Starting off this school year better than last year?

Question

I will be beginning my second year of teaching in less than a month. Last year was horrible, partially due to the lack of quality administrators in my district, and partially due to the fact that it was my first year. I am determined to make this year better; any suggestions? I am teaching 8th grade English in an urban, low-income district in Ohio. I've read some stuff on classroom management, but am always looking for new ideas and would really appreciate creative methods and materials (help with grammar mini-lessons would be terrific).

Answer 1

The fact that you want to have a better year shows that you are a great teacher, a true life learner.  That's awesome!

There is an excellent book called (imagine this is italicized) The First Days of School by Harry and Rosemary Wong.  If you have never read it - get it!  It gives some great ideas in regards to daily organization and classroom management.  Also, check out the web - there is SO much that can be found just by using a search engine (use the key topics you are asking about).  Good luck!

Answer 2

i really like the book "setting classroom limits-"

its for new teachers  and others

i'm in my 9t year of teaching ( consider myself a master teacher)

but i always make time in my summer to refresh and reread that book.

this year im gogin from 8th grade which ive taught forvver to a known difficult 7th grade and i need to be super organised super ontop of my game, calm and most importantly funny.

i need to harness their energy in a positive way and get veryone interacting early through whiteboards and race games.

i alos am using clickers to make suer that everyones imput is recorded and saved as a spreadsheet ont he computer to anaylzze later. this reduces shoutign out and   increases participation. u can get a set from yr district on a trial basis.

Answer 3

Good luck to you.  Try these books.  I only have titles but I'm sure you can do a google search to get more information about them.  I teach in a low income school and these books came in handy.  They are:

The Daily Five

CHAMPS

What is it About Me You Can't Teach

I really hope these help.  Also if you type in language arts mini lessons for middle school you will get tons of information.

Answer 4

I too will be beginning my second year of teaching in August, but unlike you, I had an excellent year.  Part of it was that I aligned myself with a great group of teachers in the beginning and that always gave me someone to vent to and bounce ideas off of.  I teach math and science so I can't really help with the whole grammar lesson thing, but I do teach 8th grade.  One thing that I didn't do a lot of was yell.  I saved that for when I was really really mad at them.  No matter how much they talked (which is usually one of the biggest problems) I did not yell.  I usually sat down, gave them a chance to correct their own behavior or at least wait for peer pressure to kick in and they usually shut up.  They began to learn that if they let me do my thing and teach my lesson that they would have time to finish their homework and have their talk time at the end of class (which I would reward them with if they did listen well that day).  I really only remember yelling at them really well once and that was because they would not stop sharpening their pencils and the grinding of the pencil sharpener really got to me so layed into them really well and took away the pencil sharpener for a month. :)  They really appreciated it when it came back.  Good Luck!

Answer 5

Great question!

I will be starting my 9th consecutive year and I want it to be better this year too.

I always seem to improve on last years performance and so will you.

You did well to finish your first year.

It will be MUCH better this year since you will have done everything once already last year.

You already know the layout of the school and where everything is, when the staff meetings are and when.

You already know so many things that last year you did not.

Talk with seasoned English teachers to find out ways to make the job better.

Take notes and notice what you do that works and what doesn't.

Get together in-person with some English teachers before school starts and ask them for help.

The things that worked for you can stay in your plan, but where you need help you'll need to try something different.

Don't forget to take care of your health too. Get plenty of sleep and eat healthy foods. Also, exercise and enjoy some fun activities to stay happy.

Good luck!

Yam King

Answer 6

If you haven't read it already, pick up Dr. Harry Wong's The First Day of School.  You might not call the parents like he suggests, but you should do something similar to pretty much all of the methods he outlines in the book .  

Next,  be honest with yourself about what rules and consequences you are really going to follow through with.  If you will never remember to pick up punish work, then don't assign it.  If you had problems with smooth transitions, then start practiing a quiet signal on day one even if you don't need it.  If you had problems with talking out of turn, insist on raising hands from day one.  Honestly, everyone should make students raise thier hands.  It keeps quick students from blurting out answers and destryoing everyone else's think time.  It also prevents the loud kids from drowning out that quiet kid who finally wants to answer a question.  But I digress.

Back to the first day.  Assign seats alphabetically and have index cards or a cute cut-outs  with their names on thier desks before they walk in.  Have an assignment ready for them. While you are checking roll/schedules, they could fill out a personal inventory sheet, create a concept map about themselves, or interpret some type of motiviational saying (used to call them classroom mottos).  

Next, find out their names.  There's the name game.  Students introduce themselves and anyone else who has already been introduced.  ("Hi, my name is Bob, and this Sue, John, Veronica, etc. " )  You get to name everyone.  Discipline alwasy goes better when you actually know the kid's name instead of saying "Hey, you...".    Be sure to make your expectations clear before begining.  You expect everyone to listen at all times becasue it's terrible in November to refer to a classmate as "that girl who sits over there."

At this point you probably want to do your standard rules, class information, etc.  However, if you have needed to discuss rules before hand then so be it.  I have taken my yardstick and explained rule #1 to 10th graders within seconds of the first bell of the first day.  Say what you need to say, move on, and if they get the point pretend like it never happened.  

Next, you can do a getting to know you activity if you haven't done so already.  You want a grammar mini-lesson.  Hmmm... you could review adjectives and make every student write his/her name on the center of a paper plate  and fill the plate with adjectives.  If you have more time, you can review every part of speech and either use the paper plate idea (name in the center and an adjective, verb, noun, etc. that describes the student) or you could have studetns fill in a Mad Lib with every part of speech.  Remeind them that you'll read it after class.  If you did the Mad Libs, you could make students get in inner and outer circles and share what they came up with.  Inner and outer circles is a Kagan strategy, but I'm sure you can find an explaination on line.  Just be sure that you give students explicit instructions.  If you're short like me, you may need to stand on a chair or use a mini-megaphone.

Good luck!  Just remember  -- every succesful teacher looks back on his/her first  set of classes and sees what was done wrong.  The people who can't see it don't make it because they never change.