Teachers as Managers

While colleges struggle to find ways to teach classroom management, I think they might be better teaching management principals.

In the Study Up blog, the author wrote, "A good teacher should also be a good manager. Management is all about managing resources and problems in the most efficient manner to get the desired result and indirectly improve profitability."

This is a critical skill for high school teachers.  They usually have a short period of time to minimize power struggles and have to work efficiently to address the varied academic needs of adolescents.

If you find you are having issues controlling your classes.  Think about the process differently.  Start thinking of yourself as a manager!

Educators on Twitter

 It is a rainy Sunday and I am jumping back into Twitter.  There are just so many good folks Tweeting great things!  I'm jsitnick on Twitter.


Especially helpful in finding fellow educators is the The Twitter4Teachers Wiki.

Fantastic job Gina Hartman or ghartman on Twitter!

Which Twitter app do you find most useful?

Stand Still!

In the article, "Better training, better teachers" by Lawrence Harmon there is a quick summary of Doug Lemov's April publication of “Teach Like a Champion:49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College."

Two lines really stuck out at me.  "One of the best pieces of advice Lemov ever received as a novice teacher was to stand still when giving directions to a class. Teachers who pass out papers or move around while offering directions dilute the importance of the command, or at least that’s how students see it."

If you stand still and make direct eye contact while delivering instructions - students will absolutely listen more.  It is funny - this is an absolute and I remember telling my student teachers that standing still will make them look far more confident than if they moved around while delivering specific directions.  Great advice!

 

Strong Class Management Video

 In my opinion, it is easier to study and imitate good classroom management than to read and figure it out from a book.  That was one of our concepts in the DVD!

With this in mind, check out Yvonne Divans Hutchinson from California's King-Drew Medical Magnet School.  She allowed her class to be videotaped and we have the pleasure of seeing good management skills in the third video, "Engage in Small Group Discussion."  

Take notice of her confidence, clear directions and use of effective pausing as she speaks.  Also, notice how she seems to be part of the class instead of simply in front of it.  And hey - if you are a secondary English teacher - check out some of the lessons!

Many thanks to Ms. Hutchinson and her class!

Weekly Websites 3/22

I do my best to send Weekly Websites to my "techie" teachers.  I get such good feedback - I might as well start sharing them here!


http://prezi.com/r2lbb3lfomg5/playing-to-learn-math/
I stopped at an elementary school and saw how excited the students are about First in Math.  This Prezi presentation (if you are new to Prezi – enjoy) is interesting because it presents learning theory about math in a fun, interesting way.  I watched about half of it but I think math teachers might find it interesting.

http://www.purposegames.com/
Nice site to make games for those interactive whiteboards.

http://www.ilovepdf.com/
“Online tools to merge, split and manage PDF files”

http://www.writingfun.com/
“Helping kids write using text organizers”  

http://www.proconlists.com/list/new
Talk about everything going online!  My old pen and paper lists are so last year.  This site would have been great when discussing characters’ decisions.  I love the “Rational Weight” vs the “Emotional Weight” of the pros and cons.  I didn’t preview this site – I’m not sure if it requires a sign up for the previews.

http://www.pdfmyurl.com/
Turn websites into PDFs for easier printing and/or saving.

http://www.whiteboardblog.co.uk/
For those of you using interactive whiteboards (and there is an ever growing population of you out there) you might want to subscribe to this blog or at least check it out.  If you don’t subscribe to blogs yet, check out how to subscribe to RSS feeds.  http://www.google.com/reader/view/#welcome-page

http://smartmeasurement.wikispaces.com/
Elementary resources for interactive whiteboards

On the Exploding Beakers blog, the author writes a few questions to ask yourself as a teacher:

"When looking at ideas related to classroom reform, I ask myself the following questions:

- Who decides what the student will learn on a given day?

- Who decides how the student will learn?

- Who decides when the student is done learning?

 

People who answer these questions with "the teacher" are not moving in the same direction as me."

 

Very interesting.   I have a mild issue with the last question because I think that is a mix between teachers and students because teachers need to think about the end before they begin.  Still - good questions.

What Great Teachers Do Differently

"Great classrooms, the teacher determines what students will do next…poor classroom, students determine what teacher will do next."  NCMSA10: Todd Whitaker Keynote

This is a wonderful quote on the The Technorate Teacher blog.  I think it is the perfect example of teachers not having control and allowing students define their classes.

Fantastic!

Another winner, "Great teachers have incredible ability to 'ignore'.  Classroom management has more to do with “class” than with management"

No Syllabus Necessary!

I just read one of Geoffrey Greer's blog postings titled, "End Totalitarian Teaching" and completely agreed with him!  He talks about the age old technique of boring students to death during the first day of school. 

I started my first year the same way. I handed out a syllabus and reviewed everything we were going to do for the year.  Heck - I didn't know better - I was told to do that!

I learned very quickly how much that alienated the students because I saw from the start that they were tuning me out.

The problem is that student teachers rarely get to start a new year to evaluate a cooperating teacher's strategy.  So, when they have to start the year, they tend to fall back on how their college professors started their courses.  Unfortunately, it doesn't translate well to high school students.

In our DVD we talk about a course expectation sheet.  Explain to the students how things work in your room.  You don't need a lot of rules - you need to emphasize respect because it is the umbrella under which all proper behavior resides.

We even suggest breaking up the expectation sheet over a few days.  That way you can get the students immediately working on their first assignments.  I always made mine a short reading test (high interest) and writing sample.  That way I knew within the first few days if I had students misplaced in my class. 

Rethink your first day strategy if you are doing all the talking and the students aren't busy!