Procedures & Expectations

As I have been blog stocking lately, I have noticed a trend in my fellow new teachers. The questions they have been asking revolve around implementing classroom management. Vetern teachers advice the #1 thing that new teachers need, beside a lot of books, is a good classroom management strategy.

When I hear this, I laugh. Not because these teachers are wrong by any means (in fact they are correct!) but I laugh because it reminds me of a conversation I had lately. My bff is a teacher as are several of my friends. They attended the same school I am now before I ever did. I was lamenting the other day about how I don't want to hear one more word or read one more book on classroom management.

This brought up a discussion of how during different periods of times teachers are taught to focus on different things. One of my friends focused the majority of her grad years on accepting ethnic and cultural differences. Another friend focused on Bloom's Taxonomy and Differeintiated Education. Now it is my turn and it is all about classroom management. These differences help as we each have a strength in a particular area but at the same time are teachers every well balanced?

I decided to share with you a few of my favorite references today for classroom management. There are many, many more to explore and perhaps I will share with you more from my reference library another day.

Harry Wong and his wife Rosemary have created a plan based upon procedures and expectations. His premise is that students want to know the right thing to do but aren't sure what that right thing is. During the first two weeks of school, Wong states one should focus on teaching the proper way to do things in the classroom (procedures) and leave the academics to focus on for the remainder of the year. With so little instructional time and so much to accomplish this seems like a lot of wasted time but surprising a lot of people agree with him. The CD is humorous and goes along with the book. It also shares some insights from his daughter. Many induction programs are using his teachings as a basis for their programs.

What to take away from this book:

~ What an effective teacher is & how to look like one

~ Positive Expectations for you & the student

~ Classroom Procedures in the first two weeks

~ Creating a warm, inviting atmosphere for success

~ How to write tests & lesson plans

To me, this book goes along with Wong's book & CD. This is basically a workbook for creating classroom procedures. Wong does a good job of creating a long list of procedures you will need for your room but Canter gives the specifics on how those directions should look. He also takes his ideals one-step further by addressing the issue of non-compliance.

What to take away from this book:
~ Step by step instructions on how to create a two-week plan
~ Procedures (alter as needed)
~ Behavior Cycle
~ Behavior Narration