Someone asked me, "How do you do all of this and have a young family?" I am used to hearing people say, "Do you ever sleep?" Yes, I sleep. In fact, I need at least 8 hours of sleep each night. Rest is important for me to function at full speed as well as for my recovering brain. It's a fair question. When I was a beginning teacher, I would arrive at school early in the morning and stay there until past dinner. Then, most nights I was doing work at home before bed. It would've been really difficult for me to be an excellent teacher if I were just now starting with littles at home (not to say that others who are just starting and have littles at home can't be excellent teachers, just that it would've been hard for ME). But due to that hard (and likely unhealthy) work back then, I have a lot of strategies in my teacher tool kit and many resources to pull from. I also spend an hour each day in the summer working on resources that will help me durin
I am often told by other teachers how well behaved my class is and that I’m lucky to have gotten such a nice group of kids. While it’s true that every year I am lucky to have that particular crew, it’s not by accident that they are so well behaved. Their behavior is a result of a lot of hard work and behind the scenes planning on my part. In my earlier years of teaching, I used the more traditional methods such as green, yellow, and red cards, marble jar, tickets, classroom economy, even online tools. I’m finally at a point in my teaching where none of those ‘gimmicky’ and slightly time consuming methods are necessary for me. The way I manage is not easy, takes constant work, but offers great rewards. Here is how I manage my class. Develop relationships. HUGE. MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER. Begin the year with student surveys and getting to know you activities then use that information to find commonalities between you and your students. Be positive. Beginning with day one, I mak