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Have you been wondering what the best classroom layout will be, either for your third placement or next year? This site explains the different seating plans that you could use and some reasons why or why not to use them. This will help with your assignment for EU 499 as well as preparing for interviews!

This site has a list of 41 links that are topics relating to classroom management. It is put together by The Teacher Development Network. The site is organized similar to our Diigo group but more concise. There are small descriptions of most of the links. Some examples of topics are: Classroom management plans; Bullying in school and what to do about it; Conflict Resolution; Managing classroom behaviour; Discipline techniques that backfire; Classroom leadership and Engaged learning. This would be a great site to check out for a wide range of classroom management ideas, as well as behaviour and discipline plans.

This is a site that provides you with additional links for tips about effective classroom management. It talks about routines, procedures, rules, choice, planning, and class participation. In the additional links, there are lists of everything you would need a routine or procedure for (in case some things slip our minds). It also has a few activities that you could use with the students to help enforce these concepts, such as acting out the rules or the opposite of the rule. By doing this, it would really give the students concrete examples of what to do and what not to do.

After yesterday's class I was unsure of how to incorporate restorative justice into my own classroom. This was the reason why I decided to do the remainder of my posts for this class on the theme of restorative justice. I was able to find 3 different lesson plans and one article that a teacher might use in his/her classroom in order to build a community focused on restorative justice. I hope that these links are as much interest to you as they are to me. This first lesson plan comes from two educators in Alberta. The lesson is called the community web. In the community web students learn about different roles in the community and how each of these roles aid in the process of restorative justice. Students each take different roles (eg. teacher, principal, victim, offender etc.). Then, using a ball of yarn the students create a web of strings by passing the yarn around the circle to other participants. Students soon see how interconnected all participants are in the process. This lesson is a great way to show students that there are more people involved in the justice process than simply the victim and offender.

This lesson plan comes from two educators in Alberta. In the lesson students learn about the concept of justice circles through role play. This helps students to learn respect for others in the classroom. Justice circles are similar to the classroom meetings in the previous post, however, justice circles are more focused on allowing the victims and offenders to get a better sense of one another. The goal is to resolve conflict while remaining respectful to all involved. In this lesson plan students role play different situations in a justice circle. Additionally students also write about one participant and what his or her involvement was in the justice circle. They then have to reflect on the process and why it was or wasn't effective. This lesson will help students understand how restorative justice can provide a support system for both victim and offender and how that is different from retributive justice.

This is a link to a restorative justice lesson plan. The lesson plan focuses on teaching students how to develop restorative consequences as a group. In order to do this, students participate in a classroom meeting/restorative justice circle. Students learn about coming to a consensus, how to come up with consequences for offenders, and why offenders commit crimes As a result of this lesson, students will learn how restorative justice can help offenders to stop their negative behaviours and how this can be incorporated into a classroom setting.

This handy tool helps you save time and energy by creating a classroom floor plan online. Be prepared to set up your classroom when you arrive by adding and moving around furniture on this web site and then printing off your floor plan and bringing it to school. Use what you have learned about classroom management to help set up your ideal classroom.

We have been discussing cyberbullying in a few of our classes and what to do when an incident occurs, but what about prevention? This website offers great ideas, complete lesson plans, and activity sheets categorized by grade. Each lesson/idea is developmentally appropriate and provides great ideas to get students thinking about proper use of the internet. The world is becomming increasingly technological and I think it's up to parents and teachers to take the time to teach children how to use the internet responsibly and safely.

Beware of the honeymoon period! This article is a reminder about the importance of being proactive in the classroom. Instead of coming up with a bunch on incentive/reward programs, create a classroom packed with interesting instruction that will curb time to distraction. Keep them interested and they will not need to amuse themselves!

Covered everything you needed to and finished a lesson a bit quicker than you thought? Got five minutes to kill? This site has tons of brief, fun activities that can be used to fill the time. Tailor them to fit your lesson plan and you're set.

Although this is a little bit old, it still applies. Harry and Rosemary Wong talk about the differences between classroom management and classroom discipline. They discuss the fact that many new teachers have difficulty distinguishing between the two, leaving them with the complications of trying to resolve behaviour problems and little time to structure a classroom management plan. The article talks about different procedures and routines, as well as misconceptions that new teachers may have.

This website describes ten ways to create classroom rules with your students. It also suggests different rules that you might want to include. This might be useful for our classroom management plan assignment!

This site has a section (General) aimed at the student teacher (including a quiz on classroom management styles) as well as full timers. There are numerous sections detailing help for teachers in the social studies which include, besides the obvious sections on history and geographry, sections on critical thinking, student questioning, games et cetera. The subsections are quite good (under History for example there is an article: "A Relevant Approach to History (At Risk Leaners)" that outlines a lesson on time for students having a hard time grasping that concept. All of the lesson plan ideas and articles as downloadable as MS Word docs for easy retrieval off of the site.

This link has 6 different ways to arrange the desks in your classroom. It has a brief description of what works and what doesn't work about the arrangement. It outlines why it might be important to change your classroom seating plan and what the basic principles of seating are. Very useful!

For those considering moving up to high school at some point in time, here are six basic classroom management strategies that are still appropriate with older children. 1) Over plan each day 2) Start on time 3) Start the year or semester off strict 4) Let them know what to expect each day 5) Mix it up a little 6) Move to the noise Each of these is elaborated on by the author who says of himself, "I am by nature not a strong disciplinarian and like to be relaxed and fun with my class....I have however, over the years been able to find ways to combine my somewhat easygoing personality with some constant classroom rules and ideas to maintain a good learning atmosphere." Isn't that the balance so many of us need?

This article contains some ideas/tips on how to deal with unexpected emotional situations and for planned "hot topics". Conflict resolution and the need to listen carefully are discussed.

A collection of professional development resources to assist teachers with everyday issues that arise. Some of the resources include creating a discipline plan, classroom management tips and starting the school year off in a positive manner.

The following video provides three classroom management strategies for new teachers. These strategies include: planning ahead, classroom organization and being consistent. These strategies are helpful and can prevent classroom management issues.