CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT ECE BEST PRACTICES

 

I.   INTRODUCTION

A quiet classroom is not really what we should be aiming for. Children do some of their best learning when they are moving, and movement makes noise! Great conversation also makes for great learning, but even if children are whispering, multiple conversations in a full classroom result in – noise! It is important to make the difference with productive noise and disruptive noise for example. You have to set your expectations clearly and manage your classroom the way you expect them to treat each other and to serve the academic goals you have decided upon.

 

Introduce the voice levels chart and explain the meaning of each number and during which activity each should be used. You should also model the different voice levels for the children to understand your expectations.

Always keep in mind that young children are often learning everything for the first time. We praise good behavior and support children to give them the opportunity to understand, correct and change their behavior. We are promoting self-regulation, so remember, “Fair isn't everybody getting the same thing, Fair is everybody getting what they need in order to be successful”.

 

 

II.   STRATEGIES IN ECE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

1.  Organize your room strategically

 

A preschool classroom can be quite chaotic, so the way you organize is not only important, it can help ensure that effective learning is happening wherever children are stationed. There are certain tips and tricks that you can only learn from experience, according to Barbara Harvey, ECE professional and parenting educator. She’s learned to separate noisy areas of the classroom from the quiet ones.

For example, the blocks and other activities should be on the opposite side of the room from the reading center. These types of insights will only get stronger with experience, so make a point to try new things and see what works.

Another example, you should make marks on the floor, so the students will know where to sit down and how to move from one activity to another.

Keeping your room organized shouldn’t all fall on your shoulders. Empower your students to pick up after themselves and take responsibility for their own messes.

Harvey uses labeled plastic bins to organize classroom supplies and toys. She labels the bins with pictures of each object and labels the shelf where the bin is stored with the same picture. She says

this not only helps children put things away properly and teaches responsibility, but also helps hones their matching skills.

 

2.   Set clear rules

Establishing classroom rules supports pro-social behaviors. No more than 4 or 5 rules should be developed with the children at the beginning of the year. When children play an active role in creating the rules, they are more inclined to understand and follow the rules. Rules should be few, clear, short and positive with phrases like “Walking feet” rather than “No running” and should include a picture next to the rule. Teachers must be very specific when directing children, (e.g., after giving a one-minute warning “place the toys back on the shelf where you are playing and then take a seat at circle.”) Rules should be displayed at children’s eye level all year long and referred to, discussed and practiced often, pointing to the written statement and the picture.

 

3.  Refer to the routine

Consistency is important for everyone, but especially for children. If your preschoolers know their routine, they begin to have an innate sense of accountability to follow it.

“Once a kid or class knows a routine, the power goes back to them,” Boyer says. When the children are in charge of knowing and following the routines, you’ll no longer have to constantly remind and direct them.

Create a daily schedule to display in your classroom with pictures and time for the students to use as a reference. You can go over the day's schedule at the end of Circle Time so the students can anticipate what will happen that day.

Having the teacher preview a student's schedule daily (or even more frequently) can help those children who seem to misbehave because they do not respond well to unexpected changes in schedule or cannot remember what their schedule is.

Also, certain activities will get your students’ adrenaline up and running, and other that will help them mellow and calm down. You should find a balance and switching between the two. The manner in which you organize your activities can make all of the difference in keeping your kids under control.

4.     Using Effective Commands

Teachers can reduce problems with student compliance and make their commands more forceful by following research-based guidelines (Walker & Walker, 1991):

Effective commands:

are brief. Students can process only so much information. Students tend to comply best with brief

commands because they are easy to understand and hard to misinterpret. are delivered one task or objective at a time. When a command contains multi-step directions, students can mishear, misinterpret, or forget key steps. A student who appears to be noncompliant may simply be confused about which step in a multi-step directive to do first!

are given in a matter-of-fact, business like tone. Students may feel coerced when given a command in an authoritarian, sarcastic, or angry tone of voice. For that reason alone, they may resist the teacher's directive. Teachers will often see greater student compliance simply by giving commands in a neutral or positive manner.

are stated as directives rather than questions. Perhaps to be polite, teachers may phrase commands as questions (e.g., "Could we all take out our math books now?"). A danger in using 'question- commands' is that the student may believe that he or she has the option to decline! Teachers should state commands as directives, saving questions for those situations in which the student exercises true choice.

avoid long explanations or justifications. When teachers deliver commands and then tack lengthy explanations onto them, they diminish the force of the directive. If the instructor believes that students should know why they are being told to do something, the teacher should deliver a brief explanation prior to the command.

give the student a reasonable amount of time to comply. Once the teacher has given a command, he or she should give the student a reasonable timespan (e.g., 5-15 seconds) to comply. During that waiting period, the instructor should resist the temptation to nag the student, elaborate on the request, or otherwise distract the student.

 

5.  Make a plan for transitions

There will be several times throughout the day when children are transitioning from one activity or area of the room to another. It’s important to have a plan for these transitions.

Give the children 5 minutes warning before the end of the activity. You can use a countdown as part of your plan so children are ready to move on when the time comes. Announcing that you’re going to countdown from 10 to one before moving on to the next activity will help children feel prepared for the transition. You can also play a song to warn them that it is cleaning up time and to let them know what activity will be next.

Examples of transition songs have been sent to your Key Teachers. There are three steps to all transitions:

1.                  Warning

2.                  Transitioning

3.                  Moving to the next activity

You should have a specific plan for each transition in between activities.

 

 

6.  Create an attention-grabber

With a room full of young children, things are bound to get wild once in a while (or several times a day). During these times, you’ll need to find creative ways to get the children's attention. Asking children to copy your sounds or motions can be just the way to refocus them on you or the task at hand in a positive manner.

Examples:

Give Me Five - Raise your open hand in the air without saying anything. Your students then put their hands in the air. Start counting down on your fingers (not saying anything, just moving your fingers) and your students will follow along moving their fingers. Teach them that by the time you are making a fist (representing zero) everyone should be quiet and looking at you.

Clap, snap, or tap in a pattern and your students mimic your rhythm.

 

Whispering Command- Give a command for children to do if they can hear you. Teacher [using a soft voice]: “Put your hand on your head if you can hear me.” Those listening should follow the command. Teacher then gives another command and hopefully more of her students will hear and follow the command. Continue until every student has complied.

Turn your classroom lights off to signal students to be silent and looking at the teacher for directions.

Secret word - the secret word can be “salami” which stands for “Stop and Look at Me Immediately.” You say the secret word, and the kids will immediately stop and look at you. Your will love knowing that their class has a secret word that only they know.

Fun Attention Grabbers. Pick one or two to teach at the beginning of the year: Teacher: Chicka, chicka Students: Boom Boom

Teacher: Hocus Pocus Students: Everybody Focus

Teacher: Hands on top Students: That Means Stop Teacher: Class Class Students: Yes Yes Teacher: Ready to listen? Students: Ready to learn! Teacher: 123 Eyes on me Students: 123 Eyes on you Teacher: Flat Tire Students: Shhhhhh!

7.  Teach Silent Signals

 

This strategy is useful all day and every day. You know when you see that waving hand in response to your question and your excitement that your students are joining the discussion? So you call on the student raising his/her hand and he/she asks to go to the restroom, and now everybody else is thinking, "Hey yeah, me, too!" - it can be so frustrating when that happens and every child in the room lost focus. The best way to avoid that situation to happen too frequently is to teach your children the signs for R/ restroom (fist up) and D/drink (hold your index up and make a circle with your fingers and your thumb), and all you'll need to do is respond to their signal with eye contact and a little nod that most of the other kids aren't very likely to even notice. Display little reminder poster to use in your teaching, and to post afterward to remind students to use the "silent signals". This won't work every day, all the time, but it will increase learning while reducing noise and more importantly irrelevant interruptions.

 

 

8.  Read books to teach life-long lessons

 

Stories are fundamental to the way we process and experience life events and the feelings that surround them. The ability to create, share, and respond to stories is one of the defining characteristics of being human.

High-quality picture books are a fusion of visual art and literature that captivates children's imaginations and communicates an idea or message in an effective way. These books are perfect teaching tools because they deal with the powerful emotions that children feel, model effective coping strategies, and present complex concepts — mixed emotions or the loss of a loved one, for example — in developmentally appropriate ways. Additionally, the picture book complements words with what brain research tells us leaves the most indelible impression: visual images. The pictures in books are distinctive from the fleeting images children see on television in that they remain on the page, ready to be revisited, touched, and commented upon. These are wonderful stories that can also sparkle discussions in your classrooms.

Suggestions:

 

-  Read “David Goes to School” by David Shannon (https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=dXNRBaEQ8xw)

-  Read “Interrupting Chicken” by Davie Ezra Stein (https://www.youtube.com/watch/? v=4_nkQ5qkkm8)

-  Read “Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?” By Dr.

Seuss (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0mAaq7blRk)

 

-  Read “An Awesome Book of Thanks” by Dallas Clayton (https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=BJtDUtIXrfE)

-  Read “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein

 

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5y-ZQv1JaY)

-  Read “The Mine-O-Saur” by Sudipta Bardhan Quallen (https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=KZz_nQPqdMY)

-Read “Llama Llama Time To Share” by Anna Dwedney (https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=wYgHo4jQlfI&t=38s)

-  Read “Have You Filled a Bucket Today?” By CarolMcCloud (https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=xegQUON65hk)

 

9.   Brain Breaks

Angela Hanscom, a pediatric occupational therapist, writes in the Washington Post: “Children naturally start fidgeting in order to get the movement their body so desperately needs and is not getting enough of to “turn their brain on.” What happens when the

children start fidgeting? We ask them to sit still and pay attention; therefore, their brain

goes back to “sleep.”

In order for children to learn, they need to be able to pay attention. In order to pay attention, we need to let them move.

Brain Breaks are a quick and effective way of changing or focusing the physical and mental state of the learners in your group. They are also a useful tool for students to use to help activate, energize and stimulate their brains. Research indicates that brain breaks also improve students’ concentration and relieve stress.

Students should have a kinesthetic brain break every 30 minutes. Brain break activities do take about 1-3 minutes of class time to complete.

You can write brain breaks on small cards and put them all in a jar or a box. One child's job could be to pick the brain breaks. Children always have their favorite, so use a jar or a box that the children cannot see through.

Brain Breaks for Preschool:

 

-       Sing Shake Your Sillies out by Raffi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZde3-0RjrM)

-       Dance on I'm So Happy by the Learning Station (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ6BPWyIueQ)

-       Jump Skip Counting- Students count by twos, fives, or tens while jumping with each count.

-       Freeze Dance- Play music and have students freeze when it stops.

-       Line Up - Have students line up using specific criteria such as age, last name (alphabetically), height, age (months of the year).

-       Simon Says - Students do what Simon says

-       Follow the Leader- Students follow the movements of whoever is the leader.

-       Sing    ABC   See    You   Later   by   Sing    To    Learn (https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=RXtqN2ab1AA)

-       Do 10 Jumping Jacks

-       Rainstorm- Kids start by tapping their fingertips on their desks, then using all 5 fingers, then moving on to hands, stomping feet, then back down to fingers, and tips.

-       Class Wave- Start at one side of the room and have kids do a standing or sitting wave with their arms. Go around a few times, then reverse it!

-       Up, Down & Around- Have kids reach high to the sky, down to the floor, then spin around and sit back down. Quick & easy!

-       Penguin Waddle- Keep arms to your side and legs as close together as possible, moving only your feet and ankles as you walk around the room.

-       Greet & Meet- Have kids introduce themselves and shake hands with at least four people in the room. Works great first thing in the morning!

-       Test, Test- Repetition game- can be done with words or motions- where teacher says/does and students repeat. Great for vocabulary!

-       Dribble, Shoot & Score!- Pretend you are dribbling a soccer ball between your feet, shoot towards a “goal” and then celebrate for making it!

-       Belly Breathing- With hands on their belly, breathe in deeply and feel the belly go out. Then, exhale and feel the belly go back in. Repeat 4-5 times.

-       Eye Roll- Roll eyes up and down, then side to side, moving slowly and deliberately. Repeat several times in all directions. End with eyes closed for several breaths.

-       Superman- Laying on your stomach, legs together and arms extended out in front, lift right arm and left leg, then left arm and right leg, then both arms and both legs.

-       Plank- Have kids get ready as if they were going to go into a push-up (like the picture shown), but hold in this position for 10 seconds. Repeat 2-3 times.

-       Sit Ups- Have students count by 1,2,5,10,etc. and give them a number to stop on. Great for added math practice!

-       Ear Rub- Rub the lobes of your ear. Repeat by crossing your arms in front and rubbing the opposite ears. Good calming strategy

10.  Constructive Praising

When the student engages in a positive behavior that the teacher has selected to increase, the teacher praises the student for that behavior. Along with positive comments (e.g., "Great job!"), the praise statement should give specifics about the behavior the child demonstrated that is being singled our for praise (e.g., "You really kept your attention focused on me during that last question, even when children around you were talking!").

-       Praise is good if it is realistic. When praise is consistently reality based, you give your students a fair scale with which to judge himself.

-       Praise is only good if it is earned. “Thank you for helping clean up the lego, it looks really organized and tidy thanks to you.” Earned praise reinforces your students’ effort and is encouraging.

-       Praise is valuable if it is specific. The more specific, the better. Specifics are more instructive than blanket praise; specifics teach your child that she is in control of what she can accomplish. It also helps keep a child from believing that he is infallible which in turn will prepare him for future criticism, disappointments or losses.

 

11.  Creatively manage crisis

There will be times when a student will need to take a break and calm down. This doesn’t mean you have to send them in the corner to sit on a chair and sulk. Try something creative that also encourages them to wind down.

 

Proactively teach children how to manage their emotions. Self-regulation and social skills develop over time within an environment that is predictable, structured, age appropriate, responsive and caring. Teachers must proactively teach children the acceptable behaviors and provide experiences that develop self-regulation skills. Like emergent reading and math skills, social and emotional skills and self-regulation skills need time, intentional teaching, appropriate environments and differentiated instruction for individual needs. Effective management of behavior should always start with praise and encouragement and “catching the child being good.” It is essential that young children have warm, positive and nurturing relationships with teachers that encourage positive self-concepts. Evidence-based supports for building self-regulation and classroom community include techniques such as praise and encouragement, intentionally teaching friendship and community skills like taking turns, sharing, learning about emotions, conflict resolution and problem solving. When

these methods are provided within a safe, predictable and age appropriate environment, children develop a healthy social-emotional foundation.

12.  Sharing System

Young children are learning the concept of sharing. It is a social skill that require practice. One way, for the children to self-manage sharing is to develop a timer system. How many times have you had to intervene when two children were arguing over a toy? When it happened, you probably had to tell them that they will each have 5 minutes to play with the toy in question. You had to set a timer or look at your watch and after 5 minutes, and tell the child to share the toy with his friend.

You could create a system in your classroom so the students won't need your assistance. You can have available two hourglasses, a minute one and a 5 minute one on your desk or on one of the shelves. On each, write the time it will measure. Teach the children to use the hourglass when they want to play with the same toy.

After you taught them and demonstrated how to use the hourglass and when, if you see them argue over a toy, do not tell them what to do to solve their conflict, but ASK them what they can do. If they are always told what to do, it won't promote independent skills, but reinforce their need to be assisted.

 

13.   Reward Coupons

Print a coupon with various student rewards listed. When teachers or other staff believes a student deserves recognition and a reward, they give the student a pre-printed coupon. The student should write their name on the coupon and check the reward they would like to “win”. The faculty or staff member writes their name on the back of the student coupon. All coupons are given to the principal for a drawing, (weekly, monthly, etc.). For every coupon drawn, the teacher is also rewarded and given a Staff Reward Choice Coupon to “cash in”.

You want to create a system your students can eventually manage almost independently.

You should print the coupons and laminated them. I stored them in a binder. You need a binder with a plastic pocket for each kind of coupons available. You need to tape an envelope in each student cubby. Students who earned one, pick out a single coupon from the binder. You can do that at the end of the school day after they have counted how many points they have earned and share about their day.

You can have students show you their punch card, reward card, or warm fuzzies before you let them

pick their coupon.

They kept their reward coupon in their cubby until they were ready to turn it in.

When they went to turn in their coupons during Circle Time they simply can show it to you (proving they could indeed have their shoes off for example) or turned it into me or the binder after showing it to you. Cf. Check 'Reward Coupons for Kindergarten Classrooms and Schools

 

Teacher Tips

 

-       Time-Out and Stoplight

 

Stay away from time out and stoplight systems Time-out and stoplight systems (“red, yellow, green light”) may provide a quick fix to quieting a challenging behavior in the classroom but each have significant shortcomings. Timeout removes children until they “cool down,” but fails to teach the children replacement skills. The stoplight method offers a warning system for inappropriate behavior, but does not work if the child gets a red light at the beginning of the day. After one or two red lights or infractions early in the day, the child will learn that her behavior for the rest of the day does not really matter. Her challenging behaviors will persist, and by the end of the day, the teacher will be exhausted, her classmates will be afraid of the out-of-control behaviors and the child will learn that she is the “bad” child.

-       Enjoy your job!

Children are naturally intuitive and tend to follow the lead of those they’re around. If they see you enjoying the teaching process, think of how much more likely they are to enjoy the learning process.