A typical classroom - Class Size & Composition DOES matter!

By Kwyn Denny Maxwell

Here is a my beautiful, energetic grade 4 classroom, if I gave it colours. This is a fairly typical class, some are harder, some are easier.

Yellow - my ESL students who receive 45 minute of extra support per week.

Blue - Students in my room who are at least 2 years behind in 1 or more subject ares. They receive no extra support.

Pink - students with challenging behaviours who disrupt the classroom regularly. They receive no extra support.

Orange - These are students who have been tested (or hopefully will be soon) and have a designated learning disability. They receive 1 hour a day extra support.

Green - These are my fully capable students who are meeting grade level and able to work fairly independently. They have stable home lives and are getting their basic needs met.

Red - These are my students who are facing hard things. Divorcing parents, deaths of close family members, poverty. These 'things' are impacting their learning.

This again is a fairly typical classroom these days. Please - class size and composition DO matter!!!! It is not all about getting a raise.

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Classroom Behaviour Activity - 'Bug' Chart

Good way to launch a conversation about classroom behaviors ... http://www.pinterest.com/pin/2251868538310213/

Self Regulation Techniques featured in CBC article.

When I teach as a TTOC in different classes, I notice a variety of strategies used for DPA (Daily Physical Activity) and also Self Regulation. This article looks a bit at both and I love some of the ideas teachers are using in their classrooms.

I have tried some of the ideas like childrens yoga cards to go to use on the quiet carpet to stretch out, or a bell that signals "leaping lizards" or some other energetic exercise.

One school has "pole to pole" runs where students can go run from one end of the school to the other when they need a break. Another class I was in had regular "brain breaks" with choices of activities such as chair aerobics.

At Cindrich elementary school in Surrey, B.C., 10-year-old boys are putting themselves to bed earlier, an enthusiastic girl in Grade 6 takes herself for a run when she’s feeling hyper, and a diminutive boy who is still learning English tells his teacher he will do better work if he sits on a special cushion. 

It is all part of self-regulation, a philosophy of education that is moving into public schools in British Columbia.

Self-regulation ultimately hands the job of taking charge of their learning and their behaviour back to the kids. Teachers look for what is stressing a child and making them unable to  pay attention, lethargic, or hyper sometimes to the point where they are out of control. It might be too much noise in the classroom, too little sleep or too much junk food in their lunch. Then the teachers help the child recognize what they need to do to make themselves calm and productive in class.

Stuart Shanker, a distinguished research professor of philosophy and psychology at York University, is the pied piper of self-regulation in the schools. He maintains that Canadian kids do not know what it is to feel calm any more. There is too much stimulation in their lives. 

Read the rest of the article here

Classroom Management Ideas for (mostly) Primary classes

This awesome blog lists some cool Classroom Management techniques that would work in a variety of classes.

1. Behavior Clip Chart

 All of kids start on green- Ready to Learn, and there are possibilities of them moving up and down. This chart has: orange (great choices), purple (excellent effort), and gold (super star)! blue (warning), yellow (slow down), and red (parent contact: think sheet). The students have individual behavior calendars and they color their behavior calendar everyday. Parents get to check the calendar daily. If a child has 5 red days in one specific behavior (correlated with behavioral standards), She marks that on the report card. 

 

*As a TTOC how might you use this? I was thinking of drawing a ladder on the board that students could go up and down? Thoughts?

 

2. Brownie Points

This is such a cute concept. I love that it is a baking sheet with brownies on it!

 

3. Brain Spray

This teacher blogger posted the following:

I purchased a $1 spray bottle in the toiletries section of Target and filled it with water. I sprinkled some multicolored glitter and ta-da! BRAIN SPRAY. Now... what can you use brain spray for? Anything that you want :) I primarily save my brain spray for testing and times where I really need my kiddies to "think". I literally will mist each of the kids with the spray and say that the magic spray will "activate their brain" and make them think better :) Works like a charm! My sticker label that I made fell off in my move, but I have made a new label that I am going to cut out and mod podge on the bottle. Click here for your label!

 

4. Power Pellets

 

She also writes:

This is a brand new trick that I just started and it is BEYOND genius! The original idea came from here and I basically I made a fun label (I thought power pellets deserved a "powerful" superhero type font and lightning strikes {you can't see my lightning strikes on the side, but they are there!} and filled with Skittles aka POWER PELLETS. Whenever my students are in the "power position" (aka "listening/focused" position on the carpet), they can earn a power pellet to help keep them attentive and focused. WORKS AMAZINGLY!!! Try it. ASAP. It is life-changing :)

 

5. Silent Sprinkles

This has rice and sparkles and a taped lid so it doesn't actually pour out. I used something similar when I used to babysit young kids and called it dream dust to help them sleep. I like this idea, the teacher blogger says she sprinkles it on students heads when they g4t too noisy.

 

6. Quiet Critters

Kind of like "Warm Fuzzies" Originally from here. Basically, you make the quiet critters with a pom-pom, heart-shaped foam piece (for the feet) and mini wiggle eyes. Tell my students that my "quiet critters" need a friend to take care of them, but they only can survive/like QUIET friends. 

 

7. Happy Rocks

This idea came from the Kinder Gals... Cute rewards and lot's of ideas on how to use them.

 

What ideas have you seen in classrooms, websites, or things you have tried yourself that work?

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and why it is so imporant!

Why Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is important...

Research shows a number of benefits. One that stands out to me is that SEL improves students' positive behavior and reduces negative behavior.

It promotes young people’s academic success, health, and well-being at the same time that it prevents a variety of problems such as alcohol and drug use, violence, truancy, and bullying.

 Read more here

MindUp Program

I have been in numerous classrooms that practice the MindUp program and have to say, it is AMAZING! I am a huge fan of social emotional learning and it's benefits and find that this program works well in classrooms. I hope to take the training myself this year and implement some of the practices into my classroom.

I know my daughter's teacher (in grade 2) used MindUp and my daughter enjoyed it very much and still practices some of the relaxation and focus techniques on her own at home and school.

MindUP™ aspires to:

• Develop students’ skills in focusing their attention;
• Sharpen students’ awareness of their environment and themselves by paying attention to what they sense and feel;
• Strengthen the positive human qualities students possess, including their capacity to understand the perspectives of others and to be empathic, helpful, and kind;
• Increase students’ optimism and well-being;
• Foster a cohesive, caring learning environment and thereby an optimistic classroom. 

MindUp is a classroom-based social and emotional learning program (SEL) designed to enhance self-awarness, social awareness, attention, self regulation, problem solving, pro-social behaviour (helping, sharing, and cooperating), and positive human qualities, such as happiness, optimism, and kindness. Research has shown that students who participate in SEL programs, like MindUp, enhance their overall learning potential, improve their classroom behaviour, and increase their academic success.
 
MindUp was created to help children understand the ways their minds work and how their thoughts and feelings affect their behaviour. The MindUp curriculum is informed by the latest scientific research in the fields of cognitive neuroscience, social emotional learning, and positive psychology.
Through a series of simple lessons, students learn strategies to calm their minds, focus their attention, and become more aware of themselves, others, and their environment. Each lesson also teaches students about their brain (anatomy and function), and how they can positively influence their own brain development. Along with the classroom lessons, there is a short, twice daily practice of focusing and calming their mind using listening and breathing techniques.

Culture of Learning: Fooling Around in the Bathroom

Loved this story from a principal in our district: 

It is not rare to walk down the hallway and hear strange noises coming from the boys bathroom in an elementary school. Sometimes you hear giggles, or doors slamming, or screams as the boys play tag, toss around paper towel, or slam the doors on the stalls. And although my school is not immune to this type of behaviour I must admit that I am very pleased that our students do a pretty good job of respecting their school, and this includes their bathrooms.Last week I was heading down the hallway on my way outside about 10 minutes into the outside play portion of lunch. As I walked past the boys bathroom I could see that there were two boys standing at the sinks. I paused…it was quiet. I heard a whisper. I looked again, they hadn’t moved.
 

Read the rest of this story here: http://principalofthematter.com