January means back to routines. And by this, I mean reviewing the routines from September. We got a little lazy with them during the month of December. As I've mentioned before, I use Whole Brain Teaching as my classroom management backbone. Here are the highlights of the regular techniques I use:
Lines: When I call 'Lines', the class three-peats it, 'Lines, lines, lines', as they move into their line order. I have a set line order that we use all year no matter what - doesn't matter who is VIP of the week, whose birthday it is, etc. Everyone is given a number on day one, and that is the order they line up in. This has been very handy for me on field trips and fire drills. I call 'Number off' and they say their numbers in order. It is a quick and easy way for me to see if I have all of my kiddies. We use this order for lining up, order of the hooks in closet, and various other uses through the year, like grouping - '1, 6, 11, 16 - you are one group'. You get the idea...
Class-Okay: This is the attention grabber. When I need the classes attention, I say, 'Class' and they respond 'Yes'. You can make it fun and keep it fresh by mixing it up. 'Classity Class' - 'Yessity Yes'; 'Class-a-doodle' - 'Yes-a-doodle', etc. It is unbelievable how effective this is.
Hands & Eyes: After doing the Class-Okay, if it is something really important, I will say 'Hands and eyes'. Students fold their hands and look at me while saying, 'Hands and eyes'.
Scoreboard: When doing all the above mentioned, I use a scoreboard on the blackboard and give a smilie or frownie for how well they responded. A smilie gives them permission for a 1 second party of pumping their arms and saying, 'Oh yeah', and a frownie gives permission for a 1 second sulk of giving a collective mighty groan.
5 Classroom Rules: You can read more about them on the WBT website. But I will just say that we will be reviewing these at each reentry to the classroom for the first couple of weeks back.
You can find more information on all of these techniques on the WBT website or in their amazing book,
Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids. It's inexpensive and is truly the best class management program I have ever come across.
Good luck to everyone with back to school tomorrow!!!
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