Monday, March 2, 2009
Classroom stragegies
As I listen in class I often hear people give an example of what happens in either your cooperating teachers room, or in your room that I really like. So I thought that if you have a method of instruction, homework, questions, classroom management, or other that we could make a list and people could pick and choose what they liked. For example, I heard Kyle talk about the focus card in his classroom. I really like that idea, because often I have a student who provides just enough distraction to get under my skin, but not enough to warrant a referral. However, if I keep track of Focus Cards, I can assign a detention after 2, 3, or however many Focus Cards I feel is necessary. Thanks.
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Focus cards are great but better used on younger middle school students...I had an interesting observation in a class where the teacher had three purple erasers on each desk and took one away when they screwed up..if didn't have an eraser at the end of the period then you had detention....lots of kids just swapped erasers borrowing them from other students...just a thought.
ReplyDeleteFocus cards will only work if you are consistent about handing them out. Some kids still don't care no matter how much you get on their case, but I guess that comes with the territory.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I saw a middle school math teacher do this semester, when I was doing my teacher observations, was an initial focusing activity that he called "Mad Math."
ReplyDeleteHe had a somewhat difficult problem on the screen when students arrived in class. Once the bell rang, he used a stopwatch to see how fast students could do it. As each student said "Finished," he called out their time, which they wrote on the paper. They then graded for accuracy (after everyone had finished). This worked great to focus the class, right from the start.
I also liked the idea from the movie of and the pink slips that the lady talked about. i feel that this is a good idea to use for students who are misbehaving because they automatically know that they are need to refocus, come in after school or receive a detention, depending on the severity of the misbehavior.
ReplyDeleteWhile i like the idea of focus cards and pink slips, there has to be an easier way. i mean the goal is to punish the student, not me. but i havent thought of anything that i like better either, so i guess i am no help!
ReplyDeleteOne of the science teachers at "the other middle school in Hermiston" :+) has started using menu style assignments where students chose what they do a-la-carte. She has the weekly menu with the first course being an opener and a short lecture that everyone "picks." The main entree is a selection of completing 3 of 4 or 4 of 6 tasks that cover a variety of learning styles. The dessert is a fun activity or inquiry lab. The menu is used for the week. I think there are many challenges to this strategy such as ensuring all of the a la carte portions are relatively equal in assessment quality and a wider variety of assignments to grade. The positive results are the students are more engaged because they feel more in control over their work and they can choose assignemnts that fit their learning style resulting in higher rates of comprehension.
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