The First-Year Teacher's Survival Guide

Ready-to-Use Strategies, Tools & Activities for Meeting the Challenges of Each School Day

Julia G. Thompson

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781119470410
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

The Updated Fourth Edition of the Award-Winning Book that Offers Beginning Educators Everything They Need in Order to Survive and Thrive!

Designed for new educators, this award-winning book covers the basic strategies, activities, and tools teachers need to know in order to succeed in the classroom. Now it its fourth edition, The First-Year Teacher's Survival Guide contains new and updated material on essential topics including: classroom management (how to prevent or minimize disruptions), sustaining professional growth, differentiated instruction, nurturing a growth mindset, and much more.

The fourth edition also offers downloadable forms and worksheets, and video instruction on key topics. In addition, this must-have guide:

• Offers ideas for dealing with homework and instructional concerns from parents and guardians
• Includes suggestions for helping new professionals maintain a successful work-life balance
• Contains guidelines to classroom technology and ideas for using digital tools to create engaging lessons
• Proposes proven strategies for forging positive, supportive relationships with students
• Presents recommendations for successfully managing the most common discipline problems

This must-have guide is filled with the information and tips new teachers need in order to face classroom situations with confidence.

V
Create a Well-Managed Discipline Climate

Section Eleven
Policies, Procedures, and Rules: The Framework of Classroom Management

A well-managed classroom does not happen by accident. Instead, it is the outcome of a series of intentional choices made by a teacher who has the imagination to predict student behavior and to create a reassuring framework to guide students. A well-managed classroom is one in which the teacher has put a systematic arrangement of complementary policies, procedures, and rules into place so that students can manage their daily tasks with ease and confidence.

In this section, you will be able to learn how to create the policies, procedures, and classroom rules that will make it easier for you to manage your classroom successfully. You will also learn how to set reasonable limits and convince your students to accept your classroom management decisions for the benefit of everyone in the class. In brief, you will be able to establish the vital framework necessary for successful classroom management. Because classrooms are part of the larger school community, it is wise to begin with the policies that you will want to implement.

Develop Policies for Your Classroom

Policies are those general principles that direct the behavior of students and help you make informed decisions about specific actions. Before you can develop a set of policies for your own classroom, you should first consult your school district's policies, your school's policies, and those policies that the other members of a grade-level or content area team to which you may belong already have in place.

For example, your content area team may have a policy that allows students who fail to show mastery on a summative assessment to retake it. Your classroom policy could complement that broader one if your policy were that students who failed an assessment could retake it during a free study period. Some of the areas for which you may need to design policies include these:

• Students who need extra help
• Classroom cell phone use
• Book bags in class
• Food in the classroom
• Missing class work
• Cheating
• Class discussions
• Tardiness
• Appropriate language
• Late or missing homework
• Appropriate homework help
• Conflicts with classmates
• Technology use
• Classroom music
• Grading
• Forgotten materials

To make it easier to take a systematic approach to establishing your classroom policies, consider using Teacher Worksheet 11.1 to work through the process.

Teacher Worksheet 11.1

Planning Classroom Policies

Use this worksheet to jot down your ideas about some areas for which a formal policy is necessary. As you complete this worksheet, consider the policies of your district or school as well as those of your grade or subject area committees or teams when planning for your own classroom policies.

Students who need extra help:

Classroom cell phone use:

Book bags in class:

Food in the classroom:

Missing classwork:

Cheating:

Class discussions:

_____________________________________________________________________________

Tardiness:

Appropriate language:

Late or missing homework:

Appropriate homework help:

Conflicts with classmates:

Technology use:

Classroom music:

Grading:

Forgotten materials:

Interactive technology responses:

Establish Procedures for Your Classroom

All students have some common characteristics; one of the most significant is the need for structured time. From energetic kindergartners to sophisticated seniors, students need routines or recurring procedures in their school day to keep them on track. As you begin establishing the procedures for your classroom, it is sensible to think of them as the steps that you want students to follow when performing tasks. The particulars of these procedures will vary from teacher to teacher and from grade level to grade level, but adhering to specific business procedures for the classroom will make the business of the class run smoothly.

Before school begins, you should decide how to handle the classroom procedures you want your students to follow. If you have these in place before the first day of class, you will be rewarded with a positive classroom environment and successful students. Use Teacher Worksheet 11.2 to help you begin to formulate your class procedures.

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Just this week I had the occasion to encounter a brand-new teacher in the hallway. She was teary-eyed. I asked her what was wrong, and she said her class had fallen into disarray when she asked a student to put away her phone. I asked if she had a procedure for that, and she didn't yet. She was crying, she said, because she thought they wouldn't like her anymore. I asked if she had friends, and she replied “of course.” Then I told her she didn't need students for friends; they needed her for structure. I told her they would like her if they respected her, but they never would if she tried to be their friend. Kind, yes. Fair, yes. Friend, no. Good and fair procedures eliminate tears.

Luann West Scott, 42 years' experience

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Teacher Worksheet 11.2

Planning Classroom Procedures

The following are some of the essential classroom areas that require carefully planned procedures. To determine the best course of action to take for each item, first consult your colleagues or mentor to make sure that the procedures you establish are in line with the procedures that other teachers in your building use.

Beginning class:

Ending class:

Being tardy to class:

Making up work when absent:

Handing in work:

Using cell phones:

Keeping the work area clean:

Formatting written work:

Using the classroom library:

Finishing work early:

Pledging allegiance to the flag:

Listening to intercom announcements:

Being a classroom helper:

Lining up:

Going to the clinic:

Using a computer:

Asking questions:

Handling emergencies:

Managing restroom breaks:

Having materials needed for class:

Making up missing or late work:

Sharpening pencils:

Hydration:

Assigning homework:

Turning in money:

Taking attendance:

Taking lunch counts:

Calling students to attention:

Taking tests:

Sharing supplies:

Conducting emergency drills:

Other procedures specific to your class:

Teach and Enforce School Rules

The process of creating rules for your classroom begins with the rules that govern everyone in your school. You will prevent many discipline problems and create a positive classroom environment if you take the time to teach and enforce school rules. Consistent enforcement...