Do what you say!

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Home : 2001 : June : 26

Do what you say!
By Brendi

Hey, I just taught my first year of 5th grade last year, and with a homeroom of 30 kids I learned the hard way about classroom management in the 5th grade! I teach math and there are 4 homerooms of fifth grade. When we rotate
our classrooms we send a check list of our homeroom to the next class. If a student does not cooperate they recieve a check, after three checks the student is sent to the office. A student can recieve checks in the other teachers classrooms. They may come to my room with 2 checks to start off with, so I'll warn them to be good because they have no chances left. Our classroom management

plan did not work in the beginning, because instead of giving the student a check on their first offence, I would warn them that they were about to recieve a check. Well, obviously my kids didn't believe I was ever going to give them a check. They pushed me to the very limit and causd me to lose my cool several times. One day I just decided I was tired of warning, and instead of telling them I was going to give them a check, I just gave them one. I sent probably 6 or more students to the office that day. My principal was very supportive when I explained my situation. The next day, when the students came in I said no talking. The first person to speak without permission got a check, then they knew I meant business. I didn't send a single person to the office for about 2 weeks! So my classroom management plan was a good one, but I learned if YOU do not implement it in the BEGINNING, your school year and your students will not take you seriously. Another thing that helped our classroom management plan was we started a competition between our homerooms. 5th graders love to compete! We started putting compliments on each of the checklists if one teachers homeroom was good during each of our classes. We also put complaints if the were not their best. Each teacher would tally up each compliment or complaint at the end of the day, and at the end of a 3 week period, the class that had the most compliments (complaints crossed out compliments)would get a reward(popcorn, cupcakes, extra recess,etc.) The students love this. We really had our classes pumped up about beating the other classes. I was so proud of my class. They won 3 times in a row! (That is after I stopped warning them in the beginning). I hope my failure turned success helps you next year. Just remember to always DO what you SAY.