My Daily Classroom Management Strategies | High School Teacher Vlog

[Music] good day everyone today I want to talk about something that is probably the most requested topic that I get on YouTube which is classroom management I already did a classroom management video once right here maybe here I wanted to talk about this again because I want to talk about what my classroom management looks like from day to day like so what in the classroom outside the classroom on a daily basis what am i doing to ensure that my class is the best that it can be number one by the time I get to school at 7:20 in the morning until eight o'clock when homeroom starts my room is a hangout space it is a safe place is a quiet place for students to be and what that allows me to do is like be the place that the kids are hanging out and I can touch base with students if I need to so if I see someone come in angry in the morning I can pull them aside and pull them into my room and I can touch base and then you are even if you don't help a kid you're at least in the know you know what that kids going through you can maybe text a couple of other teachers to say hey look out for this and a lot of time that ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and it helps long term because kids see that you care about them they see that you actually are willing to take the time out of your schedule to go and talk with them and that can be worth everything the number two thing that I do every day is I greet every single kid at the door everyone that walks into my room shake their hand on a daily basis and I say hello and this lets them know before anything else happens that I see you and I notice that you're here and it lets me gauge who's coming into my room and what kind of mood they're in and you don't have kids like coming in trying to slap the top of your door or like wrestle each other on the way into the room or coming in an inappropriate manner because you're standing there and you are allowing them in the room and greeting them as they do so the next thing I do is every single day when the kids walk into my room the agenda for the day is on the board and what that looks like is the pre class is up here the pre class is what you should be doing before the bell rings and when the bell rings you can also kind of be working on this but this is what I need to be happening as soon as you come in so if I say your homework needs to be on your desk if I come around and check homework in those first few minutes of class and you're talking you're off task you're looking at something else you're trying to do something for another class and your homeworks not there I don't take it I don't take late work don't take make up work and this can seem really cruel and I get a lot of pushback this on this in the beginning of the year but once the kids learn that like this is what I expect when you come in and that there's a reason behind it because I want you to be responsible and I want you to be on task I want you to not be messing around with people around you then then I find that the kids like eventually they're on that and I don't get any pushback and they know what's expected of them one of the biggest questions I get from students in the beginning of the day is what are we doing today mr. Reynolds and so I like to have all that on the board so I get to say oh jack the board out man this is exactly what we're doing today that can give kids something to look forward to and it can also be a reminder to students that like if there was a vocab test today they come in and says it on the board they already know that the vocab test is today or there's a quiz today it's an easy reminder for kids to see what they're supposed to be doing when they're supposed to be doing it so they can be on point and just a quick note about that when kids come in and you kind of set the tone and the routine for every single day what they're supposed to be doing then you don't have kids like starting off a different way every day they're not walking around they're not talking they're not goofing around and that can set the tone for your class every day and here's a couple of other ways that I do that let's see if I can illustrate this next point well each kid has an assigned seat so whether you have tables or desks or rows or whatever your situation is what I do is the students are all lined up and then I just look for bodies and seats and that's how I know you're in the right seat so I don't have to spend a lot of time calling off names on a list or spending my time like looking for certain students if your body is in the right seat there on time if your body is not in your seat when that bell rings then you lose points and so if you have 30 points a week six points a day that breaks down too and you're not in your seat when the bell rings you lose a point so you're already down a point for the day and I've tried over the years to have more like entry dick rewards instead of extrinsic rewards but I find that just the word point has so much gravity with students even though I I want them to be in their seat because they want to be in their seat because they want to be on time that does always work when you're in the ninth grade and I'm sure the lower grades it's the same thing so just saying point has a lot of weight sometimes I don't even take the point off sometimes if I come in and the bells about to ring and I say you guys are losing points if that bell rings and then someone's not in their seat all the way like I don't have to you feel it out right like you know what kid deserves to have a point taking off and who was like getting a pencil from someone or something like that be careful with that not all rules need to be hard and fast think consistency is extremely important you know when and where to bend those rules a little bit to give you a sense of that to protect the identity of my students I'll hold it out here but I just have like everyone in a list all the names are on a list and where they sit in that order and then you just get a mark next to your name if you're on time a mark if you're late and a mark if you're not here the next thing I need is quiet at the beginning of class so you come in pre classes on the board you already know what you should be doing you know what the first thing you're working on whether that's questions or whether that's your studying your vocab words whatever that is you already know what you should be doing if it's not silent and I need everyone quiet immediately I'll do the old counting down from five or from three if you're still talking when I'm talking a couple of things are going to happen one I'm going to take off a point two if I talk to you about this before I'm gonna ask you to step in the hallway so we're gonna have a word real quick or three I just give them my dad's there you know this one and that works all the time and the other thing that works with it and this is not this is not for everyone I'm telling you this idea just to get a sense of like how weird you could be or how outside the box you can be I don't necessarily recommend everyone do this but sometimes I'll walk into the class and I'll say something like alright sunflowers I need everyone's or good morning mutants I need everyone's attention what did you just call this the thing there is that I'm really calling kids mutants no maybe it more than anything I'm saying something that they're not used to hearing that's so outside the norm that it clicks something clicks and it makes kids go wait what did you just call us great I have your attention now I can get into my lesson saying young men young people whatever you want to call your class whatever you typically address them as sometimes it doesn't register because they've been hearing that same language their whole lives or at least all day can by saying something off-color it catches kids attention and helps you get into your lesson faster the last thing that I would say is always make sure your class keeps moving so some of my classes can work on something for 20 25 30 minutes at a time and they can totally keep their cool they're locked into what we're doing but some classes can't some classes I literally need to change what we're doing every five to ten minutes so they might come in and get vocab words then they're writing a journal entry for five minutes then we're reading our journal entries and sharing ideas and having a conversation that might last 10 minutes then we're moving on to some short closed reading passage and that last five minutes then we're answering questions in that last two to three minutes and so that kind of perpetual motion where you're always always doing something moves the class along at a lot smoother pace because kids don't have time to get bored and they realize that like the trains moving you're either jumping on or you're getting run over actually I don't think you want to run kids over with your train maybe leaving them behind then again no child is left behind I don't really know but you get what I'm trying to say there too so one of the things I get asked about the most is like what do you do when a kid is a giant discipline problem where they are completely off test when they refuse to learn they refuse to do the work they refuse to leave the classroom they refuse to give you respect you're getting cursed at or things thrown at you and your tip back is turned and the thing that I really loved about this question and the reason I'm even been looking forward to answering this because I want everyone to know that like no matter what kind of like appearance I give on I just did that no matter what appearance I give on YouTube I've had that happen to me ever my first year teaching there was a student that I gave him an on something I told him to do something and he got so pissed at me that he stood up cursed at me took all the stuff on his desk and threw it across the room at me I just thought man this is like they didn't tell you about this in college me we didn't talk about this moment in college when the kids throw stuff at you and I've since grown from then and I've not ever had anything even remotely like that happen in years but I do remember that and the reason I haven't had it happen is because I figured out better ways to deal with it here's how I handle super discipline problems in class one always be cool don't lose your cool kids seen you getting all hot and bothered in med it just makes other kids laugh it makes everyone excited so just be cool I will sometimes pretend to be mad but in all honesty like the way that my class works and with the playfulness that I like to teach with if I get mad it just kills the vibe of the whole room so just be cool and have a conversation calmly and collectively to let's say kids not doing work let's say their heads down let's say they are constantly talking to their neighbor and they do they are being a total distraction in class the question that I always ask is I'll say I need you to do your work when I go back to them again and they're not doing it so you're being defiant so you're telling me that you're not going to do your work are you refusing to do work that are you so you're undermining my authority so you're not gonna do what I say and that kind of language saying that it puts it right out there for kids like yes I'm being defined or yes I refuse to do work or no I am going to do work the other thing that you could do with that is I'll get close to akin I'll say here's how this phone calls gonna go hi this is mr. Reynolds I'm your son's literature teacher today in class he refused to do his work I asked him several times to take out his pencil and to do what I was being asked he refused to do that it was defiant with me in class cursed and and you can just say very calmly all of the things what this does is it shows kids this is the exact phone call that's gonna take place when is once you leave this one some teachers do this this crazy thing where they like call kids parents while they're in class that can sometimes backfire on you and although it's really funny and the first time I heard dude that is awesome I don't think so anymore because if because that could go wrong for in a hundred different ways so I think saying as soon as you walk out of the classroom I want you to know this is what this phone call is gonna sound like as of right now and that just paints the picture for the kids and it works a lot of the time one of the last things is if you do put a kid out of your class you send into the office or the principal or wherever you're sending them make sure that you follow up otherwise it's just being lazy it's like saying oh you got to go I'm not dealing with you anymore but you have to follow up because a you don't know if they went there if they went to the office or they went to your Dean or they went and we're disciplined B maybe they just like didn't discipline them enough or C you want to make sure I'm you know I think I went from I don't know I have you want to impress upon the student that you care it is hard I get it we're adults and and when you tell a child to do something and they look at you and they tell you like go after yourself and they're not doing it it's hard to be the bigger person and to go and have the conversation but I always try and like muster up the ability to walk in there tell a student hey man do you understand why I put you out today do you understand why I had to do that like not only are you sabotaging your own education but you're sabotaging everyone else around you by being a distraction and I just can't have that in my class I want more than anything for you to be successful in my class if that means that you need to leave for the day so that I can actually teach and that's just what's gonna go down and like my friend Rafe s both said to me the other day you can open the door for a student but you can't make them walk through other than that I would the last thing I would say is don't ever get into like a head-to-head with a student where you're like saying get out of my room and they're like I'm not leaving and you're like dude out of my room because all that's gonna do is escalate and everyone's watching to see what's going to happen just call security guard call principal call friend call another teacher have someone come in and remove that student but if even if that happens remember to always follow up with the student is the most important thing that you can do because otherwise when they come into class the next day they're gonna be right back to their old tricks and they're gonna be full of resentment you want to make sure that you handle that situation before they come back into your classroom here's where things get weird I'm going to a hundred percent recommend that you don't actually do anything I'm about to tell you that I do if it fits your personality if you've been teaching for long enough maybe you can get away with some of these things but maybe give your schools a little bit more rigid maybe you will get in a lot of trouble for doing these things none of this is dangerous it's just extra silly and it's the way that I get kids to do work sometimes when I need them to do work and they don't want to do work or they're not doing it right or they're not paying attention or they fall asleep and so here are a few of the things that I do that even makes me nervous to tell you about they do one keep a small water pistol on my desk it's always full of water it's always cold water you know one kids getting score it with warm water and then they have peepee accident in your class fall asleep in my class shoot you with the water pistol not paying attention when I'm talking shoot you with the water pistol move it too slow out of your seat not on time shoot you with the water pistol you have to shoot only the right kids with the water pistol they keep with a anger management issues don't shoot that kid with the water pistol he's gonna end up throwing a book at your head but so when you get along with someone that you know someone that you know their parents someone that you connect with you can get away with this because it is again it's a shock to the kid's system they never saw that coming cuz there's not a chance that anyone ever shot them with a water pistol in their lives not in a school setting anyway it snaps them out of it and then the next time all you gotta do is just show them the water pistol and they'll never do it again it's awesome and it works for me all the time it's also fun to just have in the hallway and you're like we'll just like shoot it down the hallway a little bit and kids are like looking up at the ceiling wondering what's going on endlessly amusing and entertaining for the teachers next anyone who's ever gotten a multipack of Expo markers before knows that you get colors you're never gonna use so instead I walk around the classroom and if someone's not doing something right on their paper like I said hey make sure you write the date I will draw a little circle around the spot where you're supposed to write your date let's say you didn't write your name I'll Circle that let's say you're not on point you're doing something I will take this and I put a little dot on your hand it's washable marker it comes right off it's not gonna ruin anything again I do this with kids they connect with that I know fall asleep in my class you might get a little mark on your face or something like that that looks awesome comes right off sort of can't do this with everyone right that's why I just keep cautioning you you can't do this with everyone but with the kids that you know this is like enough that if you do it to that one kid that you really connect with everyone else if you just walk around like this they're looking start doing things right on their paper and it's kind of it's hilarious and it's fun to just say do that again and I'm literally going to write on your face I mean and after those two suggestions there's all manner of ridiculous things that work like I got eight dollars bought at Kohl's is on sale yeah yeah and then there's like a hundred other insane things you can do like the fact that I have the love song from The Karate Kid to movie cued up in case someone's gonna fight in my class because no one's gonna fight during love jam or this microphone the doubles as bubbles nobody's gonna fight in your room if there's a bunch of bubbles all over the place the idea there is just shot kids handling situations in a way that kids don't usually see an adult handling situations like blowing bubbles at them when there's an argument catches them off guard and it it helps you out the last thing I want to touch on quickly is please do not forget that positive reinforcement is just as good sometimes right I do not believe in having a class full of knuckleheads and you are pointing out who's doing a good job as if that's going to help the kids that are not doing a good job do a good job I don't think that's a good idea but going around with simple stickers I have a whole drawer of stickers and just little happy face stickers like this I got from the dollar store them running out of them shows I'm using them a lot I just go around put them on kids and I just say hey man you're doing a really great job or walking around posted notes and writing nice little notes to students like appreciate how hard you're working thanks for showing up on time today I just want you to know that I see you I want you to know that I think you're doing a good job those sort of things go a long way and they catch other kids attention like how come I never get a sticker you know how come you never put a note on my desk for as much as we want everything we do in class for kids to want to know these things intrinsically to feel good about themselves on the inside you know a lot of times that outward competition especially in an all-boys school like on that really really helps I hope this helps some of you I know this is an ongoing situation for the year but that's a that's a little bit of a snapshot of what it looks like in in my life anyway if you could go ahead and leave in the comments section below some of the ways that you use to keep your class OnPoint to build those relationships with students and to cut down on some of the nonsense that happens in your class I'd love to see those and I'm sure that it's something that we all could read in the comments section below and just and keeping this community going by creating that dialogue and then sharing these ideas with one another all right everybody I hope you have the best week ever peace [Music]

Channel: Real Rap With Reynolds

Views: 474,894

Rating: 4.9443111 out of 5

Keywords: a day in the life of a teacher, classroom management, high school teacher tips, hip hop educator, hip hop teacher, inner city teacher, new teacher tips, phiadelphia teacher, philly teacher, real rap with reynolds, real rap with the reynolds, teacher podcast, teacher q&a, teacher tips, teacher vlog, teacher vlogger, week in the life of a teacher, day in the life of a teacher, daily classroom management tips, my best classroom management tips, high school teacher vlog

Id: W3fr4tm_mkE

Length: 18min 16sec (1096 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 14 2017