classroom – projectGENIUS

Rating Classroom Management Techniques (And a Bingo Bonus!)

Amber Kay — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 00:56:29 +0000

Having taught from babies to high school, I have implemented a wide range of classroom management techniques over the years. As all age ranges react differently, you can probably guess which ones react better than others.

Have you implemented these same techniques in your school as well? I hope you will learn at least one new technique today or perhaps agree or disagree with my rating system of each technique.

Can you get bingo from below?

The silent treatment	Ringing a bell/annoying sound	1-on-1 outside classroom	Jingle jingle keys pay attention	Adding a punishment (homework, test, etc)
Making them stand	Teachers Room	Quiet police	Threatening to turn off the AC in summer	Stand near noisy students
https://bouncyballs.org/	Take break time away	FREE SPACE (you have good students, congratulations!)	Calming music	The unexpected
Moving students	Board apology	Turning off the lights	Timer	Countdown
Positive reinforcement	Exercise	Call and response	Apology letter	Calling parents threat

Here is the list of techniques used above for getting a classroom quiet and my efficiency rating for all::

Technique	Efficiency Rating :(1 - least effective 5 - most effective)	Explanation:
The silent treatment	3	Usually can take a long time for students to realize the teacher is waiting so if overdone can lose effectiveness quickly.
Ringing a bell/annoying sound	5	The more annoying it is, the more likely the student's attention will be quickly grabbed.
1-on-1 outside classroom	2	Either with myself or having gotten other teachers involved, this is actually not that effective, especially with students with more stronger personalities than others.
Jingle jingle keys	4	Used sparingly and once taught effectively, “jingle jingle pay attention” is a keeper.
Adding a punishment	4	Most effective when the punishment is a test, quiz, or homework. Fear is always a great way to quiet students down. If your students all have bad grades, this won’t be effective at all.
Making them stand	5	Surprisingly works very well for most students. They tend to get the hint pretty quickly if I ask them to stand multiple times or if I keep them standing for long periods (only a few minutes max don’t worry.)
Teachers Room	2	Another surprising one, the teacher’s room is actually NOT that effective and can make other students make it into a game. Can be effective for others though so pick your battles.
8) Quiet police	3	Depending on the class, works wonderful and others…well you can imagine. Hit or miss.
9) Threatening to turn off the AC in summer	5	10/10 highly recommend (use sparingly as your last weapon).
10) Stand near noisy students	4	If they’re silly, they will stare back at you and keep laughing but overall this is pretty effective but not long term.
11) https://bouncyballs.org/	2	Honestly…it’s not that great. I’ve used these voice level monitoring sites, and the students just don’t seem interested in it to be honest.
12) Take break time away	5	With only 10 minutes in between classes, time is gold.
13) Calming music	3	Gets students interested but doesn’t keep their attention for long. Best for self-study mostly.
14) The unexpected	5	A dance, a meme, a song, this is one of the best ways to get their attention. For example, a popular Tiktok song as of July 2024.
15) Moving students	5	As long as they are not near ANY students this will work. I usually like to put them near me or have them be my helper. A classic because if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
16) Board apology	3	If they can write and understand why they’re writing, great. If they don’t care, they will see it as just annoying, which might also work as well. Hit or miss.
17) Turning off the lights	2	Can work in the right conditions but overall students just think they’re about to watch a movie.
18) Timer	2	Students will just wait till it gets to an even number of 1:00 exactly then go “aww…”
19) Countdown	4	A classic.
20) Positive reinforcement	4	Usually in the form of giving no homework or a song, this does work pretty well.
21) Exercise	4	Depending on the season, this is another effective surprise. If you make them tired they will be too tired to talk to others and will just preserve their saliva instead. Jumping jacks, clapping hands, pushups, etc this is especially effective if there’s a lot of boys in the class.
22) Call and response	3	It might be just me, but I am honestly not that great at doing these because I am soft voiced, but I bet other teachers will have better luck with this.
23) Apology letter	4.5	Great for those who are skilled AND not skilled in English, it will force lower skilled users to use what little English they know (or ChatGPT) and at least write some English they otherwise would not have written. Highly recommend it.
24) Calling parents threat	3.5	Greater for younger students, older students don't seem to care as much. This is actually more effective if you make it into a joke and pretend you are calling the police instead.

Header image by Miroslavik from Pixabay

Positively Entering Summer Vacation

Jason Packman — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 03:25:22 +0000

by Lily Song
High School Instructor

As we get closer and closer to summer vacation a trend that I’ve noticed is the general decline in motivation in the students as well as in teachers. I’m sure we can all relate to the anticipation of the end of school and the two-month break, away from all responsibilities. But, before we can completely shut our brains off and binge whatever is the latest trending content on Netflix, we need to sludge through this last month.

One of the biggest hurdles for me (and possibly) other native teachers is dealing with the lack of motivation amongst the students. I’m sure we can all remember back when we were students and our general attitude towards school during the last month before a long break. So, how can we ensure that their motivation doesn’t decrease? A technique that works best for me is managing my own energy and motivation.

As teachers we see our students on a daily basis. Our day-to-day energy, vibes and emotional state can be easily picked up by them. If we ourselves are not motivated we can’t expect the students to behave otherwise. That’s why for me, especially during the last month before a long break, I make all my lessons centered around review games or activities that get the students up and moving. If I’m excited by the lesson I’m putting out there, my students can pick up on my energy. This in return can create a positive feedback loop where teachers and students are working together, bouncing off of each others energy and keeping each other motivated.

A site that I frequent quite often to get templates for in class review games and such is ‘taysteachingtools’. There we can find Mario themed games, Pokemon themed ones, and loads more. My high school students respond really positively to the Mario themed review games. Mix that with friendly group competition and some black thunder chocolate snacks I can keep my student’s motivation levels up right their final exam.

What are some of your techniques during this period?

Back to the Classroom

Jason Packman — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 06:16:46 +0000

by Lily Song
High School Instructor

It’s been a rough few years with Covid and online classes. Now that things are finally going back to normal how is everyone adjusting?

My school held online classes for the last month during the last school term. While I still had to commute to school to do the classes, compared to in person teaching it was definitely more relaxed.

During my three years in Japan, this was my first time doing online lessons at any of my schools. So for me at least, it was extra stressful. Not only going into the process of doing online lessons but also coming out from this process.

Before coming to Project Genius I worked at an ALT dispatch company. At that time, I was used more as a secondary assistant. In other words, my role was less impactful. Therefore when Covid first hit and a lot of schools went to online lessons, I was spared from that.

That’s why this was my first time doing online lessons. The process going into it was stressful. Setting up teams, changing lesson plans so that students can participate online, and rescheduling the students final speaking test before their exam. It took a week to really get into the flow. It was also during this time that I found the merits of online classes. But, as fast as online classes came, it also went away.

Coming into this new school year, and doing the first in person lesson again after close to two month I was nervous again. But, a highlight of my school is that the teachers are given one week before the official start of classes to not only prepare but also to interact with the students and other teachers. It may seem like a small thing, but it definitely made the transition into the new year and new classes much easier.

I know with Covid, a lot of schools most likely held online lessons. So I’m curious as to how everyone is adjusting to this switch back to in person classes.