Classroom Management: These are some tips and tricks I have learned for classroom management that create a great learning environment.

20 minutes..

This management tool is used for a whole class reward. The students will be given expectations they must follow to get time added to their prize. These expectations may be “be respectful,” “don’t interrupt others’ learning,” “clean up workspace,” etc, and each expectation comes with a certain amount of time that can be added to the clock. The goal for the students is to get to 20 minutes. Once the students have reached 20 minutes but following expectations, they may receive 20 extra minutes of gym or computers, whatever is available to them in your particular school.

Activity with…

This tool is used for individual management. Activity with.. cards are effective for those students who may need a little more encouragement. These cards come with expectations that need to be followed to receive one. These expectations may be “No arguing,” “complete an assignment without silliness” etc. A student receives one card for each expectation that is followed. Once the student has collected five cards, they may turn them into the teacher to participate in an activity during recess. These activities can be based on personal preference, when I used them, the choices were a game in the gym with a friend or a board game.

Voice Level Lamp

If you have a chatty class, a voice level lamp and chart may dave your life. First you need to find yourself a lamp that changes colours. After you have found that, you need to create a visual chart that states which colour is which volume level. This needs to be visible so that the students can be reminded of what colour means what. For example, if you have the lamp in the picture above, you could say purple is individual work time: no voices; blue is whisper; and green is group work; inside voices allowed. This will help maintain a good noise level in the classroom throughout the day and the students will love the colours.

*Disclaimer*

please make sure that you establish the rules for all the tools above with your students before hand. If you bring the tools in but don’t explain what they are for and how they work then they will not be effective.