Creative Classroom Management

We have all been there at least once. A moment we dont know what to do with our students' behaviour: They do not pay attention to the class, they speak with their partners while you are explaining an important topic, you ask them to be quiet, and  you end up frustrating because nothing seems to work right,  

I was 17 when I started working as an English teacher for 6th and 9th graders. I was only 2 years older than them! At first, things were a bit hard, so I had to come up with something to solve this problem and I looked into information to take over this situation. How to build a class with respect? How to keep control of the class?

Classroom Hack 1: The Black List

I made this up and it has worked incredibly great. On one of the corners of the board, I write "Black List" and tell Ss that those who are speaking while you are , are not paying attetion, or simply doing something they dont have to in the class, they will be in the List. 

Being in the list means taking some time off their break (The time they took off your class), extra homework to reinforce the topic they didnt listen, loss of certain privileges. 

From the moment you write a name in the list, two things can happen:

1. They stop misbehaving: If this happens, then after 5 minutes you wrote their name, you can erase and say that because  XXX is now behaving really well, you will erase him/her from the black list. 

2. They continue misbehaving: If the person is already in the list, I write a star next to his name. If the  person keeps the same, I write another star and so on. The more stars the student has, the thougher his punishment will be. Of course, if the student starts to show a positive change, I erase the stars as he behaves. 

Classroom Hack 2: Teamwork

You can carry out this activity in two or more ways

1. Break the class in groups and assign each team a number which you will write on the board. Then, you will explain that the group(s) that most participates, most behaves, most complete the tasks will obtain a point and at the end, the group(s) with more points, will go out to break 5 min before the time, or will have a privelge such as a point for homework or a test. Something important to keep in mind is that if several groups got the same amount of points, then they should all receive the prize. 

2. Assign each group a score of 10. Then, tell them that as they misbehave in the class, or dont work, you will take off some points and at the end of the class, the groups with a score under 8 or 7, will stay in the class for 5 more minutes. It's important to bear in mind that if students start behaving, give them back the points and praise them. 

Classroom Hack 3: Behaviour lights

Take three color pages to your classroom: Red, green and yellow. Explain that each color represents their behaviour in the class and that you will be sticking the page on the board. If the color shown is green, it means that they are behaving really great and therefore, they will all be prized with 5 extre minutes for their break. If it is in yellow, it means that they have started to speak too much while you are speaking or they are not working, therefore they will stay 5 more minutes after the class. If it is in red, it means that they are unstoppable and you will take 10 minutes off their break to recover the time the took off your class.  (It's necessary you explain this last point so they understand why you are doing that)

TIPS

• Try to vary your classroom management strategies each quarter 
• Try to make your class as interesting as possible. Think of you as a student: How would you like the class to be like? 
• Always praise publically and tell off privately.