Good classroom management ideas/techniques?

Question

Especially for a special ed class of mostly highly distractible 5th grade boys. I'm pretty strong in this area because I'm very stern and no-nonsense but I'm always trying to get better. Please share.

Answer 1

The best tool I've found for our students is constant communication with parents.  We have special ed students who are in need of constant feedback.  A daily note which can be as simple as a couple of words works well. This is not just for problems but tells about great behavior or effort as well.  We have gotten parents on board to support the daily marks with rewards established at home for the expected improvement or meeting a goal.  Doing this for a whole class of 22+ students can be hard but for a smaller class or the few in the most need it is really effective.