By Jenny Child (USA)
In stepping back into schooling my kids (I had been working at a secular school in China for six years and was not involved with the children at Home’s schooling) it has been an on going process of learning. I was seeing more and more how I was lacking in my classroom management. During my time of teaching in a secular school, I learned that this is one of the most important parts of teaching, for without management it is difficult to have discipline. I asked the Lord to lead and guide me and show me how to improve the classroom to help things to run more efficiently and orderly. He led me to go to a local bookstore where you can sit and look at the books without having to buy them. You could probably do this at the local library as well. I looked up a few books on classroom management and got some really good ideas to help me get started. One of the first things needed were some clear classroom rules. They suggested you not exceed 5 rules, as it gets too complicated to enforce. The following were some of their suggestions:
Class room Rules
1. Be in class on time
2. Keep your hands, feet & objects to yourself
3. Raise your hand & wait for permission to speak
4. Stay in your seat unless you have permission to leave
5. No Teasing or Do not use loud or complaining language
How to get the teachers attention–
Raise:
1 Finger-I wish to speak
2 Fingers-I wish to leave my seat
3 Fingers-I need your help
When things are loud or hectic for some reason, perhaps after break time or some interruption this is a little idea to easily get everyone’s attention without having to yell. The teacher calls out ‘Give me five!’ Which means:
1. Eyes on the speaker
2. Quiet
3. Be Still
4. Hands Free (put things down)
5. Listen
Consequences for breaking the rules: (I adapted their suggestions as follows)
First offence: Name on board as warning
Second offence: Blue job card (these would be little extra jobs for them to do after school hours such as tidying the classroom after class, etc)
Third offence: Eat lunch or dinner alone (depending if the offence was in the morning or afternoon. The punishment is taking away their fellowship time at the meal)
Fourth offence: Red job card (these would be a little bigger jobs, like cleaning the car out, extra dish job, etc)
Fifth offence: Extra homework to be done during evening activity
There were other suggestions for reinforcing the positive such as:
Behavior Bucks: This is special money earned in the classroom (not real money just paper marked as Behavior bucks that can only be used in the classroom. These could be used to buy special treats or privileges. One suggestion was to have an open store once a month (filled with little treats or things you maybe got in provisioning or forsake all) where the kids could use their BB’s to buy things. It could be items or maybe privileges, like an extra board game one evening, or personal one on one time, etc.
Words of Fortune: The teacher spells out the words of a special event or outing (a game party, dress up night, special meal or activity outside the house, then covers up each letter individually. If the class as a whole behaves well for the day you could uncover a letter, then each day as all the letters are uncovered they can have the event.
Behaviors suggested for rewarding:
is responsible
‘¢ follows rules
‘¢ cooperates
‘¢ completes work
‘¢ helps others
‘¢ works hard
‘¢ completes homework
‘¢ uses self control
Another point they stressed was the need for stretch breaks throughout the day. After ½ an hour to 45 minutes of work time, the students should take a stretch break.
Down Time: When you have several students at different grade levels as we seem to have in home schooling, you could have a quiet area where a student waiting for help while you attend to another student could go and do a little quiet activity such as a puzzle, a science experiment, or anything that they can work on for a few minutes by themselves until you can get to them.
Some suggestions for signaling they need your help: Each student has a toilet paper roll with red tissue on one end and green on the other. If they need your help they could turn the red side up and if they are ok they should have the green side up. Could also be done with a circle of paper on their desk.
Another tip they share was how important it was for the teacher to be in the classroom when the kids arrive in the morning and greet each of them as they come in. You could also use this time to start the school day with a prayer. Also to have their work posted on the board so they know right away what they should start working on instead of them all coming to you to ask.
They listed a few web sites where you could get more tips and ideas for classroom management:
Positive Classroom Discipline
www.fredjones.com
http://www.disciplineassociates.com/lounge.htm
http://www.positivediscipline.com
Stress Free Teacher
http://www.teachers.net/gazette/FEB02/wong.html
