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Managing a Class vs. Class Managing You

8/22/2019

Have you ever had that day where you go home, and you think “what just happened.” You think you have a handle on a class, but come to find out they played you like a fiddle. It's ok we have all had those days. Even when you have a great classroom management system set up in place you just sometimes have those, ‘Oh My Goodness, That did not just happen.” Kind of days. Well, to make those days a little bit easier I have my own classroom management system. I love it because I do not have to do much. My students are in charge of it. Let me explain.

I have five tasks (rules really but my kids want to break rules, so we don’t have “rules” in my classroom) that they have to do each class. Those tasks are...

Ninja Entrance (you can't see or hear a ninja so when they enter the classroom that has to be silent)
Raises their hand when they have something that they would like to say or ask a question.
Following Direction
Volume Control, which I have a yacker tracker to help tell me when we are too loud.
Sparkling Clean up.

I have all five of these tasks posted on the front of my room with smileys beside them. The moment one of those tasks are broken I replace it with a red sad face. If the class gets two red-faced we go to silent art for five minutes, and then if they lose three, I take their artwork away and I have a refocus form that they fill out. So they are writing about their choices, and how they are losing wonderful fun art time. But if the class keeps all the smileys I put a paintbrush in their pocket. The first class in each grade that gets 5 paintbrushes will get a trophy that goes back to their classroom. Then everyone in that grade starts over, and the next class to get five paintbrushes will go steal it from the previous classroom. Doing this type of management has helped my students a ton because they get to own their successes and mistakes visually.

My students love these art trophies. Because they are proud of them and want to have them in their classroom. However during class when a student starts to break one of the five tasks other students will redirect their behavior because they do not want to lose any points. This has been helpful for me, and I hope it can be helpful for you as well.

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Dot Day is Approaching

8/22/2019

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The first project that we do in the art room is our dot day projects. There are so many things that can be taught through this book. The first being that even when we don't think we are an artist we are. The second being that just because we cannot do something does not mean that we will never be able to do it. It just means we cannot do it yet. The third being that we also sign our name on the front of our artwork. We talk about how we should be proud of our artwork so we need to make sure people know whose artwork it is. Also though it is less work for me during art show days.

This year I decided to make a school-wide mural. School-wide I mean everyone in the school, teachers, principals, custodians, Educations Assistants everyone. I gave all the adults in the build a piece of paper, that said the following, “I need your help. Please make a dot, and return it in time for it to be in the dot day gallery.” I got so many questions from the adults in the building. What kind of dot do you want? Can it be anything? Can I glue something to it? What about the shape, does it have to be perfect? A simple task turned into, by some people, a dreaded job that was too stressful to finish. Others said it was just what they needed. In a time when they were frustrated, they decided to sit down and create their dot, and it was a time of therapy for them. This dot assignment for our adults turned the school upside down for the good! I did this same assignment with students. I gave them paper and told them to create a dot within only fifteen minutes. The results were amazing! They did not ask questions, they just created a dot.

Fifth- grade student artist work. This work was created in less than 15 minutes.

This student was told to make a dot. This is what he created.

Dots dots every where!

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Managing a Class vs. Class Managing You

Dot Day is Approaching

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