On this episode I have identified 4 issues(my problems) I am having in my classroom right now(Classroom Management). I will share with you my plan for managing and hopefully improving my classroom with some researched and solid solutions. How did we get here? We have reached the midpoint of the 2020-21 school year. It has been truly exhausting. Teachers are battling the ins and outs of learning modes in this pandemic world. We’ve implemented new procedures to keep us healthy and strained our eyes on the countless hours of screen time. Know and Acknowledge your "Problems" What cannot be lost is the routine that I practice every February. I take some time to receive feedback from my colleagues and my students in my class but specifically regarding classroom management. Then I intentionally reflect on the shortcomings of my practice. I analyze how it affects the students I have right now. I find it easy to slide into the way I know what works. I've been doing this for a long time. The reality is that each group of students, each new year brings its new challenges. I get into routines that may not be the best of practices. I lose sight of some of the great things that I've done over the last few years. This year also brings it special challenges as I try to divide the problems that I have because we're in a pandemic with the normal challenges that I would face in a typical year. I believe that this is truly important to separate the two. High Expectations Regardless of Circumstances This year is special. I am trying to divide the Covid problems and the normal challenges I would face in a typical year. This is absolutely important. Many months ago I heard someone suggest we drop the language that suggests our kids just can’t and won’t do as well this year because of the pandemic. I’m guilty of this mantra more than once and that is far too many. We must continue to have high expectations no matter the extrinsic circumstances. I know I’ve seen what I call covid learning apathy in my own class. Some students “checked out” during the pandemic in the spring and may have struggled to check back in. Students developed bad habits during emergency virtual learning(out of our control) and have continued those habits. As we all know, unfortunately, some students might have been barely hanging on to start with. And in reality they may have plenty of justified reasons, but nonetheless. I believe that the problems I'm struggling with are certainly manifesting because of the pandemic world. Students in my world are in person, cohorted and near similar people all day. This certainly has exacerbated the issues I might have seen to be minor in previous years. The behaviors wouldn't have existed because they were able to move about the building or have a different partner next to them. Unfortunately, those realities don't exist in what I still consider to be the fortunate, in-person world that I'm teaching. Problem 1: Student work completion So one of the classroom management problems that has been really frustrating for me is student work completion. This isn't a new issue in my class. Students have not turned in needed practice. Untimely completion has been an issue as well. To be upfront, I don't take off points for late work. The grade for the students in my classroom is standard based and thus based on the assessment performance. This change brings along a whole host of needed practices in order to encourage them to still do some practice. They might say that it doesn't count towards their grade. I've certainly overcome this. I have seen the students rise above the "it doesn't count" language and see the value in the practice. Assignment Notebook I have doubled down on the utilization of an assignment notebook or some other tool that the students might use. This can be electronic or on paper. Typically, my eighth graders come to me and the assignment notebook is something that has worked for them a...
