ClassMan2011

There are a number of classroom management ideas presented at this site which is geared towards substitute teachers and therefore are not about how you want to set up your perfect classroom but more about how to gain and maintain control over a class of students that have never seen you before. Some really good suggestions here.

Since many of us may be venturing in to the substitute teaching role at the beginning of our careers, I thought this was a great site that organized classroom management strategies based on grade levels for substitute teachers. There is everything from effective tips to strategies for gaining attention. There are also great links in the left hand column for books that kids love, curriculum activities and games, discipline techniques as well as interview tips and questions.

A neat way to make a visual representation of desired class volume levels that can be placed somewhere where all students can see it and be reminded of what is expected of them in terms of their volume. Probably a good strategy for primary/junior level

The cofounder of this program claims that it is a "more advanced classroom management" system. For those interested in reform methods this seems like an interesting way to try and keep the class on task. When you need to gain student attention you say "Class" and the students say "Yes", however you are encouraged to mix it up and say it in different ways. The whole program is based on student engagement which I believe is one of the most important things when it comes to classroom management.

A few tips on how to deal with disruptive behavior caused by troubled students.

An interesting study on how gender can affect teaching style. The start provides with some background information on gender studies which I was a little surprised by. It states that "a man's world focuses on competition, status, and independence", and "a woman's focuses on intimacy consensus, and interdependence." The second part is a case study on experienced and inexperienced male and female teachers that is worth a read.

A website that outlines potential lessons and resources that can be used in order to promote awareness about cyber bullying in the 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.

I came across this incredible free resource online. It is a mini-course about classroom management that takes a "needs focused" approach to prevent classroom managment issues and to deal with them effectively when/if they do arise. Part one focuses on the need of students to "belong" and contains strategies to build a "classroom community" including student meetings and team building activities.

Part 2 of this free online resourse focuses again on the need of students to belong but this time explores building strong and positive staff/student relationships to prevent classroom management issues. It even includes a link to a fun "get to know you" survey you can have your students complete! Knowing your students (their likes, dislikes and triggers) and establishing postive relationships is perhaps the most important step in preventing classroom management issues.

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.

Ontario Certified Teacher, Elona Hartjes (winner of a Teacher of Distinction Award), talks in her blog about some of the research behind using music in the classroom to promote student productivity. She relates it towards personal audio devices (ie. ipods) but this information is easily translateable to playing a CD in your classroom as well. If you are curious, she also has many more music related blogs, and other useful insights for teachers.

This site outlines eight points about what teachers can do to keep their students engaged and, therefore, quiet. While it doesn't target specific strategies, perse, it does hit upon some broader practices. There are also some great links such as "How do I Keep My Students Away from Me?" posted before the article's main text.

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!

Icebreakers and games for the first day to help you get to know your class. This article also talks about the importance of letting your class get to know you. Idea number 2 is great about creating a web showing unity within the classroom.

This is a good, in-depth read about how to effectively run classroom meetings in your own class. It talks about what classroom meetings promote amongst your students, some objectives you can address, ways to deal with challenging situations, and how to set it up for different age groups, and some questions you can use to start communication. If you're interested in implementing classroom meetings in your next practicum (or later on as a teacher), this document will give you everything you need to get started.

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!

This page outlines common mistakes of all teachers, as well as tips and ideas to avoid finding yourself in a bad situation. The first 3 pertain particularly to issues of classroom management.

In Dr. K's class we talked about the recent EQAO cheating scandal in London. While this is not directly related to classroom management, I wonder about the teacher's role in this. Since they are the ones administering the test, one might assume (but not for sure) that they knew that something was going on. I wonder how this effects the teacher's reputation in the classroom. Will the trust built between the teacher and students be ruined? How would a teacher who tries to implement responsibility and accountability with her students recover from this? Obviously, these teachers were put into an impossible, difficult situation, so how can this be handled with the best interests of the students at heart?

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 article explains aspects of assertiveness in setting the tone for a classroom and how this eliminates many problems.