My Challenge,I am having trouble with my warm-up assignment. The students have figured out this is graded as informal, and carries no weight. We have Infinate Campus and they can log on and check, they are very aware of the rules and know the system.
When the warm-ups fail, there are problems taking role. This then carries on to the classroom. Some projects bring the students back in, while others do not. The students talk between classes, and a project that went very well in the morning may do poorly in the afternoon.
I have changed seating arrangements, changed work groups, and followed the classroom management learned in the summer NTI course and these work well but only for a limited time.
I have been tracking students with learning dis-abilities and I am currently receiving more notifications, I am over 50% in all but one class.
This is not to put the blame anywhere as others seem to cope with like issues. Maybe the lack of a better (tool-box) is part of the problem, but lack of experience seems to be the likely candidate. (Help!!!!)
I was having this same problem. It has been hard for me to get students to complete their "bell ringer" assignment as soon as they come in to class. Many just sat there doing nothing while I completed attendance. So, when Jessie came for my first observation, I informed her about this problem and she suggested that I try making it in to a competition. So, I split each class in to two teams and assigned a captain to each team ( a trusted student). After the first five minutes of each class (it has to be tallied within this time), the captain walks around and sums up the number of students that completed the bell ringer for that day. They keep a running total for the entire week and at the end of the week, the team with the most bell ringers gets bonus points or a peice of candy. I have only had this implemented for one week, but it worked well and I plan to continue using it. Maybe you could try something like this? I hope this helps...let me know if you have any questions about it.
ReplyDeleteI have a similar problem as you have stated and have just completed changing seating by rearranging the location of the desks and table. This strategy seemed useful last year. By arranging the desk in circles, chevron, U shape, staggered and other yet discovered arrangements, I can change the balance, center of the room and focus. But there are only so many times you can do that.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I am doing now is the use of the power point games from NTI. It allows the students to interact and to show what they know. The problems start to arise after the new wears off.
What I am trying to do is develop a big inventory of useful strategies such as rearranging the room, power point games (i.e. jeopardy), reading assignments, brain teasers. It’s just like a pitcher on the mound, you have to throw a few change up pitches. Each day is a new day with new challenges and we have to be the one to present the challenges.
By using these change- up methods I am able to gain a few successes getting the class started. This is a learning curve for me and something that will need more refinement. I hope you might find something of use in this discussion.
Thanks,
RS from Alpharetta