♪[theme music] >>teacher: So school's going to start next
week and I have already been anxious for the last week and a half. I've had the
butterflies. Um we always assume that new teachers are the ones that going through
that but it doesn't matter-I mean I've already been teaching-this is my twelfth
year. And I still get the jitteriness, I still get the anxiousness. I still can't sleep
the night before. Um, it's-it's very normal to-to still be nervous. So when it comes to
classroom management and discipline, I like to make sure my students know that this
classroom is a welcoming environment but at the same time that a there's going to be
expectations and strategies that they have to follow. I always like having them something to do
as they come in the room so that it gives me time to take attendance or if I have a
parent that needs to talk to me. Um, this is isn't what I usually have them do. Um,
that takes a little bit longer but I figured this is something they know what
to do as soon as they come in. Alexandria, do you want to do me a favor
actually? Do you want to be my caboose? My caboose is a very important job. My
caboose is the one to make sure that she is at the end of the line making sure that
nobody gets lost between now and the time we get to class. So you need to make sure
that everybody stays in line. So go ahead and take that job behind Adris please. So my
first day I-I really don't waste any time. I think I needed to let students know that
we're back to business right away. So when I needed them to stand in that line I had
to show them you know this is your square, you need to stand here. So I had to show
them you know where their square was and what I meant by putting their two feet in
there and that kind of thing so they exactly knew what my expectation was. This is how
you're going to come in every morning when we get to class. And if you're too close to
her you can always leave a little room and that's perfectly okay...So when students
come in right away, I want to set just the tone of what my expectations are
immediately. So that's why I start with my rules. And the two rules that I emphasize
the most on is I really like to teach students to-to be respectful. I think that's
something that we need to-students need to know from you know a young age. So I
focused a lot on them using you know being respectful and using the words please and
using the words thank you. Rule number three and this is actually going to go into one
of our school wide rules which is to respect others, respect yourself, and respect your
school. And later I am going to go into a little more detail about what it means to
be respectful. Um, a big very important word for me in this classroom is right
here: say please. If you are asking someone to let you borrow their eraser or their
pencil or any material, you say may I please borrow your pencil? May I please borrow
your eraser? So the word please for me is very important because you are being
respectful to that person. So that is part of my classroom rule. So routines and
procedures are-are crucial. Um, basically the way that I do it for me and I know it
works differently for everybody, but for me it's, I take whatever it is I expect for
them and I have to make sure that I model everything. So there's, I model it, we
practice, we re correct or pre correct and then model again and continue to
practice. So there's routines and procedures for everything even for the most minute
thing. I can't assume that students already know how to do things. Another thing that you're going to want to
ask me for permission is to get a new pencil. Now sometimes I understand that pencils
do break, but guess what? We're still using not the big fat pencils but we're using
the medium sized pencils. These are very hard to break. But if it does break, you
take your pencil and you lift it up in the air like this. You wait for me until I give you
direction, and tell you yes, you may grab a new pencil. Notice what I'm doing right
now, I'm shaking my head, right? I'm nodding I'm telling you, yes, you may grab a new
pencil. If I give you permission to grab a new pencil, you quietly get out of your seat, you
carefully walk to this corner of the room. In this corner of the room we have two
different containers. One container says unsharpened. The other container says
sharpened. So if you need a new pencil, you just quickly, notice how I said
quickly, you take the pencil that broke, you put it in there and you quickly grab another
pencil and you get back to your seat Now your pencils do have your number on
them. The reason why I did that this year is because I've had a lot of students chew
their pencils, who break their pencils, who destroy their pencils. Well guess what, I
will know who did that because it has your number on it. So if I see that number two
is chewed on, who's number two? Albert. So I'll go up to Albert and say, Albert, Are we
being responsible with this pencil because it's all chewed up. Your pencils have your number for that
reason. I need you to take one hand and lift up all
of the books and materials that you need except for the test blocker. So grab
from the white board and lift it up and slide your hand in there. Then with your other hand you're just going
to grab that test blocker and you're going pull the test blocker out. I know it's
going to be hard for right now but you are going to get so good at this that you’re
going to be like what, I can't believe I couldn't do it the first day of school. Okay, I see a few people that have already
done it. Once you have done it just go ahead and put them on your table flat. I'm sorry, I'm still
hearing people talking. Give me a thumb up if your test
blocker is already on your desk. Perfect. So we're going to try that again. When I
say, go, you're going to get your test blocker ready. Go. Perfect. I love the way that uh Albert has
it up and his hands are still on his desk clasped together. So PBiS, with PBiS you have to maintain the
five to one ratio. I mean it's very easy sometimes to want to call out the things
that you're seeing that students are not doing. You have to remember that students
will model from the positives. And it's very as soon as I say, oh I really like the way
that so and so is sitting up straight, you see all the little bodies you know straighten
up. Positives work and I notice that they work better than the negatives, but I try
to remind myself, I need to keep it positive so that everybody follows what I want
to see and I don't want them to copy what I don't want them to see. We're
probably not going to finish it all, I'm just going to have you get started on it.
Okay, Luis go ahead and walk us in please. Excuse me. Thank you. I love the way you
guys are coming in with a voice level zero which is our expectation. So today was
Friday of the first week and I had had a previous conversation with the librarian and
I asked her, I said, you know I know today is our day that we would normally come to
the library. We're not going to come in to check books, but I do want students to kind
of know that we're going to have routines and procedures in the library. And I know
they've been here in the past but they forget, so I wanted to go through the
library expectations while we were there so that they had that expectation ready so
that next week when we go, I don't spend so much time on the routines and
procedures, we spend more time on getting our books. And don't forget I always have
my phone with me and my phone has the Dojo app so I will be able to give points
if I see that people are following that expectation and I will be able to take away
points if people are not following that expectation. Some teachers believe that we
only teach the routines and procedures once and the kids are going to get it. We need
to take the time to teach them now, and yes it will take time, but it saves me time in
the long run. If I can get them to learn those routines and procedures now, I'm not
going to be spending such a long time to re teach. So if I can get it down now,
later on it's just a very quick reminder and I can just get them back into shape, so
in the long run, it is saving me time. ♪[theme music]
