Some ideas

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Home : 2003 : March : 4

Some ideas
By Cathy-Dee

I've been teaching first grade for 8 years and there are still some years and some children who push the limits. I have a couple this year who can drive me to distraction in just a few moments.

Grade 1 is an interesting
age. They are easily set off and I have found that things like humour and joking around with them I have to wait until after Christmas before they seem to be able to handle it better.
Even now I have to get strict with them when they begin to get out of hand. I try hard not to raise my voice, but when I do they know they have reached my limit. (I don't yell, but sometimes that raised

voice does work).

As far as a child leaving a classroom - this child sounds like one with other problems as well and you may not be able to control him in all situations. You may need to change your room setting so that access to the door is not quite as open. I.E. move your desk closer to the door or their desks further from the door.

Centers is an interesting concept. I do some centers but I do centers for two different purposes.
One center time (usually more from September to December) is just a fun center/play time where they can just have fun together. I like to bridge them from K to grade 1 and centers is a good option to have especially those first 2 months. I use these times to do one on one testing, help students catch up work, do some individual teaching, etc.,
After Christmas I reduce these times and make them more reward times. Students who can't behave have to sit out some or all of the center time. This often works with most of my kids.

The other type of centers is learning centers and these only work if you have very specific goals and instructions for each center. And even then they may not work well with some groups of students. The teacher also needs to be very comfortable with them and know how they want to use them.

I think each year we learn a little more on how to deal with our little darlings and how to be more effective with them. I do think you need to be consistent and firm with younger children to help them learn their boundaries.

I rarely take away recess breaks as that tends to punish me as well. 6 year olds need to get rid of extra energy. However sometimes their punishment is to walk with a supervisor (if the supervisor doesn't mind) instead of playing. They really don't like that.

I try to plan for one "fun" activity a week, an extra art period, a video, an extra gym class, computers, etc., and students know they may miss this "fun" activity if their behaviour is not where it should be.

We are working on a new behaviour system in our school (EBS) and the focus of this system is to recognize those children who are behaving. We often spend so much time dealing with our "problem" children that we ignore those who are behaving and so they start to misbehave just to be noticed. So instead we start to notice those who are behaving - praise, stickers, certificates, earning a slip of paper they can put in a draw (you can do a draw each day or weekly). This hopefully brings the "behavior" students more on-line with those who are behaving because they want to be noticed the same way.
The program works best if the whole school is involved but I think you could take some of what I wrote and modify it for your class.

I use things like sticker charts, etc., as well and often will use statements like I'm waiting to see which row or group is the quietest and they will earn the sticker. Or everyone who finishes all their work by recess will get a sticker. When they get 10 stickers they get a trip to my prize box.

In closing all I can say is hang in there!