Classroom Management Ideas

As with any classroom, management is the most important.  I continued with some of my old ideas from my years of experience.  However, I also learned and developed new concepts to help my students focus and learn.

We first went through Hopes and Dreams.  We used a book to launch the idea and then created our own Hopes and Dreams.

 After our Hopes and Dreams, we did a expectation-making convention with our own class.  Lastly, we gathered representatives from all 5th grade classes, convened on expectations, and voted.  Above our the expectations for the entire 5th grade. 

This is our "Hard Work" Bingo chart.  When students are caught working hard (teacher discretion), they put their name on the chart.  Then when the chart is full of names, we play bingo for prizes (usually once every other week).  This idea is from a colleague at my school.  Thanks Mary!

Our partnerships expectations were though about and agreed upon as a class.  We review this chart daily!  (FYI--SWAG is a acronym for working hard in our class).

This chart I created over winter break.  We are struggling with transitions.  I am going to introduce it after break and see what adjustments are needed.

Students created our Morning Meeting expectations the first week of school.  We reference this at least three times a week before our Morning Meeting begins.

My classroom is lucky to have students with physical disabilities.  I have two students in wheelchairs.  Our special education teacher who works with these students did and activity at the beginning of the school year and this quilt was an outcome.  We love it!

Show 5! is a common place in many classrooms.  We discussed what Show 5! means and then created this poster.  The hands are students' "signatures."

Learning Targets (goals for a lesson) are in most classrooms.  When students know what they are learning, it helps with classroom structure.