Classroom Management Techniques!

I mentioned in my first post that I’ve learned lots of great classroom management techniques, so I’d like to list some of the ones specific to behavior, because these, in my opinion, are the most important. So here I go:

- When students are sitting on the floor, have them sit “Criss Cross Applesauce” aka Indian style. Then say “Check your hands, check your eyes, check your feet, check your voice” after teaching them that their hands should be on their laps/to themselves, eyes on the teacher, feet in Indian style, and no talking.

- To get their attention when standing in line to leave a room and they are noisy and just plain ol’ not ready, sing “If you’re ready and you know it, clap your hands…stand up straight…put a bubble in your mouth…”

- To get their attention if the whole class is noisy, train them to quiet down to a sound you make. My teacher uses, (I’m going to attempt to phonetically spell this out): pum, puhruh ruhm pum, PUM, PUM! It works like this, she says the “pum, puhruh ruhm pum” part, and the kids respond with “PUM, PUM!” and then they get quiet and ready to listen to what the teacher has to say.

- Tell student what you want them to do, if they don’t obey, give them until the count of three to obey, repeat task between each number until you get to three. If they still don’t obey, give them a punishment(sit at the desk, lose 5 mins of recess time, etc) if they don’t obey that, require them to change their status on the behavior chart.

- This is another attention-getter to get the kids ready to quiet down in line when getting ready to leave the classroom. “Play” Simon Says – say a few, finish w/”Simon says put a quiet finger on your mouth, put a bubble in your mouth, stand straight and tall, etc.”

- “Teach To” – give explicit instructions on what you expect them to do with examples and non-examples ( i.e. How to walk in the hallway).

I’m going to go ahead and leave it at that, although I have a bunch more, but these are the one that are money!