In with the Old; In with the New – a New Adage for 2009
By Jeri Asaro
January – traditionally a time of new beginnings - out with the old, in with the new. Yet, in the classroom, it may be time to take two major steps: re-establishing your procedures, and re-enforcing your rules - most importantly your discipline plan so that you can "take back your classroom." Instead of kicking out the old and starting fresh, take the time to bring order back into what you do every day – for yourself and for your students. Ask yourself some important questions: Is my January classroom as I imagined it would be back in August/September? How have my own professional objectives changed? Am I being the best educator I can be? What changes can I make to bring my classroom and my goals back to where they need to be?
In my research with both novice and seasoned teachers, I have found that the months of December and January are often the time of year when the "honeymoon is over." Students now feel they know their teachers and the class expectations fairly well, and they relax. Unfortunately, to the rest of the world, the word "relax" most often means to settle down, but in the classroom that word represents unwinding and loosening up. The once quiet and attentive students of the second week of school have been replaced by children who are chatty, unfocused, and "pushing the envelope" every chance they get. The following suggestions are ideas that can help to make the second half of the year more engaging for your students.
So, where do you begin? Think about those first few days back in August/September. Chances are you logically put your students in specific seats, reviewed your classroom rules, practiced your needed procedures, and explained your discipline plan. For the first month, you probably did not let your guard down, and you remained the ultimate professional. But, we teach children; if we are good at what we do – those kids weasel their way into our hearts and we soften. If we are still working to find a balance in the classroom, the kids are making us so crazy that we do not think we can remain with them until the end of the school year. Either way, the newly-developed relationship is not a healthy one to take us through the next five-to-six months. January is a great time to go back to the same professional stance you took in August/September. Here is a list of some ideas:
Put the students in newly assigned seats, away from their friends or those with whom they have grown comfortable.
For a few days or weeks, do more traditional lesson planning that is more teacher-centered. Keep the group work and the large class projects in your back pocket for awhile and pull them back out when the class is, once again, behaving as you expect they should.
Write a short, bulleted agenda on the board each day and include objectives if possible (administrators love to see objectives). If your students are too young for words, use pictures.
Be at the classroom door to greet and guide students and shut that door just one-minute after students are supposed to be in the room. Send the message that they are entering your zone and your rules apply.
Incorporate a "do now" activity in your list of daily procedures so that you can take attendance and check homework while students are still making good use of the class period.
Anticipate lesson planning problems before they occur. Leave no stone unturned as you think though the procedures of the day.
Speak in a soft and relaxed tone, and make yourself the center of attention before you begin the lesson. Let students hear silence for five seconds. It tells them, without any words, what you need to proceed.
For yourself, make a list of all the procedures you need so that your classroom runs smoothly (example: leaving the room for a drink of water, bathroom sign-out, handing in homework, procedures upon entering the room, collecting test papers, focus technique, etc.)
Give your students an open-ended quiz (on paper or orally – do not count it) about those procedures.
Assess if students really know what you expect. My bet is that they know some of them, but not all of them.
If students prove they know the procedures, the question for you is – are they doing them?
If they do not know those necessities, why not?
Either way, begin the New Year by practicing the routines for a few weeks. Stress the crucial steps all over again. You may think the reiteration makes you sound like a broken CD, but kids of all ages need repetition to recognize expectations
Procedures are routines that help your classroom run like clockwork. In contrast, rules are conditions that govern behavior, and your discipline plan outlines the consequences for breaking those established rules. Following the same suggestion as using January to re-establish procedures, it is also a great time to review rules and your discipline plan. Some rules are school-wide policies, like not chewing gum; while other rules might better pertain to the classroom environment. In any case, the beginning of the calendar year is an appropriate time to discuss again the major rules, and show students that the discipline plan you reviewed in August/September really does exist.
If your classroom is well-behaved enough to handle a little activity, do some role-playing to ensure that students conceptualize your needs. If not, make it a teacher-centered review in a structured environment, and use simple brainstorming to communicate the point. If a student breaks a rule, even your favorite student, follow-through and be consistent. To send the message that the classroom is yours, and they need to respect you, you may have to resort to the section of your discipline plan that states you will contact parents or you will send a student to the administration office or in-school suspension. Let students know – unequivocally, that no student in the classroom can prevent another from learning. When that situation occurs, you are going to take a strong stance. Education is your goal in the classroom. Fun and activities can only come as a result of a classroom of students who are respectful and ready to learn. As a teacher, you control the environment you create for your students. It is in your hands!
One of the most satisfying parts of teaching for me is that every school year, you get a fresh start. Hopefully, the past mistakes can be erased and you can begin again. I come to school in September with alphabetical files, great planning ideas, and an attitude that makes me feel I can make the year the best one yet. By December, my files look like a seventh-grader's backpack – disheveled and disastrous. Defeated and over-whelmed by my own lack of organization, I have no choice but to sort-out and systemize the developed mess so that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Some of us are naturally very organized people, while others need to take a moment to bring order back to our lives. Taking a few days to re-arrange your classroom (or your traveling cart, established shelf, desk, files, plan book, etc.) so that you and your students can find necessities is worth the effort. Organization is the basis for time management. The old adage, "There is a place for everything and everything is in its place," is meaningful to any teacher. Wasting classroom time because students cannot find the colored pencils, or personal time trying to find that class set of papers that needs grading is a nightmare. Give these ideas some thought:
Begin is one area and work your way around the place that needs organizing, and through your daily routines. Fix, file, and fine-tune as needed.
Do not be afraid to ask for help. At least one of your colleagues is a master organizer. Tap into that professional resource.
Every Friday, arrange your plans and work for the next week. Make sure everything is set-out for Monday's lesson in each classroom.
Use a planner, small notebook, or desk calendar to make lists for the other days of the week. Place your to-do lists and important reminders there. Make use of the same location for everything. It will become your "go-to" place. Sticky notes can become lifesavers for you. Each day, prepare for the next day.
Keep a small reserve of student supplies on hand. Although making students responsible for their supplies is important, it should not be at the expense of the rest of the class. Plus, pens run out of ink, pencil points break, etc.
Make three days worth of emergency substitute plans. Be sure the work is meaningful (if it involves a video, create a worksheet to go with the video). Have a class set of puzzles, etc. as filler material. Use the internet to find a few substitute ideas and print these out for the folder. You likely also need attendance sheets, seating charts, disciplinary slips, your schedule, class lists, notepad, pens, and include a package of mints or hard candies. Leave these plans in a central location and label them properly.
Stop saving multiple copies of everything you have. With computers, photocopy machines, and the internet, just about any written resource is at your fingertips anyway. Keep one or two copies and move on.
Use slim binders and acetate sleeves to organize those copies. A labeled binder for each unit (or each month – or both) is a terrific idea.
Create computer templates for materials you use regularly. For example, your lesson plan template should be saved on your computer as Lesson Plan Template, and use the "save as" function over and over. It will save considerable time.
Color-code materials. If you teach more than one preparation (Example: Academic English and English Honors), use a different color printer paper, folders, etc. for each set of materials. It will help you to file, find, and easily recognize your hard work.
Stop grading everything. Do not allow students to ask the question "Is this being graded?" Tell them everything you do in class has a purpose, and they should do their best no matter what. In one form or another, everything receives a grade whether it is a class participation grade or a grade in your grade book. Assessments can take many different formats.
Use student papers to create bulletin boards. Have students create colorful Venn diagrams, poems, paragraphs, posters, etc. In middle school and beyond, allow them to put their names on the BACK of the items so that other students do not know who did what. Many adolescent and teenage students find it embarrassing to see their papers hung up if their names are on them, but all students love to read each other's work. But, instead of grading each paragraph, let them hang in the room. Looking at each other's work and comparing is sometimes assessment enough to see the strong and weak work.
Now that you know your classes, privately choose three students in each class as your "point of reference." You can try choosing three students on grade level, or three students on varied levels. Observe those students. When they lose interest in the lesson, or show difficulties in understanding, it is time to re-teach the material in a follow-up lesson. This simple strategy can also be used on homework. Look over those three papers for common mistakes or excessive errors and re-teach as needed.
Buy an organizer just for attending meetings. Some teachers use a portfolio or binder of sorts. Make sure it has pockets for sticky notes, pens, MINTS, and a large tablet of paper. It is also nice to have file folders included in the portfolio. If it is well-outfitted, each time you need to go to a meeting you can just grab your portfolio, and you are likely to have most of what you need.
January is named for the Roman god, Janus – the god of beginnings and endings, openings and closings. He is often seen as a two-headed god, one side remembering the past, while the other side looks forward to the future. Let January be your opportunity to take back the control of your classroom. In my house, with both a husband and son who are active sports' players and watchers, sports' analogies have always been used to bring across important points, so bear with me. The late Skip Prosser, the only NCAA coach to take three separate schools to the Tournament during his first year of coaching the teams, once said, "We need to come out and re-establish ourselves at the start of the second half."
For the new calendar year, we all need to revert back to the same intensity and focus, as we began the new school year with in August/September. It will allow us as educators to complete the rest of the year maintaining our original goals. Once you get your classroom back to a well-managed educational zone, use February and March to try some new active learning and student-centered strategies. Return to www.inspiringteachers.com and my column in February for a list of easy and interesting strategies that can be practiced immediately. In education today, "In with the old and in with the new" might be a better slogan to consider for this time of year! Good luck!
