FE3 Classroom Management
Star System:
My CT and I used a star system to manage student behaviour daily. Each day, the students would start fresh with 4 stars (written on the chalkboard). Throughout the day, the student is aiming to keep all 4 stars. A star could be taken away if they repeatedly get up too much during class, talk out of turn, do not follow instructions, etc. If the student is successfully able to keep all 4 stars by the end of the day, they would get a stamp on their agenda at the end of class. When the student has reached 20 stamps, they can redeem them for a small prize from the teacher such as fidget toys or pencils.
Clapping Cues:
A method I used to get the students’ attention was through clapping a pattern and then students repeat the pattern back to me. I would also say “If you can hear me clap once… If you can hear me clap 3 times”. Sometimes I would progressively speed up my clapping patterns or I would say “If you can hear me clap 5 times really really fast”. I liked using the clapping cues as I can turn them into a mini game.
Strike system:
While using laptops, I found that my students tend to forget their classroom reminders more frequently as technology can become very distracting. I would use a class strike system while using laptops. As a class, the students need to aim to not get any strikes. Strikes can happen if I had to ask too many times to stay quiet between Pear Deck slides, to lower their lids, to stop having side conversations, etc. If the class got to 3 strikes, they owe me 5 minutes of recess to reflect.
Timer:
During transition periods to different subjects/recess or for work, I would put a timer on the smartboard so that the students can have a visual of how much time they had left. I didn’t start to do this until midway through my stage, I found this to be very effective.
Mindful Breathing:
If I found that the class was feeling restless and or stressed. I would ask them to put their right hand out and place their left-hand index finger at the bottom of the right-hand thumb. As the index finger traces the thumb upwards, I would tell the students to breathe in. As the index finger traces the thumb downwards, I would tell the students to breathe out and so on for the rest of their fingers. Another mindful breathing activity I would use to help them relax and ground themselves was through peaceful music with their head resting on their desk or using a youtube guided mediation.
Reminders at the beginning of class:
As a simple classroom reminder, I would include a slide at the very beginning of a presentation to remind students to raise their hand to speak, respect each other, and stay quiet while others are speaking. I would ask a different student to read it out loud before each presentation. I would also do this before doing Pear Decks. I would remind students about Pear Deck "Etiquette".