillusionment
Aug
Sept
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Source: Trainer’s Manual, Support Provider Training, Revised May 1996
Mar
Apr
May
June
July
Books I Love (Phyllis Hartfiel)
• Ayers, William. To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher. New York: Teacher’s
College, 2001.
• Barber, Linda Clary and Geddes, Betsy. Students Speak: Effective
Discipline for Today’s Schools; Building a Sense of Community. Portland,
OR: Brandon, 1997.
• Clark, Ron. The Essential 55. New York: Hyperion, 2003.
• Codell, Esme Raji Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher’s First Year. North
Carolina: Algonquin, 1999.
• Dimock, Elna. Before You Step into That Classroom: A Survival Guide for
Teachers. Clovis, CA: Educational Development, 1988
• Done, Phillip. 32 Third graders and 1 Class Bunny. New York: Simon &
Schuster, 2005.
• Eaker, Robert, Richard DuFour and Rebecca DuFour. Getting Started:
Restructuring Schools to Become Professional Learning Communities.
Bloomington, IN: Nat’l. Ed. Service, 2002.
• Jackson, Anthony W. and Davis, Gayle A. Turning Points 2000: Educating
Adolescents in the 21st Century. New York: Teachers College, 2000.
• Knowles, Trudy and Brown, Dave F. What Every Middle School Teacher
Should Know. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000.
Heather’s Favorite Four:
Lavoie, Richard. The Motivation Breakthrough: 6 Secrets to Turning on the
Tuned-Out Child. ISBN 978-0-7432-8960-3.
MacKenzie, Robert J. Ed.D. Setting Limits in the Classroom.
ISBN 0-7615-1675-1.
Pohlman, Craig. Revealing Minds: Assessing to Understand and Support
Struggling Learners. ISBN: 978-0-7879-8790-9.
Whitaker, Todd. What Great Teachers Do Differently: 14 Things That Matter
Most. ISBN 1-930556-69-1.
More titles
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•
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Martin, Jane Roland. The School Home: Rethinking Schools for Changing
Families. Cambridge: Harvard U Press, 1992.
McLaughlin, Milbrey W. and Talbert, Joan E. Professional Communities
and the Work of High School Teaching. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2001.
Nelson, Jane. Positive Discipline. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987.
O’Hanian, Susan. Caught in the Middle. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann,
2001.
Palmer, Parker. The Courage to Teach. New York: Jossey-Bass, 1998.
Power, Brenda Miller and Hubbard, Ruth Shagoury, (eds). Oops, What We
Learn When Our Teaching Fails. New York: Stenhouse, 1996.
Ramsey, Robert D. 501 Tips for Teachers. Chicago, IL: Contemporary
Books, 1997.
Silva, Peggy and Robert A. Mackin. Standards of Mind and Heart: Creating
the Good High School. NY: Teacher’s College Press, 2002.
Toch, Thomas. High Schools on a Human Scale. Boston: Beacon Press,
2003.
Helpful Websites:
www.disciplinehelp.com
www.responsiveclassroom.org
www.teachers.net
www.theteachersguide.com
www.theteacherscorner.com