saracotner@yahoo.com Outwit outplay outlast PRESENTED BY Sara Cotner Third Grade, South Louisiana saracotner@yahoo.com (337) 828-4586 saracotner@yahoo.com Systems UNPACKING 1. How long will students have to unpack in the morning, and what does “unpack” entail? MY CLASSROOM I give my students five minutes to unpack, but as they are unpacking I positively reinforce students who are unpacking quickly. As soon as I opened the classroom door (I had to pick my kids up in the gym every morning), the timer would start. I would say good morning to each student as they passed through the doorway. The students were expected to sharpen their pencils, take their stuff out of their backpacks (everything for the entire day—except money for snacks at recess), hang up their backpacks, turn in brain busters, turn in their library books, take their homework out of their folders, and start their daily review. On Mondays, they also had to select new team positions, turn in their independent work, and put new independent work into their folders. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 2. What do students do as soon as they finish unpacking? MY CLASSROOM My students begin working on their daily IOWA review (the IOWA is the 3rd grade standardized test in Louisiana). It consists of two sentences that they must edit and rewrite, one language question (either to come up with a “juicy adjective” to fit in a sentence or to alphabetize words), an analogy, a science or social studies question, two math word problems, and the Math Problem of the Day. One of the most important things you can do to ensure an effective and efficient learning environment is to put up the daily work before the students arrive. I’m dead serious about this one. The problems must be ready for them. Some students will unpack extraordinarily quickly (which you want them to do!) Also, you need to be free to monitor what is going on while kids are moving freely about the classroom. This situation could spiral into chaos. More importantly, you want to positively reinforce individuals who are meeting your expectations. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 3. What do you do if a student doesn’t finish unpacking in time? MY CLASSROOM I give them the first consequence on my conduct chart for not following directions. saracotner@yahoo.com YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 4. What if you give a child a consequence and they start to explain what happened (which is synonymous with talking back)? MY CLASSROOM When I am teaching my rules and consequences, I also teach the students not to talk back immediately when they receive a consequence. If they have something to explain, they are expected to raise their hands. Most times, students are given the opportunity to defend themselves, but I maintain control in the situation. I then apologize to the class for wasting their learning time. This point is critical. In your classroom, you want it to be cool to be smart and work hard in. You want the other students to be annoyed by misbehavior. Then the misbehaving students will feel pressure to meet the behavioral expectations. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 5. What if you give a student a second consequence and they still talk back? MY CLASSROOM At this point I would take the student outside to defuse the situation. I would then talk to them about the decisions they are making for themselves. I would help them realize that they can make decisions that are going to bring them up (positive decisions) and decisions that are going to bring them down (negative decisions). YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 6. How do you record consequences? MY CLASSROOM I keep my students’ weekly progress reports on a clipboard. At the back of the clipboard, I keep yellow Post-It notes. When a student receives a warning, I ask the student to put a sticky note on top of their progress report. When they receive the next consequence (which is time out as well as the loss of a weekly point), I return the sticky note to the back of the clipboard and take a point away. I also make note of the specific behavior on the conduct sheet so the parent/guardian is aware of the behavior at the end of the week. Regardless of what your method for keeping track of discipline looks like, keep the following questions in mind: 1. How will conduct grades be communicated to parents/guardians? 2. How will specific behaviors be communicated to parents/guardians? saracotner@yahoo.com 3. How will a consequence be recorded consistently if the misbehavior takes place outside the classroom (e.g. at lunch, recess, line, etc.)? 4. How will students know what consequence they are on? YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 7. Where will students put their backpacks? MY CLASSROOM In my classroom, I’m fortunate that my students have hooks to hang their backpacks. If you don’t have something similar, you might consider large Tupperware bins (maybe five backpacks per bin). However, I do not recommend having the students keep their backpacks with them at their desks. The fewer distractions, the better! If you do allow them to keep their backpacks at their desks, you should establish clear expectations about what they are and are not allowed to do with them. Are they allowed to touch them during a lesson? When are they allowed to retrieve something out of them? YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 8. What happens if a student forgets to take something out of their backpack and needs it later in the day? MY CLASSROOM I allow them to get the item if it’s necessary for learning (e.g. homework or library books), and I take five minute off their recess time (if they take time away from their learning time, I take time away from their recess time). Each student has a file folder in the back of the classroom. If they owe me recess, I file the folder in the front of the classroom with a sticky note inside indicating why they owe me recess and for how long. As I am writing in the folder, I apologize to the rest of the class for wasting their learning time. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 9. What are students allowed to have at their desks and in their pockets? MY CLASSROOM My students are not allowed to have anything in their pockets. I find that they play with it throughout the day, which distracts the students around them. If they have toys or money in their pockets, I confiscate it and put it in my desk for one week. I have manilla envelopes with the days of the week listed on them, and the object goes into the appropriate envelope. At the end of one week, they are allowed to ask for saracotner@yahoo.com the object as they are lining up to leave for the school day. I allow students to keep nothing but pens, pencils, textbooks, folders, composition books and a library book in their desks (never loose papers). YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 10. What do you do if a student finishes their daily work before the next activity? MY CLASSROOM A couple of students will finish the daily work before it’s time for the next activity. When they finish, they take out their Independent folders and begin their independent work. Independent work consists of five rows of handwriting and a 50-word paragraph about the daily topic. The assignment is on a half sheet of paper that they pick up at the beginning of the week. I hold students accountable for this work by grading it once a week. When students finish their independent work, they raise their hand with their pinky raised (this is an “I” in sign language). This signal alerts the monitor that s/he needs to check the finished person’s independent work. If the work is finished, the student is free to go to the optional activity of their choice (optional activities include puzzles, flashcards, math games, computer time, etc.) YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 11. How will students be held accountable for their daily work? MY CLASSROOM I walk around the classroom and grade their daily work while they are working on their independent work. I ask them to give themselves a grade based on their effort and level of completion. This process reinforces that hard word leads to good grades. It also empowers the students to reflect on their own work. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ LINING UP 12. How will students line up? MY CLASSROOM I wait for the entire class to sit in their active listening position (eyes on speaker, hands folded, and sitting up straight) before I will call anyone to line up. Then I call the students to line up by their numbers on the roster (i.e. 1-5 please line up; 6-10 line up; etc.) YOUR CLASSROOM saracotner@yahoo.com ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 13. What if students talk while lining up or waiting in line? MY CLASSROOM I give them a consequence for talking at inappropriate times. If students are waiting in line for a while, I will quiz them with math facts (they answer with their fingers) or spelling words (I call on students individually). YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 14. Is walking in line properly really a big deal? MY CLASSROOM When I first started teaching, I felt like my school was too rigid and demeaning toward students. I felt like the students were never free to express themselves or develop independent decision-making. I viewed walking in line as a chance for students to relax and take a break from the academic rigor of the classroom. As long as the students reached their destination quickly, it didn’t matter to me what they did while they got there. However, students have a completely different view of walking in line. They viewed me as a weak authority figure because I didn’t enforce the expectations of the school and their previous teachers. From their perspective, my authority was compromised. Now, I set high expectations for walking in line and give the students reasons why they need to follow the standards. I explain that they need to stay quiet so they do not disrupt other classes’ learning time. They walk in the center of the hall with one hand on their lip to remind them to stay quiet (this is the school’s expectation) and their other hand behind their back or in their pocket so they do not touch the bulletin boards. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 15. What if students accidentally bump someone in line? How do they apologize if they aren’t allowed to talk? MY CLASSROOM During community meetings I teach students how to apologize in sign language. I also teach them how to say “thank you” and “you’re welcome.” YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ saracotner@yahoo.com 16. How do students move around the classroom? MY CLASSROOM If students are moving from their desks to the floor, I dismiss them one team at a time. If they are on the floor and they need to return to their desks, I first hold up one finger. This signal means get ready. When I hold up two fingers, they stand. Finally, three fingers means they may move. If a student moves on the wrong command, I simply wait for them to realize and correct their mistake. Students who run or run and slide on the floor receive immediate consequences. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ MATERIALS 17. How do you collect supplies on the first day of school? What do you do with them? MY CLASSROOM My school requires students to bring notebook paper, crayons, composition books, pencils, paper towels, tissues, scissors, rulers, glue, and folders. On the first day of school, while the students are working silently on a survey, I collect each child’s supplies individually and place them in a grocery or garbage bag (depending on how many supplies they have). I label the bag with the students’ name and move on to the next student. I do not check to see if they brought all their supplies at this time. After school, I go back to the supplies—this time with a clipboard in hand. I put a checkmark under each item that they brought. That night, I call families who did not bring in all their supplies. By the end of the year, you will run out if you don’t ask the families to bring in all their supplies in the beginning. Also, you need to enforce the expectation that families must support the educational process. I put all the notebook paper together in one spot, as well as the paper towels, and tissues. I divide the scissors, crayons, glue, and rulers into five Tupperware containers (one for each cooperative learning group). The students share these supplies all year, regardless of whether the supplies are labeled with their names. I keep all folders and composition books and label them with computer labels that include the student’s name and the subject. I explain to students that we are a community of sharers. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 18. How should folders and composition books be used? MY CLASSROOM Each student has two folders: one for homework and one for independent work. As I collect homework in the morning, I check to make sure that the folders have been cleaned out. My students use composition books for their Juicy Journals, as well as their spelling homework. Several students don’t have access to notebook paper at home, so they do their spelling homework in a composition book. The rest of the homework is reading and worksheets. I specify that students conserve paper by writing on the front and back of each page and that they do not draw in their composition books at all. I also require them to write on consecutive pages. Trust me when I say that students will try to get away with anything if you don’t specify what they can’t do. saracotner@yahoo.com YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 19. What about the pencil problem? MY CLASSROOM My students are only allowed to sharpen their pencils while they are unpacking and packing. In the morning, they are expected to sharpen as many pencils as they will need for the entire day. If they need a pencil during the day, they may either borrow or buy one (I sell them for $0.10). They can only ask for a pencil from someone else using sign language. I only let students complete their work in pencil or erasable pen. The only time they use pen is when they check their work during the review of daily work. I never let students use distracting pencils or pens (things with feathers or rattles) that the librarian sells. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ MISCELLANEOUS 20. How do students get your attention? MY CLASSROOM Students will try to get my attention by calling out my name. I explain to them during the first community meeting that we have too many people in a very small space for them to call out my name. I emphasize that if they ever see me at the grocery store or on the street, they are free to shout my name as loudly as they would like. When students mistakenly call out my name, I say firmly, “That is not how you get my attention.” Then I attend to a student who does have their hand raised and return to the first student once their hand is raised. Elementary school students tend to ask lots of questions throughout the day. It’s not possible to call on every student all the time, so if they need to go to the restroom, they make the sign language signal for restroom. If they need a tissue, they cover their nose and raise their hand. With these signals, I can acknowledge students and give them permission to move around the classroom without disrupting learning. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 21. How do you get students’ attention? MY CLASSROOM Because I am very strict about my students not talking in line, during independent work times, or returning from recess, I incorporate a lot of group work into the day to give students the opportunity to saracotner@yahoo.com develop their communication skills. When students are working with partners or groups, I regain their attention through call and response. Here are some examples: TEACHER: Shave and a hair cut. STUDENTS: Two bits. TEACHER: Ready, Eddy? STUDENTS: Sure am, Sam. As soon as the response is complete, students must be absolutely silent. Students who make any noise at all (even a laugh) receive a conduct mark. This system assures that no matter how involved students get with their groups, I can regain their full attention within a matter of seconds in order to give them amended instructions or a time check. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 22. How can you structure academic subjects without becoming repetitive and boring? MY CLASSROOM In my experience, students really appreciate a set structure for academic subjects. They have a sense of security and certainty because they always know what is coming next, and they are more likely to be successful because they know what is expected of them. Here is an example of how I structure my math block: 12:25-12:30 Mad Math Minute Students enter the classroom without talking, and I begin quizzing them verbally on basic facts. As the students are calling out the answer in unison, I pass out a half sheet of paper with 27 basic fact math problems on it. Students write their names on the back of the sheet. When I say begin, the students flip over their papers and answer as many questions as they can in a minute. When the time is called, the students pass their papers clockwise and begin reading the problems and answers aloud. 12:30-12:40 High Five Meanwhile, I am writing five review problems (“The High Five”) on the overhead projector. When the class finishes grading the Mad Math Minute, they begin the High Five. I monitor during the first few minutes. Then I call up people who earned a 100 percent on their Mad Math Minutes. They record their progress on a chart with stickers. The other students continue working without talking. After approximately five minutes of work time, we review the problems as a class. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 23. What do you do when a student is absent? saracotner@yahoo.com MY CLASSROOM When a student is absent, the Absentee Manager grabs the absentee clipboard and a blank sheet of notebook paper. Throughout the day, the manager records our assignments and activities. Any papers that are passed out are attached to the clipboard. Absent students are expected to turn in their homework that was due when they were absent. The homework from that day is due the next day. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 24. When do students use the restroom or get water? MY CLASSROOM My school specifies that all 2nd-4th graders are allowed to use the restroom and get water at 10:15 a.m. and 12 p.m. Several students need to use the restroom one more time before the end of the school day. In the beginning of the year, I am very strict about this extra time because I am trying to decipher who really needs to use the restroom and who just wants to get out of class. A student communicates that they need to use the restroom by making a “t” for toilet in sign language (this is the signal for restroom). If a student forgets to use the restroom at recess and asks to go use it soon after recess, I allow them to go but take away half their recess for the next day. I realize that this policy may sound harsh, but I remind myself that students make choices for themselves at every moment. If they make a bad choice for themselves, they receive a negative consequence to discourage this behavior from occurring again. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 25. How do students participate in class discussions and instruction? MY CLASSROOM Sometimes it is easiest to achieve my objective by having students raise their hands. Other times, I want them to call out. To differentiate my preference, I will add the word “class” to the end of my question if they are welcome to call out their answers. Otherwise, the default is to raise their hands. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 26. What do students do if they are working in groups and the intercom comes on? MY CLASSROOM The students immediately get quiet. They wait in their active listening positions for the interruption to be over. YOUR CLASSROOM saracotner@yahoo.com ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ END OF DAY 27. How do you maintain control at the end of the day when the kids seem to have the most energy? MY CLASSROOM The end of the day is one of the most difficult times. It’s especially important to have a routine in place, so that the last 10 minutes of the school day do not degenerate into chaos. Here is what my routine looks like: 1. Students put their homework folders on their desks. I set the timer for five minutes. 2. The team with their folders on their desks first packs up. These students go to their mailboxes to get their homework. They also have permission to sharpen their pencils, pick out a brainbuster, and check out a library book. 3. I dismiss the other teams to pack up. 4. When students finish packing up, they begin working on their independent work. This work is collected, graded, and returned to students weekly so they are held accountable for getting their work done. 5. Most importantly, I am free to monitor the students as they move about freely. I award cooperative learning team points for the teams who begin working quickly and quietly. Important questions: What incentive do students have to pack up quickly? What will be the reward or punishment? What incentive do students have to work on their independent work? YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 28. How do you dismiss students? MY CLASSROOM At my school, students are dismissed at different times depending on their method of transportation. I call individual groups of students to line up, while the others continue working. I hug each student as they leave the classroom. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ CLASSROOM ARRANGEMENT saracotner@yahoo.com 29. How do you organize the students’ desks? MY CLASSROOM This year my desks are grouped into fours, with two desks next to each other, facing the other two desks. This arrangement facilitates cooperative learning, but it also makes students more prone to distraction. I had to set very stringent expectations about how students need to behave at their desks. My first year, my classroom had different desks, which were arranged in groups of four, but were facing forward. When it was time for group work, the team simply turned their desks to face each other. Even if your desks are arranged in rows, I would still have your rows function as teams. Teams have been effective in my classroom for the following reasons: 1. They minimize transition time because each person is assigned a different job (Leader, Materials Manager, Liaison/Parliamentarian, Recorder). When I want to pass out or collect papers, the Materials Manager does it for the team, and I make five stops instead of 20. When I want to give teams points, I just point at the team and the Recorder goes to the board to award the team. 2. Teams are a great incentive system because they introduce the element of peer pressure. Since everyone is excited about earning points and earning the prize, it’s not “cool” to act inappropriately. 3. Heterogeneous partnerships and groups make teaching easier because the students can help each other. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 30. How do you ask students to organize their desks? MY CLASSROOM Because students have a limited amount of space in their desks, I am very strict about what the inside of their desks should look like. They stack folders and composition books on the right, flashcards in the middle, and textbooks on the left (Note: We rarely use our language, science, or social studies textbooks, so these are kept on the shelves until we need them. At that time, I send the Materials Managers to retrieve books for their entire team.) At the end of the day, I ask students to put their homework folders on their desks. At this time, the Liaison/Parliamentarian checks the desks to ensure that they are all clean. Also, I put dots on the floor with permanent marker, so students can always keep their desks in the right place. The marks never show (because they are under the desks), and they eventually wear off due to constant movement of the desk. Throughout the day, I will ask students to check the floor for trash. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 31. How do you group students before the first day of school? saracotner@yahoo.com MY CLASSROOM Because my students are grouped in heterogeneous learning teams, I look at their cumulative folders and classify them into below-average, average, and above-average lists based on grades, test scores, and conduct grades. Then I take individuals from each group to create partnerships. Finally, I group these partnerships into teams. As students enter the classroom on the first day of school, they find their nametags at their desks. They then put these nametags on their shirts (I specify that once they put them on they should not move them—the nametags will lose their stickiness). The teams work together to establish a team name through consensus. Once the team has a name, they create a team poster on computer paper. I then mount these on construction paper and place them on the wall at kid-level. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 32. What incentive do students have to work well together in their teams? MY CLASSROOM I section off a portion of my whiteboard with blue masking tape from Wal-Mart. I write each team’s name in a box and use this space to keep track of points throughout the day. When teams are demonstrating good habits (i.e. they are minimizing transition time, maximizing learning time, using encouraging words with each other, etc.) they earn points. If I’m teaching, I give the points. At other times throughout the day, I ask the Recorders to write the points on the board. The team with the most points at the end of the day earns a star sticker on their team sheet. The team to earn 10 stickers first earns a giant cookie (Pilsbury dough pressed into a pizza pan). YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ PAPERWORK 33. How do you organize student work? MY CLASSROOM Whenever I collect paper, I ask the Materials Manager from each team to gather the papers and put them in the specified order (starting with the person on the edge and moving clockwise). Then I walk from team 1 to team 5 stacking the papers. This means that the papers are always in the same order. I put the collected papers into an accordion file to be taken home and graded. After I grade and record the papers, I leave them stacked vertically in the filing box so the Filing Manager can see them and file them. The student folders are grouped by team in the specified order, so the filing of these papers is very quick. The Filing Manager is trained to always put the papers in the same direction. At the end of the week, I simply take the papers out and staple the progress report to the front (the progress reports are also kept in the same order). YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ saracotner@yahoo.com ____________________________________________________________________________________ 34. What files do you set up? MY CLASSROOM I had a lot of trouble filing things my first year, especially curricular materials (such as worksheets and tests). If I could do it over again, I would definitely invest the time in the short run to save lots of time in the long run. Now I have the following files: 1. administrative memorandums 2. teacher portfolio 3. copies of report cards 4. notes from parents 5. copies of notes to parents 6. office referral forms (you never, ever want to be out of copies) 7. expense receipts 8. emergency substitute folder YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 35. What binders do you set up? MY CLASSROOM I have binders for family contact information and a record of all the conversations I have with parents— document everything! I also keep all my curricular materials in subject-specific binders within sheet protectors. I find that it’s easier to flip through and find things. The sheets can also be copied while they are still in their sheet protectors. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 36. How is your desk organized? MY CLASSROOM I keep a hanging file folder box on my desk that is labeled Monday-Friday. When I make copies, I paperclip them and put them in the specified day. I keep a wire bin on my desk to use as my copy box. When I come across something that needs to be copied, I put it in the box. I also keep paperclips, scissors, a pen, and white out in the box to take to the copy room. I keep stacking bins on my desk for daily homework, daily classwork, and incoming messages and miscellaneous things. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ saracotner@yahoo.com ____________________________________________________________________________________ 37. How do you minimize transition time while passing out paper? MY CLASSROOM I count out enough papers for each team and hand them to the Materials Manager. If I can’t have these papers on their desks in advance, I call out basic facts or review questions as I make my five stops to reach each team. Each student also has their own stacking bin that functions as a mailbox. I place homework and other notices in these bins, and the students are responsible for checking them as they pack up. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 38. How do students head their papers? MY CLASSROOM In the upper right hand corner, students write their first and last names. If they do not leave enough room for the name to fit, they erase it and try again. Underneath their names, they write the date. Centered on the top line of their papers, they write a title for the assignment. During the first month of school, I help them title their assignments. On a large piece of posterboard that looks like notebook paper, I wrote a sample heading so students can always refer to it. I also insist that my third graders write with the holes on the left side. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 39. How do you keep track of absentees? MY CLASSROOM I hate taking attendance. My students love having a sense of responsibility, so one of our class jobs is the Attendance Manager. In fact, in our class each student has a job. Once they are trained, they keep their jobs for the entire semester. YOUR CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________