Searching for Level VI

In our Classroom Management class, Tom Keyes introduced us to a distant colleague named  Rafe Esquith.  Rafe teaches fifth grade in South Central Los Angeles, and has written books about his experiences – There Are No Shortcuts and Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire.

Reading about Rafe and his experiences is inspirational.  He’s one of those teachers who has amazing ideas about classroom management and innovative and interesting ways of running his classroom.  Fully expect that you will be intimidated and think you will never accomplish ½ of what he has in the classroom.  But, it’s okay to borrow just a teensy bit from him.

Rafe has two rules in his classroom:  Be Nice.  Work Hard. 

Guess who made her own “Be Nice.  Work Hard” posters?

In his second book, Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire, Rafe discusses Lawrence Kohlberg’s Six Levels of Moral Development and applies them to the elementary school classroom.   He teaches the levels on the first day of school and he tells us that they are a road map and often require a lifetime of learning.  Our goal as human beings is to get to Level Six.  He says Level Six is the most difficult to attain and the way to teach it is to point it out when you see it in others.  It requires an individual to develop his own personal code and to follow it, regardless of what others say or think about it.  The example he uses about a student who achieved Level Six is a girl who helped a fellow student – when the fellow student’s mother came in to ask who had helped a student in order give credit and accolades, the girl refused to admit it was her – she helped but didn’t want credit.  That is Level Six.  Are we there?

Level One: I Don't Want to Get in Trouble

Most students enter school at this level.  They behave because they don’t want to get in trouble.  It is fear-based – instead, we want our students to behave because they know it is the right thing to do.

Level Two: I Want a Reward

Many teachers use this as a management method – if students exhibit good behavior, they are rewarded for it (homework parties, gold stars.)  But, we need to show students that proper behavior is expected and doesn’t need to be rewarded.  We need to continue to push our students to the next level.

Level Three: I Want to Please Somebody

Students want to please their teacher or their parents.  This is a good thing, but should not be why they act the way they do – again, they should exhibit good behavior because they have internalized that it is the right thing to do and they want to do what’s right, not to please someone else.  Again, nothing wrong with this level, but Rafe believes we can push our students to be better.

Level Four: I Follow the Rules

Getting students to follow rules is an important aspect of classroom management and Rafe talks about involving students in establishing the rules as a way to generate ownership.  This level is not a bad place to be.  However, Rafe cautions against staying in Level Four because there are times and places to question rules and that we want to inspire independent thinkers.  Tricky, yes?

Level Five: I Am Considerate of Other People

As Rafe says, Level Five is “rarefied air for both students and adults.”  If we can create a world of Level Five people, the world would be a more empathetic place.  He talks about teaching consideration and empathy for others is difficult.  Yet, as he leaves every level he says, “I think we can do better.”

Level Six: I Have a Personal Code of Behavior and I Follow It

This is the most difficult level to teach.  You can’t model it because it is about an internal code and requires humility.  Therefore, you can’t see, “See? This is how you act!”  Like the student in the example before, she quietly helped someone, not for any other reason than it was the right thing to do and she didn’t want any credit or kudos for it.  Even when pressed!  Level VI is the level that Rafe believes all people should strive to be in.  He admits that it is difficult, but he feels it is our responsibility to push our students to strive to be better.  Even as we push ourselves. Not to much to ask, right?

I highly recommend Rafe’s first two books – great insight about teaching and ideas for implementation in your classroom.  I am inspired.

Put 'Em to Work!

Classrooms are communities.   Everyone within the community can contribute to making the classroom operate smoothly.  One way of doing this is having classroom jobs.  While teachers have different ways and reasons for creating and assigning jobs, common examples of jobs include messenger, line leader, taking attendance, lunch count, and homework checker.  If you’re looking for ideas on jobs for your classroom, check out Maria Chang’s book, Classroom Management in Photographs, which has some unique and clever ideas for classroom jobs. 

Some teachers have students apply for classroom jobs, leading to either a year-long job, or a job that rotates infrequently, say every two to three weeks.  Below, you will find some clever 5^th grade job descriptions and an example of a classroom job application, which Ree Chacon uses in her classroom.  Thanks, Ree!  Ree said her students get really creative with their job applications, which makes me think students are more likely to take ownership of their jobs.  Plus, since students apply for jobs at the beginning of the school year, it’s a quick way to learn more about students’ interests, beliefs about their abilities, and writing skills.  

I also like how some of Ree's jobs, like the Recycling Supervisor and Energy Patrol, support the school community in addition to the classroom community.  Notice too that the Shades Supervisor job is unique to Ree's classroom, which the sun beat down on every afternoon.  So, regardless of how you do it, be sure to delegate responsibility to students.  Model how jobs should be done and then trust that students are capable of taking care of the classroom. 

5^th Grade Job Descriptions

Fire Chief: Leads the class anywhere we go, including during fire drills.

Administrative Assistant: Helps the teacher pass out papers and other materials.  At the end of the day, sharpens pencils from the unsharpened pencil tub and puts them in the sharpened pencil tub.

Sanitation Engineer: Helps clean up the room at the end of the day; dismisses groups with clean floors to get their backpacks.

Class Emissary: Takes messages; delivers lunch count to cafeteria.

Librarian: Makes sure the classroom library is neat and that books are where they belong at the end of the day.  Alphabetizes chapter books to be put away.

Board Hygienist: Erases the boards throughout the day and at the end of the day.  Cleans boards with cleaner on Friday.

Botanist: Makes sure all classroom plants are watered daily. 

Veterinarian: Feeds the classroom pets daily; FOLLOWS THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE SHEETS TO MAKE SURE THIS IS DONE CORRECTLY

Substitute: Fills in for the job of anyone who is absent that day.

Shades Supervisor: Opens the window shades in the morning; closes the window shades after lunch. **An example of a classroom job that's really based on the classroom's specific needs.  The sun's hot in Albuquerque!

Recycling Supervisor: Responsible for taking classroom recycling to recycle dumpster.  On Fridays, takes office and workroom recycling too.  

Energy Patrol: Monitors the school’s energy use.  During recess, hands out red tickets to classrooms if lights are left on and green tickets to classrooms if lights are turned off. 

CLASSROOM JOB APPLICATION                                  NAME_________________________

Please list the 3 jobs you are most interested in applying for and give your qualifications for each:

1) Job:

Qualifications:

2) Job:

Qualifications:

3) Job:

Qualifications:

Good Morning! Buenos Dias! Guten Tag!

One of the most important things we learned about and that was modeled for us that I have taken to my classroom is the importance of the Class Meeting.  Both Ruth Charney in Teaching Children to Care and our fearless leader, Eileen, stressed the importance of holding regular class meetings.  As with most things, I probably don’t hold them as often as I would like, but they are a common occurrence in my classroom, and the students understand the routines and expectations of a variety of meetings.  For this entry, we’ll focus on the Morning Meeting.

Every morning, we have an abbreviated morning meeting.  Based on my learnings in Diffily and Sassman’s book, Teaching Effective Classroom Routines and Ruth Charney’s book, Teaching Children to Care, the morning meeting should be short and contain no more than four elements.  The four elements are:  Greeting, Sharing, Group Activity, and News and Announcements.  Students like a set routine and this provides a transition step from the outside world to our classroom community.  It doesn’t take up too much instructional time and builds community and teaches students about respectful communication.  I will show you how I have implemented these guidelines.  Feel free to take what you like and disregard the rest!

I currently have my classroom set up in a horseshoe configuration so my morning meeting does not require any movement of furniture.  The students know we have it every morning and the routine has been established that their desks are cleared and they are active participants.  Before we begin the morning meeting, I check in homework, we do attendance and lunch count and wait for announcements. 

Once the morning “business” is finished, we begin our meeting.

1.      Greeting

We begin our day with a greeting in the “language of the week.”  So far, we’ve learned Navajo, Zuni, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Greek, Portugese, and I know I’m forgetting some and I also repeat them every few months to reinforce and remind.

2.       Sharing

We talk about events of the last 18 or so hours since we’ve seen each other last.  Someone may have had a baseball game, the royal wedding, a baby sister was born.  Not everyone shares every day, but we’ve learned to take turns.

3.      Group Activity

This is the one that often falls by the wayside.  We’ve played word games like “name an animal that begins with A” or math games like saying “buzz” for multiples of 3.  We’ve also had a guided sharing activity – stories about pets or siblings where everyone participates, or favorite baseball teams.  On Mondays, this activity is our “job swap” activity where we switch out jobs.

4.       News and Announcements

We go over the agenda of the day, which I always have written on a portable whiteboard. I explain how the day is going to go, what we are going to do and when.  I’ll give them sneak peeks at the day’s lessons, but they don’t get to ask any more details to build anticipation (especially in science and social studies!)  If there are things I need to communicate about upcoming events or if we’re collecting money to save the rain forest or a canned food drive, this is where we handle that class and school business.

These are just how I’ve been trying to implement these guidelines.  I know I need to tweak my group activity – when we first began the morning meeting we had more group activities as I built community and I know I need to revisit those.  I’d love to hear any other ideas anyone has!

Stay tuned for how important class meetings are at other times of the day…

A Quick Reminder on Positive Reinforcement

Here are some examples and definitions of positive reinforcement, which can improve students’ behaviors, attitudes, and motivation in the classroom.  This list was given to us at a Monday night CDP seminar.  I think it’s a nice, quick reminder of what is positive reinforcement. 

Positive Reinforcement…

• Should become intrinsic over time (natural consequences with positive behavior)
• Works best when it’s not “if you do this, then you get that”
• Is feedback, information, and praise, if it’s genuine
• Should reward effort and growth
• Can be a look, a smile, a touch on the shoulder, or a word
• Can increase a desired behavior or decrease an undesired one
• Can be from one student or many students to another
• Should be genuine, specific, and descriptive

Simple Ways to Refocus and Redirect Student Behavior

During the first semester of CDP, our cohort, mentor teachers, and coaches met every Monday night.  At these sessions, our mentor teachers and coaches gave us awesome ideas on everything from classroom management to incorporating art into the curriculum.  Unfortunately, most of these ideas were quickly filed away into my resource file.  So, with the hope that I will refer to these ideas more often if they're online, I’m going to begin posting some of these ideas, which were all given to us by experienced, creative teachers working in the Albuquerque Public Schools.  

Focusing and Redirecting Behavior Without Breaking the Flow of a Lesson

Through careful observation of students, teachers can identify when students need help refocusing and redirecting behavior.  The following is good advice on how to refocus and redirect behavior without breaking the flow of a lesson.  Although some of the following advice seems like common sense, it's amazing how during the middle of a lesson, even in my small-group lessons, I become frustrated with a student and blurt something out that later, I wish I hadn't said.  Classroom dynamics can feel so complicated when things aren't going according to plan!  So, take a look through this list of seemingly simple answers, because in the words of Dr. Seuss, "Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."  

 The First Step is Prevention

Give clear expectations for…

• When students can talk
• Who students can talk to
• When students can provide group answers
• When students should raise their hands
• When students can ask questions

 Maximize the Use of Nonverbal Cues

• Make eye contact
• Show proper body posture
• Increase your proximity to the student
• Use hand signals (mimic the opening of a book with your hands, give thumbs up, put finger over mouth for students to be quiet, etc.)
• Using facial expressions (shaking head in place of saying “no,” smiling and nodding head in place of saying “good job,” etc.)

 When is it Best to Use Nonverbal Cues?

• Daydreaming
• Playing with supplies or hands are in their desk
• Talking to another student
• Distracting others
• Off-task

 When Do I Need To Use Alternative Interventions?

• Bullying
• Physical fighting
• Arguing
• Destruction of school property
• Stealing
• Endangering others

 What Kinds of Interventions Should I Use For These Situations?

• Pull student(s) aside, as not to give negative attention in front of others.
• Speak in an even tone (do not escalate or raise your voice, this is when students may become defensive).
• Be positive, state the behavior you want, not the behavior you don’t want.  Instead of saying, “Don’t get out of your seat,” say, “please remain seated.”  Instead of saying, “Don’t chew gum in class,” say, “Leave your gum at home.”

 Remember to use praise when you see students behave.  Even a simple “thumbs up” or a smile goes a long way in a classroom.

King Tut Can Build Community!

One of the first things we learned in our Social Studies Course was a lesson on conducting an Artifact Share.  We learned that it was much more than a show and tell, but was instead, an important way to build community in your classroom.

I have tweaked the Artifact Share and been able to throw in a little history, a little language arts and a lot of community building.  I’ve used this mini-unit, or a variation of it, twice, and plan to make this an annual event in the early days of my classroom.

Begin the Artifact Share with a lesson on King Tut. (Ancient Egypt  is a VERY high-interest subject with third graders, at least.) I usually go to the library and pull multiple children’s books on Ancient Egypt, including that all important DK Eyewitness Book called Ancient Egypt. (Unsolicited Teacher Tip:  The more DK Eyewitness Books you can have in your classroom library, the better.  My students gravitate towards those books – they can flip through and look at lots of pictures and when something catches their eye, they stop and read.)

Anyway…pull lots of Ancient Egypt books of a variety of reading levels to have in your classroom for students to read during their read-to-self time or downtime for early finishers.  You will be surprised at how fast those books fly off the shelves!

I always begin the Ancient Egypt unit by pointing out Egypt on a map and then having a short read aloud about the discovery of King Tut’s tomb.  I usually read an excerpt from this book:

Then, I show pictures from different photo books on what was discovered inside Tut’s tomb and relate the story that archaeologists were able to piece together so much information on life in Ancient Egypt based on their findings.  This discussion can take at least two days and sets up our own artifact share/class museum as a way of learning about our life.

We move on to choosing an artifact to represent ourselves in our museum.  I model at least 3 personal artifacts, along with my accompanying brochures that I have created.

The students and I create a rubric for what should be included in their artifact brochure and then the students create their own brochures.  (This can be a mini-writing lesson on something you want to concentrate on – we always do a sloppy copy first.)

Once brochures are finished, we set aside a day to have a museum - - the students bring in their artifacts that accompany their brochures.  During a recess, I rearrange the desks and set up the artifacts and brochures for the museum.  We discuss appropriate behavior in museums and the students have post-it notes to write positive comments as they wander the classroom exploring the artifacts.  The museum has been such a success!

After the museum, we have a discussion/debrief where we reflect on what artifacts were shared and what we learned about each other and our society.  There are often similar objects (stuffed animals, trophies, favorite books) and we make connections.

This is a mini-unit that covers community building, social studies, history and language arts.  Both times I have done it have been very successful and the classes have bonded over shared experiences and artifacts.

National Geographic has some similar lesson plans on how to use Ancient Egypt and make current connections.  King Tut's Treasures is one that has some resources to use with this mini-unit.

As a close, I put the brochures on the wall as one of our first examples of student work to remind all of us of who we are.

Making Classroom Management Manageable

Catherine, here, with my first post on what is, in my opinion, one of the biggest challenges new teachers face: classroom management.  So much to be managed, where to begin?  Students, materials, books, desks, chairs, schedules, testing, homework, allergies, permission slips, pull-outs, behavior, special needs, communication with parents, and the list goes on.  Students, especially young students, need to know and understand their teacher’s routines and expectations for everything that happens in the classroom.  Everything.   For example, where do the scissors go?  Because, if kids don’t know where to put the scissors (or the many other supplies in a classroom), they’ll vanish, never to be seen again!  What about the backpacks and homework and lunches and notes from home?  What happens when students finish their work and have nothing to do?  How do students resolve conflict?

Don’t be fooled!  These questions do not have simple answers, which is why, they are best answered by expert teachers.  So, either seek out a teacher at your school who makes teaching look easy or check out the following resources, written by teachers, which have helped (and will continue to help) form our beliefs and ideas about classroom management.

Ruth Charney’s book, Teaching Children to Care: Classroom Management for Ethical and Academic Growth, K-8, discusses ways to help children develop self-control, which contributes to children's ability to take care of themselves and others, as well as contributing to the overall well-being of the classroom community.  Charney gives advice on how teachers can manage their classroom so that all students will be successful.

Another book that's proved helpful is Teaching Effective Classroom Routines by Deborah Diffily and Charlotte Sassman.  This book includes strategies for teaching routines and procedures in the classroom, as well as photographs of how teachers have implemented these strategies.  


Finally, Maria L. Chang's book, Classroom Management in Photographs, contains photographs of different ways teachers set up classrooms, create routines and procedures, establish learning environments, and manage behavior.  The photographs are really helpful for envisioning how these strategies might work in your own classroom.    
  
Just the TIPS of the iceberg.....
Based on ideas from these books, our wise CDP professors and coaches, and our own teaching experiences, here are some tips that we think are important for creating a classroom where students feel confident and safe, leaving them with only one concern: learning.  This list of tips will certainly grow longer as we continue our teaching careers.
Routines and procedures.  Establish routines and procedures for everything that's done in the classroom.  Whether it's arriving in the morning or sharpening pencils, have a routine and communicate expectations for those routines.
Model.  Model everything you want students to do.  Show students examples and non-examples of expected routines and behaviors and then practice relentlessly!  Be sure to model new activities.
Be consistent.  Remember to be consistent with expectations and/or consequences.
Transition Signals.  Create a signal that quickly gets students' attention and communicates that you need them to listen.   
Fidgets.  Some kids can't sit still.  Silent fidgets, such as squishy balls, are lifesavers for these students and their teachers.  Fidgets can be found at Dollar Stores or Walmart.  However, in case it's unclear what a fidget is, take a look at The Therapy Shoppe for some ideas on fidgets for your classroom.