How could changing the lighting in your classroom help with behavior?! Well, as you may know, I spent an entire summer researching ways to dramatically improve my behavior management plan after a truly horrible year. With this research, a topic kept coming up that I knew would - an influx of students with autism. I saw a couple of articles that stated since the spectrum was so large, we sometimes aren't certain whether a child is on it until later or maybe not even find out at all. If these students are on it, little triggers can agitate them. And the biggest agitator could be THE LIGHTING IN YOUR CLASSROOM! It was something I knew I had to ... Read More
The Easiest Way to Connect With Your Students
You've heard it time and time again. You need to connect with your students in order to get through to them. Yet a lot of us simply aren't doing it. I get it though - when do we have the time?! Well I am going to suggest something that is so easy but you will probably hate me for - but just hear me out. Eat lunch with your students. Are you done throwing stuff at me yet? By all means I am not saying this needs to be a daily occurrence. No, no, no. What do think I am ? Crazy?! It is extremely powerful if you set aside one day every two weeks - or even once a month - to hang out with your kiddos while eating. I would schedule this on my calendar so ... Read More
Kagan strategies that help
Kagan strategies are nothing new - if you haven't been to a conference then surely you know a teacher who has. I was one of those teachers that absorbed all the information teachers could give me about Kagan Learning since I was never lucky enough to attend. While I pushed cooperative learning and being interactive, there is one strategy I loved the most and that is the Kagan table numbers. I blogged about this ages ago but I think it is completely worth revisiting. Benefits of Kagan Table Numbers -They can take place of your job chart (my FAVORITE thing about them!) -Leaders are formed -No more looking for volunteers to solve a problem -A solid ... Read More
Benefits of Music in the Classroom
Last week we talked about a book that could change your classroom management dramatically. Well, today I am going to share another powerful, addition that can greatly impact your behavior management as well. The power of using music in the classroom! Music was one of my favorite things to add to my classroom that dramatically changed the mood. If you were to walk into my classroom, nine times out of ten you would hear SOME type of music being played. Music in the classroom can be powerful. Have you ever listened to a song and it can either bring you down if it is a sad song or lift you up? If I need a pick-me-up I know exactly what type of ... Read More
Best Book about Behavior Management
Have you read my "about me" page? If so, you know that I had a really bad year about five years ago. I was AWFUL. That summer I did an insane amount of researching to make sure that it would never happen again... Enter: the best book about behavior management EVER. Ever. How I got to this book: When I say "research" I mean I sat on my computer and searched and searched for resources about classroom and behavior management. There were some blog posts, and there were some olllld college textbook type books but nothing really concrete. Just ideas. I did notice that a super old video of Ron Clark with Oprah kept popping up. (Do yourself a favor ... Read More
Using Behavior Calendars In Your Classroom
Now, we have discussed behavior charts... do you use them in your classroom? Like I mentioned before, I am a bit impartial to them. I don't think you HAVE to have them, nor do I think you HAVE to take them down. I think you need to do what is best for your students. For the past five years, whether my behavior chart was up or down, I have always used Behavior Calendars. What are behavior calendars? They are something I created to get rid of the charts I was filling out daily. When I started teaching, my principal at the time had us send home daily updates on behavior to the parents because our district was BIG on parent ... Read More
