Today we had a guest speaker who spoke to us about classroom management tools. I have listed a few of the tools below that she discussed below.
Soft Starts and Transitions
Soft starts are a great way to begin the day for both the students and the teacher, it provides a time to acclimate to the classroom and prepare themselves for the day. I have seen a variety of classrooms using and not using soft starts and I believe they are great to use across all grades, provided that you have a dedicated strategy that works for your students. Transitions are something that almost all students struggle with and having routines that are set in place early are vital for student self regulation as well as keeping the class calm throughout the day.
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Routines and Expectations
Routines are great for students to know what to expect and reduce anxiety caused by the unexpected. The students will pick up on the expectations of the class and hopefully be able to adjust themselves accordingly. For example, having the day schedule posed somewhere up in the classroom is great for student, while also being very beneficial for any support staff that come in to support or take students for one-on-one help. Expectations are also important to set at the beginning of the year and continue to reinforce throughout. Having a posted ‘class rules’ sheet is a good reminder for students, especially towards the end of the year when the student get the holiday crazies. This also helps create equity in the classroom so students who need the extra hand in remembering what to do throughout the day or students with additional needs have the ability to understand what is next.
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Modelling
Using strategies similar to “I do, we do, you do” teachers can model the example they have created. It is a strong advantage to students’ learning to have examples of what is expected by the teacher; through modelling from the teacher or examples of past student work, this can be achieved. If handled incorrectly, the use of past students’ work can pose a privacy issue, but taking simple precautions, such as securing consent to use the work and erasing the names, can reduce/eliminate the issue. I found that I personally learned and produced better work when I had something that I could scale my own work against. I always found that when I was not sure what was considered A work or B work or C work, I tended to do worse than if I knew what I was working towards. I find this to be similar with students I have worked with over the past few years when I was an LSW (learning support worker) and this year with students in my grade 5 L2P class.
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Digital portfolios and alternatives to report card
Digital portfolios are something that is new to me but super interesting. The example that was given was FreshGrade. I would love to continue to learn about this new type of evaluation because it is so different compared to the traditional grading and report system. I have heard about how fantastic FreshGrade is from Brittany and how it can be great for parents to stay in tune with their kids’ learning/education. Still, I have also spoken to educators who are not convinced of its greatness and are opposed to the new technology. As a new teacher still learning about different types of evaluating and reporting, I am definitely intrigued by FreshGrade. From what I have gathered so far, some of the benefits are an increased connectedness between student progress and parent involvement and a fuller overview of the students learning. As for drawbacks, the workload on the teacher could increase if they constantly have to take and upload photos to the sight. Additionally, taking photos and being on devices takes the teachers’ time away from assisting students and promotes a phone-focused grading system when schools are trying to lean away from student phone use. Whether systems like FreshGrade catch on in a larger scale or stay small is still to be seen, and I look forward to seeing where it leads.
Here is a link to learn more about FreshGrade.
Here is a cute pic of my dog Orie as a fun end to this post (mostly because I miss her lots)
So long,
-Kristen