If you have any information about your students from the previous grade teacher, then you can group your students in tiers based on the data on the first week. If the students have never been to school, then you can group them randomly in the first week of school.
In the second or third week, you can group them based on your observations, and once you have data from the beginning of school year assessments, then you can arrange them in tiers. (Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3)
I organize the tiers by colors that match with the classroom rug and all the material’s boxes.
Management
Management
When the centers are in place, the next step is to find the place where all your classroom management charts will go. They have to be preferably at students’ eyes level, accessible for the teacher and students, and not too high up or in a corner where they can end up overseeing. The students’ names need to be visible in seven or more places around the classroom, including their pictures.
The charts I use in my classroom are:
- Schedule.
- Rules and Consequences.
- Calendar.
- Person of the day: a list with all the students names.
- The classroom jobs with the students names.
- The classroom teams with the students names.
- “How are we going home?” chart with the students’ names
- Today’s centers with the students names.
- Word wall with the students names.
- “Who’s Here Today?” chart with the student’s names and pictures.
Schedule
I usually put the schedule by the calendar near the rug to use for the morning meeting with the students. The daily schedule is accessible to the students and displayed at their eye level. There must be a clip that moves as students’ progress through their day, and the students can help move the pin from one activity to the next. This helps build ownership in their daily schedule. There must be text with relevant photos for every activity, preferably the actual students in the class completing that part of the schedule.
Students need to know the routine of the day. Keep a schedule to help avoid student’s insecurities and anxieties about what is coming next.
Students need to know the routine of the day. Keep a schedule to help avoid student’s insecurities and anxieties about what is coming next.
Rules and Consequences Chart
This chart should be posted on the student’s eye level with words and pictures. There are a limited number of rules (3-5) and in positive language. I talk more about it in the Behavior section.
Calendar
Children don’t have a complete understanding of time until age eleven, but that doesn’t mean they do not understand the order, patterns, and basic earth science. The calendar can be a great way to reinforce patterns, weather, basic vocabulary like the names of the day and months, the sun, the earth, the moon, etc. I use my calendar time in connection with Math and Science. When I was working in Houston, we received the materials and training for a fantastic program called: “Every Day Counts” by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This program is incredible! It has it’s own easy to follow daily mini-lessons that reinforces a lot of Math skills like patterns, number sequence, counting, shapes, colors, etc. It is also attractive for the students and an excellent complement for Math lessons. If you do not have access to this program, the calendar time is a great opportunity to talk about earth science, the weather, seasons, and reinforce Math.
Person of the Day
This chart is an excellent strategy to avoid fights among the students when they all want to be first in line or be the teacher’s helper. The first student on the person of the day list is the line leader, and every day, you move down the list to the next student until all the students get the opportunity to be the person of the day. When finished with all the students, you start the list again until the end of the school year.
Classroom Jobs
The classroom’s job chart is an essential part of classroom management. I usually do not give the students classroom jobs until after the third week of school; When students have an understanding of the classroom routine, rules, expectations, and procedures. Classroom jobs are a responsibility and also a privilege, so students that are responsible for managing their behavior and complying with the classroom expectations are the ones that get jobs first.
Children like to have attention, be helpful, and be considered, so all the students in the classroom should have a classroom job by the second-month school started.
Children like to have attention, be helpful, and be considered, so all the students in the classroom should have a classroom job by the second-month school started.
Some examples of classroom jobs are:
Another essential part of classroom management is the classroom’s job chart. Some examples of jobs in the classroom can be:
- The person of the day is the line leader and teacher helper.
- The caboose (last person in the line that closes the door and turn the lights off)
- The sanitizer person.
- The bathroom door holders (one for the boys and one for the girls).
- The students that help put the chairs over the tables at the end of the day.
- The students that swipe the classroom floor at the end of the day.
- The students that pass materials or folders.
- The students that distribute the backpacks or lunch boxes.
- The students that pass papers.
- The classroom pet caretaker. (If you have a class pet)
- The classroom plant caretaker. (If you have a class plant)
- The centers’ organizer, who makes sure all the centers are tidy and organized at the end of the day.
Anything you can think about that is safe and age-appropriate for your students can be delegated to help you run your class smoothly. Every student should be assigned to do something every day for the classroom. The jobs can switch every week, daily, every month, the way that is better for you, but remember that all the students need to rotate through all the jobs by the end of the school year.
Classroom Teams
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