Consequences

After reading Wongs ideas on consequences I believe that he is correct in what he is saying. I mean you can't get mad when a student doesn't know what to expect because you either don't follow your rules or you just make it up as you go along. Like Wong previously mentioned the first days of school are for teachers to go over what is expected from the students. This mean you go over the consequences of what their choices are. For example, I have a teacher who has a chart posted in their classroom with the consequences. Just yesterday we had a sub and she was being treated disrespectfully, All the kids were doing whatever they pleased. The teacher came back and you know what happened the kids that were being disrespectful yesterday were able to leave class or not do what everyone else did. The students who were quiet and being nice had to write a page long letter apologizing to the sub for the other kids behavior. While the ones who were being rude were outside the classroom laughing and the others inside complaining about not wanting to do anything. You want to know why...our teacher never explained the consequences in detail he just asked us to be respectful and do our work not copy. So know the whole class sees that he doesn't follow a set plan he just kind of wings it. I don't 100% agree with his saying of "the number one problem in the classroom isn't discipline it's the lack of procedures and routines." I do believe that discipline plays a big part in the classroom. Let's just imagine that there was no discipline in your classroom. Well if one student does something that is not ok how would they know it was wrong? I mean you can't discipline them since it's not important in your classroom. Then all the other students would also be doing things that aren't acceptable and that would be a huge mess. You must have a balance I believe of everything you know. You can't just reward good behavior and ignore bad one. You must reward good behavior and  eliminate the bad behavior. Wong does make a point of how most ineffective teachers begin the first day with trying to teach a subject. Then how the rest of the year that teacher is stuck "running after the students." This goes to show that on the first days of school you should always explain expectations and classroom procedures to get a smooth rest of the year. I really did like the way he has made it a point to  emphasize that throughout his whole book.

Also this article describes a great 3 step rule to consequences

This is a great video to have children watch when they are frustrated

Picture Book Month Activities

After reading Picture Book Month Teacher's Guide I believe that picture books are an essential part to learning. Picture books help illustrate empathy and they help experience complex issues. These stories are short and simple to help younger children grasp the concept of the book. Picture books have been thought of as books for young children. That is not the case though picture books are for all ages. For example, in my AP English class this last week we analyzed the book The Cat In The Hat. We started off with this picture book since there is so much detail that we can use as context and textual evidence. The most important part of a picture book is the tone of the author, the moral of the story, the entire book is important. Why is is that we assume that because there are pictures in the book it's automatically for younger children? Maybe if we put aside the fact that these books are colorful and playful we would see that the author has a unique writing style. Picture books can be used in any topic you want not just for English. Many children's book help to teach us of a different culture or about the world around us. So in honor of picture book month I chose the book The Diary Of A Worm by Doreen Cronin. This book is about a worm who keeps a diary describing some cool things that happens in his life. An activity I would do to go along with this book is to use a sock and fill it with some stuffing then hot glue googly eyes. Then while we read the book we can use it to narrate the story. Then once we are done reading the boom we will be making a diary of our own! We will have the students go home and with their parents make a small diary for about a week. On Friday have the students come up and present their diaries with all everyone else. Another awesome idea would be searching for worms! We use "mud" which is pudding with crushed up Oreos on top then we put some gummy worms inside our "mud". The students each get a cup filled this mud and they can search for their worms... A bonus is that you can serve this as a snack.
This blog is run by a mom who did some worm activities with her kids go check it out.
Please make sure to check out the official website for Picture Book Month.

Discipline and classroom management

For a couple weeks now I have been reading Harry Wongs book: How To Be An Effective Teacher The First Days Of School. Before even reading this book I had a different out take on discipline and classroom management. I use to believe that classroom management was how you kept your kids on track and quiet. As for discipline I thought it was a way of fixing behavioral issues. I have come to see that this is not entirely true. I believe classroom management should be how effectively your classroom runs with or without a teacher. For discipline I think that this means establishing rules/guidelines that must be followed. If these rules are not followed then you may use discipline to help ensure these rules are followed. I remember being a young girl how the classroom management was go to class and get to work don't slack off or you will go to the principles office. Last year when I was working with the first graders their classroom management and discipline was way different. They were expected to follow the rules/guidelines but now they had little faces describing how their behavior made the teacher feel. If you had a lot of frowns at the end of the day it was taken up with the teacher and parents. The same goes for this year with my Pre-K kids. The teacher has them move a picture of themselves to a different colored face. As for discipline I think the principle doesn't really get involved unless it is a big problem or the students behavior is not improving. For example, last week some students were arguing with one another and we asked them to try and get along. When that didn't work we pulled them aside and explained the consequences of not following the rules. This of course was no help they continued. So in the end we had another teacher take them to her classroom and she disciplined them. In the future I don't know how I'm going to react to any of these things. I am so use to following my mentors rules that I don't know how I would handle these types of situations. I guess I would just try my hardest to reinforce positive behavior since children love to be recognized for great behavior.

Also I found this really cool blog on establishing classroom management you should go check it out!