Ten Pin Linky: Classroom Management!

I must say that as an Assistant Principal behavior can be a big part of my day.  However, I am EXTREMELY lucky that my teachers have classroom management high on their priority list, and thus are able to teach more effectively, and less of my day is spent removing students!

Ashley over at Just Reed! is continuing with her Ten Pin Linky, but this time it's all about Classroom Management.  What a great time to rethink how you might want to run your class.  Save this post for December too, when you're needing something new, novel, and necessary for the 2nd half of the year!

As a little bit of background, I think your most highly effective teachers typically have the least amount of behavior issues.  The key?  Student engagement!  The best classroom management tool is to design highly engaging lessons and tasks.  Therefore, most of my pins are about rewarding students or keeping students involved in lessons. I also have some that are specific to some student needs I'll have in my building this year.  Just like your core instruction doesn't always hit 100% of students, neither does you core behavior plan, so it's important to have some tools in your belt for those students!

So join me on my Ten Pin adventure!  Here are my top 10 classroom management pins!

1. My first one is the Decide Now! app. What I love is that it can be personalized for anything!  Enter different class rewards on here and students can either earn a spin at the wheel or even enter summer activities for your own kids to choose from! 

2. Class Dojo App - Okay I think this one is fairly well-known at this point, but what I love is that it easily sends info and data on a student to the parents (and administrators!).  We had a few students with high behavior needs and this was extremely helpful in knowing how their days were going.  I could touch base at lunch of in the hallway and reward or remind based on these updates!   

3. Pick Me! App - Remember how I talked about engagement?  Well cold calling is something I look for when I observe in a classroom because it keeps all students engaged and paying attention.  The Pick Me! app is great because it will randomly pick a student, you then ask them the question, and can record whether they knew the answer!  What a great formative assessment.  You could also use this when looking at students work and walking around the room.  

4. Warm Fuzzies - I added warm fuzzies during my last year of teaching due to Seusstastics great blog. I loved the system and that I could reward individual students rather than a class reward.

  5. Calm Down Jar - I'm picturing this in my office to help some of my students calm down.  Once they get to my office they are usually pretty worked up and it takes a while to get them to the place where we can actually talk through things.  Obviously not all students would need this, but some will benefit!

                                                

6. You Rock Because... - I like this sign because, again, it focuses on the positive.  A lot of times we start with a praise and end with something to fix (I really like the way you are using your time today, but your handwriting could be neater.).  With this sign it's ONLY praise!  What are your thoughts on having one of these outside of my office for staff member praise too?

7. Angry Birds - Well, we have an adorable 1st grader (soon to be 2nd grader) who absolutely loves Angry Birds.  We've used behavior charts where he earns birds, loses birds, etc. but I liked that he could relate to the birds and their actions.  Making behavior relatable is often challenging...this could work!

8. Pat on the Back - And again, a reward!  I loved the visual of this and how others in the building would be able to share in their success.  It's not distracting to them during the day, yet others will want to work toward a great pat on the back too!

9. 1, 2, 3 Fingers - This seems so simple that I'm mad I didn't come up with it, but great classroom procedures help with management.  In this way, all I have to do is see one finger and grab the pencil as I'm talking or get it while they are working.  With the tissue or bathroom, I can just give them a nod and they'd know.  Off task questions or comments wouldn't start when addressing these daily (maybe by the minute!) requests!

10. GROUPS Poster - These are free on TPT (which I LOVE!) and with PBL and collaborative work on the rise in my building, learning how to work in groups is crucial.  This will help them in their group endeavors.  I love the mini-posters as individual reminders too!

Whew!  Well, if you've made it to the end then Bless You!  Also, I know many of you are starting to get on the BlogLovin' train, so I've added a button to the top of my blog so that you can easily follow, or you can click the link below!

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Alrighty, gotta run!  Have a great hump day!