Finding the right classroom management strategy can be tricky. Angel Honts with Learn and Teach By the Beach is sharing her best classroom management tips and tricks.
How do we get students to listen?
The first step to getting students to listen is to teach them explicitly what it means to listen. What do you want it to look like when students are paying attention? Consider exactly what you want to happen. What should they be doing? What are their hands doing? Their bodies? Their pencils?
Teach them exactly what you want them to do when they are listening to you. Then you’ll practice, practice, practice. Continue to hold high expectations and when all students are not following the expectations, then the class needs more practice. As Angel explains, there is no punishment, it’s just practice to get it right.
A great classroom management strategy to use is to vary your practicing and get creative. Have one group model and the rest of the class watch and discuss what they noticed. Also make sure to model all situations where you need your class to listen. This might include at the carpet, at their desks, and in the hallway.
What is a common downfall most teachers make?
One of the most common downfalls teachers make is to start talking before everyone in the class is listening. Maybe you’ve called the class to attention using your attention signal, and then before everyone is ready you begin the lesson. If students are still talking but now you’re trying to teach, you are not sticking with your high expectation that we listen when the teacher is talking.
The best thing you can do to reinforce your expectation is to wait until the class is quiet. Angel notes that the students will figure out pretty quickly that you won’t begin until they are listening. If it takes 8 minutes of wait time for you to begin instruction then you’ll let the class know that your goal next time is to be quicker. This means you’ll need to continue practicing the expectations for listening.
Everybody follows the expectations.
How much time would you give students to start getting the expectations?
At the beginning of the year, it might take about 6 weeks for students to get the hang of your expectations and meet them. As Angel says, she practices the expectations several times a day and is consistent. Students will realize that this is your expectation and you are going to hold them to it.
You can’t teach students if they are not listening and paying attention. We have to spend the time practicing multiple times a day to get them to the point where they will follow the expectations and listen when you are teaching.
After a long break or a long weekend, before rushing right back into teaching, go over the expectations again. It might only be needed to ask a student to review the expectations and then you are ready for instruction. You know your students best. If you see them getting off task and not following the set expectations, it is time for another practice session or review.
What do you think about the classroom management strategy of tangible rewards?
Angel does not personally use many rewards because in her words, “The expectation is the expectation and you’re at school to follow the expectation.” In her class they talk about the expectations and what they are but also they discuss why they are important and why they should be followed.
Angel does, however, use table points. Her class is set up into table points and she awards points to the tables that are following the expectation she’s taking points for. This might be cleaning up at the end of the day. Then at the end of the month the winning table group might get a small reward such as a pencil or mini eraser.
How can you build a classroom community?
Just like the classroom management strategy of keeping high expectations, it’s important to work on building your classroom community every day. Angel likes to do a morning meeting daily. She suggests you could also do a class meeting in the morning or the afternoon.
In her morning meeting, her class greets each other and has a sharing prompt that ranges from “How was your weekend?” to something more specific. Every child gets a chance to share. Another strategy Angel uses is to greet each student at the door. When her class lines up to leave the room they have a monthly poem they read that is special to her class. She also has a song her class sings that is unique to her class as well.
Building classroom community takes time and it should be ongoing all year.
How can you have smooth transitions?
It really goes back to your expectations. What does it look like to line up? It looks like standing up, pushing in your chair, walking to get in line. Angel has her class line up in a line order every time so it cuts down on arguing over spots in line.
The biggest point Angel would like teachers to understand is that students need you to be very explicit. Explaining exactly what to do and how to do it is key in having smooth transitions. Angel uses a bell that she rings once to clean up centers and sit quietly. Then she rings it a second time to transition to the next center once she sees everyone is ready and has fulfilled the expectation of clean up.
Connect with Angel Honts of Learn and Teach By the Beach:
Angel's Instagram - @beachteachermom
Angel’s website - Learn and Teach By the Beach
Angel’s TpT Store - Learn and Teach By the Beach