RE: Having fun

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RE: Having fun
By Michelle

Just how fun are your lessons? Perhaps little people who CHOOSE NOT TO STOP don't deserve fun? When I taught that age, I often let them know that since they were having a difficult time handling the fun stuff, we would
be doing a few days of "regular" work - worksheets, taking notes, defining words from the dictionary and writing example sentences,etc. Once they felt that they could control themselves again, I went back to using games and discussion and lots of hands-on, etc. The nice thing is that since I did it whole class and didn't discuss it as a punishment, the class exerted a little positive peer

pressure on my class clowns. I usually didn't have a lot of trouble.

Also, it isn't surprising that you are dealing with this so soon. This is one of the toughest things you will do as a teacher. Discipline is hard work for all teachers. Student teachers have it ever harder since some kids and parents may not view them as "real" teachers. Hang in there and keep adding new tools to your bag of tricks. After 11 years of teaching, I still work hard at learning new things in the area of discipline. In fact, I just spent two hours developing a behavior management system for my newest student. One thing that I would reccommend is to purchase a copy of Harry Wong's First Day of School. It is an excellent book on establishing routines and procedures. If you follow his guidelines, you will have a much easier time with discipline once you have your own class.

Good luck getting your 5th graders in shape!