Managing Student Behavior: Successful Strategies, Routines & Procedures

This week's #2ndaryELA Twitter chat was all about organizing the ELA classroom. Middle and High School English Language Arts discussed routines & procedures, problematic student behaviors, successful classroom management strategies, support from colleagues & administration, and valuable classroom management resources. The highlights are below.

Top Routines:

*Greeting students as they walk in
*Writing a daily outline on the board
*Checking homework
*Warm up/Bellringer gets students working asap
*Use in class folders so work & time don't get lost
*Positive narration - all preventative
*Copy HW at end of class
*SSR at least first 10 minutes every day
*Google Classroom for assignments and anything
*Lots of Collaboration
*Place to submit work
*Seating chart
*Student station at front of room
*Notebooks for work/notes
*Bathroom passes

Successful Classroom Management Strategies:

*Get to know your students. Ask them questions, and really listen to their reply.

*Seating is key, and placing the behaviors in the front by the teacher. 

*Parent communication is key.

*Reward ticket system for positive behaviors

*Clear steps of consequences for negative behaviors

*Take the few minutes between when the kids are finished packing up from homeroom and dismissal to have casual conversations

*Restorative Justice model 

*Character Counts

*Quarterly game days 

*PBIS where students are rewarded based on homework, behavior, etc.

*Spend a lot of time talking about how the classroom should feel and refer back to that often

*Walk around the room as much as possible & talk to the students about what they are doing. Let them know that you care & are watching.

*Reward students for turning in completed work on time, no tardies. Rewards: extra tech time, sit at teacher desk, etc.

*Community Circle meetings

*Tribes training

Classroom Management Resources:

*Pinterest

*Harry Wong's book, The First Days of School

*Parents

*#ohno. Every time someone or the class misbehaves you take away a letter. No letters =extra assignment.

*Nurse, custodian, guidance, home/school liaison, admin

*Communication! with parents, students, admin, etc. with tools like http://remind.com  and groupme

*Google forms is a great tool to check in on students. Used it from check-ins with writing workshop, to presentation orders, to form assessment.

*PAT= preferred activity time

Hope you'll join us next week, Tuesday August 18th at 8pm EST to discuss starting the school year in the ELA classroom. The questions for next week's chat will be posted here on Sunday. If you missed Tuesday night's chat, scroll down and read the whole thing below.