When dividing your class into teams, skip the unfair practice of having team captains pick favorites. Have students line themselves up chronologically by their birthdays, but make them use sign language to communicate their birthday.
A little real-world exercise for your kids: do you have one of those cans of bolts, nuts, screws and washers sitting around the house that you just keep intending to sort out so you won’t have to dig through it when you are looking for a bolt to replace the one that just fell out of the lawnmower but you never get them sorted because you spend all of your time grading papers? Bringing it to school and getting your kids to do it isn’t as far fetched as it sounds. A little time digging through those odds-and-ends can sharpen their visual acuity, teach them the difference between a metal screw and a lock washer, sharpen their sorting skills and help them see how a large task can be accomplished with persistence.
If you allow your high school students a way to offset that one test they bombed out on, consider making extra credit a proactive, rather than reactive, choice for them. Post at the beginning of the course, or hand out along with the syllabus, a list of projects or activities they can complete to boost their overall grade. But assign point value on a sliding scale: a project worth 10 extra points the second week of the semester might be worth 6 points halfway through, and only 4 points when there are two weeks left to go. It might force them to do extra work before they need it, or realize the value in not procrastinating.
Reward your students with popcorn when they finally make it through their multiplication tables, to illustrate how steam and pressure can have explosive results, as an incentive to go one day without getting in trouble in the lunchroom or simply because it’s Friday. Popcorn is quick and easy to make, doesn’t cost much money and, no, a microwave oven is not required. Hot air poppers use no oil and empty into a bowl while they’re popping; if you like lots of oil and butter on yours get the motorized kind with the stirring wires where flipping the whole thing upside down turns the lid into the bowl. Dump your popped corn into a large bowl or bag, then walk around using a cup to pour popcorn onto paper napkins on your students desks. Be prepared to have someone ready to sweep the floor when you are done.
We’ve all known for a long time about soap and shampoo bottles that can be put to use in the classroom holding glue, water, whatever. Having just started wearing contact lenses, we’ve discovered another: the cleaning solution bottle. Smaller in size than soap bottles, with a flip top cap that won’t get lost, these are great for glue, but you may want to use a small drill bit or a red-hot nail to make the hole larger. Anyone who wears contact lenses goes through this solution regularly, so have them save the bottles for you.
Evaluate student oral reading by letting them read into a tape recorder, then playing it back later. While not as personal, it allows you to listen to the tapes at your leisure, and frees up class time for other activities.
Turn your absences into a learning experience with a simple chart.
The contracts we focus on here help teachers assess students’ understanding of the objectives of a unit. Contracts can help younger students grasp the basics of setting a goal (the contract) and dealing with the smaller pieces needed in achieving that goal (the projects). Older students can benefit from the process by realizing a greater state of independence and responsibility in school lives.
Because of the many different approaches people can take on this matter, most of which are effective, we are not going to tell you one tried and true method that will keep your students in class with open eyes at all times. No such panacea exists. We will, however, give you a few ideas from our subscribers that have worked for them.
When you are a student just dying to get out of class, a bathroom break looks to be the ideal ticket to freedom. The following suggestions for how to separate bogus potty breaks from the real thing are provided by Teacher-2-Teacher contributors:
You’ve actually decided to reward your students some way, somehow. You’ve already eliminated candy because you don’t want to be responsible for rotting their teeth out. Money sounds appealing, but it is, well, expensive?
Almost everyday, it seems, a new student is admitted into our school. They transfer from other districts in other cities, states, even countries. They make new friends; adjust to the new scenery. But these children are also forced to start over in a curriculum that may prove worlds apart from the ones in which they were previously immersed.
Poor attendance by students is a difficult problem to tackle. However, it is increasingly important to deal with it due to the simple fact that if students aren’t in school, they are not learning what is being taught. It is also problematic in the sense that chronic poor attenders often drag down attendance and performance data for schools. In an era of increasing accountability, this is exactly the opposite of what most districts need.
In my room, we have individual, group and whole class behavior guidelines and expectations. One of the class favorites for group behavior is the Space Race.
One great way to monitor discipline is to involve your kids in the process. I work with older kids, so their need for “justice” helps contribute to its effectiveness. I hold Court once every two weeks. Kids are required to “dress for success” on the day of court. Otherwise, they are held “in contempt of court.”
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