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Here is a book website about a different way to deal with challenging children. It explains that there are 2 main reasons for children have challenging behaviour. These reasons are that the child has lagging skills in some area(s) and the have unsolved problems. The site has a link to a list of common lagging skills. If the website piques your interest, I recommend the book "Lost at School" by Dr. Ross Greene.

Another short set of high school classroom management techniques. This author outlines some elements affecting older students' lives that do not as often pertain to primary, junior and intermediate students. Building on these, the article emphasizes good connections with students, and positive environments, suggests use of humour in class, but recommends sticking to private praise and discipline.

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 web page describes a classroom technique that utilizes a silent way for students to get their teacher's attention; signaling that they need help while still being able to work until the teacher can assist them. I think that "FlagBee" would work well at the elementary level, but seems a little "silly" for high school maybe. A variation of this would just be to write their name on the board when a student needs assistance.

This article talks about some of the ways to hold students accountable for their own learning, as well as their behaviour in the classroom. I also found it helpful as it explains some of the factors that may lead to behavioural problems amongst students(i.e. overworking kids, too many outside of school responsibilities, etc...). Definitely an article worth checking out.

This is an article written by Harriet Wall, a teacher, trainer, and consultant of behaviour management and restorative justice. The article, entitled "Restorative justice: behaviour and relationship management in schools" goes through what restorative justice is and how and why it can be effective in the classroom. The author offers some suggestions of how teachers can employ restorative justice and how they might already be doing so without knowing it.

This is a link to a free web tutorial on school discipline and classroom management. You can view it as a Powerpoint, as a Word document, or go through the site itself. Read it all, or select the topic of your choice (links on left hand side)! There is information on various strategies (such as Reality Therapy, Positive Approach, Assertive Discipline, etc), how to lay the foundation for a well managed class, and preventitive practices. The information and tips provided all seem manageable and realistic to implement. The great thing is we can save the files provided through the links, for later reference (when we might have some "spare" time to read).

Toronto krumping team Northbuck take their program "Kumping out Crime" into GTA area schools to give kids a creative outlet for their aggression. The program enrolls students in three-hour sessions after school that include tutoring, a free meal and krumping lessons. Northbuck also teach students about "leadership, co-operation, non-violent conflict resolution, and the difference between a positive lifestyle and drugs and alcohol." Principals who have invested in the program have noticed a marked improvement in their school's social environment including less prevalent behavioural issues and amalgamation of various racial and cultural groups.

How to get your students on board with how you want your classroom run. The checklist is a list of things that you should cover in the first day (e.g. washroom policy) and addition procedures, routines, and strategies.

The article by Gary Maclean discusses the importance of management in the classroom. He defines management as "designed to bring students to their ultimate objective". Gary briefly outlines five elements of classroom management: organization, simplify, cleaning, standardize and sustain. Most of the article was fairly self explanatory, but the one element I found interesting and very useful that I had not thought of before was cleaning. A busy classroom gets messy, therefore cleaning should be a daily activity. This is not an occasional activity and should be done at the end of the school day. In conclusion, Gary presents us with a great article on classroom management and includes five important elements.

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!

Some interesting ideas - some that I'd want to use all year round! Learning centres, co-operative learning, literature circles, outside learning, team challenges. Some great ideas to keep kids motivated with learning!

This website gives you a glimpse into a great resource that I learnt about this week. The book is called The first Days of School and the website belongs to the creator of the book. This book is so great that the Waterloo Board provides one for their new teachers.

This is a section of a website designed for teachers by teachers. It has been going for 15 years and has a section on classroom management. This article is posted by a teacher in Ireland and lists some organizational practices aimed at new teachers (some are common sense but good to review). There is another post further down on this site titled IDEAS FOR NEW MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHERS GRADES: 6-9 in this one, I love the idea that classroom management involves personalization to be successful.

For any teacher anxious about going into their first classroom, this article gives a step-by-step checklist for a new teacher to review in order to make sure their class is prepared for an excellent classroom management start to the year. Categories examples would be room environment, what rules to set, initial supplies needed and Student prep (name tags and seating arrangements).

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 particular five minute audio clip added by a mental health counsillor focuses on the bully within the classroom, and talks about 3 common misconceptions about the bully. If you navigate using the "Previous" and "Next" buttons at the top, you will be able to listen to other audio clips within the "5 minute Classroom Management Fixes" series.

This is a video from 1947 intended for TEC's just like us! The video attempts to outline a number of affective and ineffective methods of classroom management. Overall the video touches on flexibility of the teacher and the importance of creating stimulating lessons - old school, but apropos!

This site talks about the negative expectations that many supply teachers hold as they walk into a classroom. It gives a few suggestions that will help in classroom management, such as attention grabbers and getting to know the school and the students, meanwhile maintaining organization in the classroom.

This article outlines some general ideas for implementing classroom meetings school wide or just within your class. It describes these meetings as "an opportunity to observe the practice of dignity, respect, and understanding" as well as one to combat bullying. Emphasizing the importance of meeting facilitator training, the article walks through both beneficial training steps and implementation strategies.

This video shows an example of restorative justice in action for a student in grade four. It outlines the benefits of implementing restorative justice techniques for students at the elementary school level because it will help them learn life skills. Feel with your heart, not your fist!