Classroom Management

How to Calm the Chaos in December

Don't allow the festive season to cause chaos in your classroom. Check out these tips for how we keep our classroom calm and relaxed during this stressful season. #teacherwellness #classroomchaos

December can be a great month, but it can also be exhausting. your schedule which you’ve carefully curated is likely tossed aside for concert rehearsals, bad weather and overstimulation of the little darlings in your care. So what do you do when your whole schedule needs to be tossed, but you still need to teach?

There are three whole weeks of learning that are supposed to happen in December, but it can be VERY challenging to fit it all in. Here is what we do to mitigate the chaos.

While December is the month with the most disruptions for us, these ideas can work any time of year.

[Read more…]

Help! What Do the Other Kids Do During Guided Reading?

by BrainNinjasWP 5 Comments

Are you trying to teach small groups at a table when there are non-stop interruptions? Get some practical tips on how to get the other kids working while you teach. It can be done and we want to help. Click to read more! #guidedreading

Hands down, this is the biggest question we get asked on a regular basis when working with teachers in the classroom. In fact, this is a question we ask ourselves daily. What will the other students be doing while I meet with my Guided Reading groups?

First of all, before you can make your time with your Guided Reading groups count, you need to establish the routines in your classroom. If you don’t have your classroom management down pat, your small group instruction time will be constantly interrupted and your students won’t progress. Nothing good will come from everyone being frustrated.

[Read more…]

The Reasons Your Classroom Management Isn’t Working and How to Fix It

by BrainNinjasWP 7 Comments

Is your classroom management plan non-existent? Check out these practical tips that you can use without charts, prizes or incentives! Click to read more! #classroommangementstrategies #classroommangement

Recently I was having a discussion with a former student teacher. She had reached out because her last school year felt like a disaster and she was wondering how could improve. She’d tried clip charts, behavior charts, communication journals, reward baskets and everything else she could think of, but nothing worked. She wanted to know how she could improve her classroom management because she feared she couldn’t last another year. She asked about my secret because she didn’t remember what I did.

Was it that uneventful that she didn’t know what I did? No. Not quite.

[Read more…]

Everything You Need to Know About Flexible Seating

by BrainNinjasWP 2 Comments

You've heard the hype about flexible seating, but you aren't sure if it's for you? This is the post for you.

Do you want to try flexible seating in your classroom but you aren’t sure where to start? Maybe it’s not the right fit for your classroom management style. Let us walk you through how to start alternative seating options in your classroom so you can decide for yourself if it’s the right fit for you.

Hint hint! It’s not right for everyone.

Our goal is not to convince you to try flexible seating, but instead give you a realistic idea of how flexible seating can be a benefit to your students, problems you’ll encounter and what you should think about before you go buying yourself flexible seating furniture.

[Read more…]

How to Differentiate Using Choices

by BrainNinjasWP 3 Comments

Are you trying to differentiate your instruction? Have you been providing your students with choices? It's one of the easiest ways to differentiate for your different learners. #differentiatedinstruction #differentiation #inclusion

How would you feel if you knew you were a wonderful writer but the only way you could express yourself was through modern dance? What would you do if you had to recite your report card comments by memory to each and every parent? How would you feel if you were given the choice to write your report cards any way YOU want? (Ours would be invisible!)

Imagine how different your life would be if you were given the choice to do or say certain things.

[Read more…]

Creating a Culture of Community in Your Multi-Grade Classroom

by BrainNinjasWP 1 Comment

How do you teach a split class or combined grades? Start by combining your students into a culture where they get to know each other and create a classroom community that your students will love.

How do we create a classroom community where all students feel they are equal and belong? It turns out we’ve had more combined grade classes that straight grade classes since we began teaching, so we can’t imagine teaching any other way. First of all, we call it a combined class rather than a split class. It’s the first thing we do with parents because our combined classes are not like the old ‘split’ classes.

When students come into our classroom on the first day of school they immediately collect into two different groups-the lower grade and the upper grade. They don’t know each other well and like to sit with their friends. We don’t give students a seating plan right away (or sometimes at all) so we can see which relationships form or are already in place, but then we slowly start changing their mindset about the combined class.

[Read more…]

Classroom Management

Before Footer

Looking for something?

Footer