Firefighting- Classroom Style

Dominique Education, Parenting Views Classroom, Education, Teaching muses

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Earlier this month I wrote about how I motivate the students in my classroom. In this post I’ll be opening up to you what I face in the classroom on a daily basis.

Teaching is simply exhausting. There are 101 items which one must handle daily on top of teaching the given syllabus and performing conflict management simultaneously.

Everyday fresh new challenges are thrown as me when I enter the class and address the 42 individuals with the unique personalities. It had been a bit overwhelming for me when I first took charge of this class but I have been slowly getting to know then and their peculiarities.

On a single day I have to deal with :

students being verbally abusive to both peers and teacher
defiant students.
petty complains about other pupils.
chasing after pupils to complete and hand in their homework on time.
being constantly interrupt by students requesting to visit the toilet.

For 8 hours a day I have to deal with more then 100 different pupils as we take multiple students depending on our subject combination.

For me I take my main class English, Science, Art, Social Studies and Health Education. On top of that I have 4 additional classes of Art and 2 additional classes of Health Education.

I realized after handling this extremely large group of kids that the best way would be to treat them like toddlers. Most of my students are still extremely attention seeking and some of them are actively seeking my attention by being disruptive in class.

Here are some tips for beginning teachers/parents on dealing with kids of different personalities.

Make your expectations and rules clear from the start of the year. Ink them down and paste them in a prominent spot in the room. This will serve as a constant reminder to students what you are expecting from the students.
List down your to-do-list on a daily basis.
I do this so that the pupils know what they are suppose to do and the time frame allocated for each activity. This also ensures that they are kept on track to complete the given class work.
Give verbal warnings and follow through on any punishments if they have to be carried out. I will write down the name of the errant pupil on a corner of the board if they do not cease misbehaving after two warnings. These pupils would have to have a one to one conferencing session with me after class.
Have a tick -off list u to monitor your pupils performance. I have a multi-tabbed Excel spreadsheet for every class that I teach where I record down the grades each student received for all tests and exams administered, whether they handed in their homework punctually [ Each type of homework is dated and color coded for easy reference on the spreadsheet] I also record any offences or praiseworthy mentions of the student which could be feedback to the parent during the parent teacher meeting session.

How do your children’s teachers deal with them
in the classroom?

April 10, 2009

Motivating Kids in the Classroom

Dominique Parenting Views Classroom, Kids and Teens

Since returning to the classroom I have met a wide variety of kids from various social and economic background. There are 42 students in my form class ( a big class with lots of kids to handle). Each one of them has their own unique character and quirks. Every single day handling their misbehaviour and challenges is really very exhausting. It is really a challenge to be able to give adequate attention to each and every student PLUS complete the syllabus within the given 10 weeks time frame per term.

What I observe these few months is a lot of the kids in my class lack motivation. I have tried out a few techniques and am fine tuning the ones that work in my class.

Here is a list of what I have implemented to motivate them.

Ice-Cream Groups
(Fostering team spirit)Every kid has a soft spot for ice-cream. Naming the group by the yummy flavours – Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry, Mango etc is more refreshing then referring to the normal colour groups.An additional bonus is that the groups can accumulate stars for good behaviour, positive work attitude etc. Groups with the most number of stars will be treated to a pint or two of Ben & Jerry ice- cream at the end of the semester. [This is something that the kids are eagerly anticipating]
Red Rewards System ( individually tailored)
To motivate my classroom kids to aim for academic excellence. I have set aside these prizes for the following kids.

Position Prizes

1^st in both English & Science Up to $30

2^nd in English Up to $20

2^nd in Science Up to $10

Most improved student Up to $10

The prizes purchased for the winners will be based on his/her preference after results are released at the end of the semester. This is to give the kid a say in deciding the prize that he would like to receive.