Sarada Peri

Greater New Orleans ‘01

Marion Abramson Senior High School—English and Reading
Speri79@yahoo.com
2
Systems That Work in a System That Doesn’t: Managing a
Secondary Classroom

One of the most overwhelming aspects of being a teacher is the sheer

volume of organization and paperwork. Of course, this is only part of your job, as
you are expected to manage your classroom and teach a few things as well. In
this workshop, we will discuss ways in which to create the most efficient,
achievement-oriented classroom as possible. One thing to stress: organization
and management of behavior do not occur overnight. Rather, they are the results
of well thought out plans and consistent enforcement of rules, consequences, and
procedures. Don’t relent!

Agenda

I. Classroom Organization and Management

II. Classroom Set-up
III. Day-to-Day Operations
IV. Discipline and Classroom Management
V. Grading
VI. For the floating teacher…

I. Classroom Organization and Management

One of the most important things to internalize as a new teacher is the

deep and unwavering connection between staying organized and having excellent
classroom management. As soon as you can look around and feel that your
classroom has a clear and tangible set of procedures, you will immediately notice
that your students will settle into a pattern that is academically rewarding.
From the outset, I establish the highest of expectations for behavior, and in
turn, academic achievement. I have a no nonsense attitude from the first day of
school onwards—you can always lighten up, but it is much easier to ease up than
come on strong once you’ve already relinquished control of the class. That said,
keep in mind that on days when your brain is sort of wacky (and there will be
those days) your students will also be less controlled and more likely to act out
and be off task.

II. Classroom Set-up

A. On the first day of school, my students are each handed a card with a
number that corresponds to a numbered desk. (Of course, they cannot enter
my room until their shirts are tucked into their pants and I see no headgear or
electronic devices—non-learning tools, as I call them.) Initially, I arrange the
seating chart alphabetically. However, in the instance that you are not
 provided with a class roster ahead of time, I just randomly hand cards out as
they come in and learn names along the way. Having a seating chart right up
front shows that you mean business and that they are walking into a well-oiled
machine whose sole purpose is to educate.

After awhile, I may change the chart, especially based on students needs and
behaviors. In addition, I may also change the physical set-up of the room, but I
always start the year off in traditional rows. Anything else may invite
unwanted behavior.

B. The students are handed a packet with my rules and procedures (see
end of this packet), as well as student/parent/teacher contract and a syllabus
for the semester. We spend the first week going extensively over all the rules
and consequences in the class. Have your students model what certain
behaviors look like and what they shouldn’t look like. I usually have them get
into pairs and do skits, which is always fun and gets the kids fairly invested in
why we have rules for behavior. Buy-in is incredibly important. You will spend
the next year demonstrating that wasting time only means that less learning
will occur, and once they understand that, you will have students trying to
keep each on task.

C. You absolutely must call out the first misbehavior that occurs. If you
have just finished going over the rules and somebody is chatting with his/her
neighbor, issue an immediate warning. If it continues, proceed to your next
consequence. Do NOT let your students believe that the first day is any
different from any other day. This attitude that the learning begins NOW will
have huge pay-offs in the end. We will discuss this more later.

D. Students keep their Warm-Up Journals in my class in crates designated

for each class period. In some semesters, I have allowed students to keep
binders in my room as well, and there are pros and cons to this practice.

III. Day-to-Day Operations

A. Daily Board: Everyday on the board is the date, objective(s), agenda,

homework, and Warm-Up. When they walk into class, they take their journals,
sit down, and quietly begin working on their journals, for which they generally
have 10 minutes, unless it’s a unique assignment. The walking-in procedure is
modeled extensively for at least a week. If students do it wrong, I have them
do it over and over until it’s right.

B. The Clipboard: I always carry around my clipboard, on which I place my

lesson, any handouts for the period, notes, a discipline log, detention slips, and
a couple of blank sheets of paper. It is essential for me to make sure that I
have all of my materials together and this is a good way of doing so. In
addition, writing down everything students to can be invaluable. Often, if a
 child is acting out and you simply begin writing while looking in their direction,
you can immediately curb the behavior without so much as a word.

C. Student Jobs: I have a Homework Collector, Paper Passer, Paper

Collector, and Journal Manager, as well as various other roles depending on the
unit. I try to rotate these jobs weekly. Having students help out makes life
tremendously easier and also speeds things up so that you can really
maximize instructional time. I also find that jobs are a privilege and generally
taken very seriously.

D. In/Out Folders: I keep an in folder and an out folder for each of my

classes. It simply allows me to organize work that needs to be graded and
work that already has been graded. I always have a student alphabetize all
work before I put it in a folder to grade.

E. Tardy Binder: My school has notoriously poor attendance and a severe

tardiness problem. For this reason, students can be coming in at any time
during first period with little consequence handed out by that school. I
therefore establish my own rather harsh consequences for dealing with this
problem. The Warm-Up, which can only be done in the first ten minutes of
class and cannot be made up, counts as 25% of your final grade. In addition,
when students are late, I have them sign in the Tardy Binder, which rests on a
small table right next to the door. This way, they do not interrupt the flow of
the class, except for the door opening, and I can just record their attendance
later. It also helps during parental conferences to pull out the tardy binder and
show how many times one child has signed in late during the course of a
semester. I then just adjust the attendance during my planning period or while
students are passing to the next class.

F. Make-up Binder: Everyday after school, I try to put whatever

handouts, lessons, and homework into a make-up binder. When students who
have an excused absence return to school, they need to take time after school
or during lunch to check the binder, get the notes, etc. I only make copies that
are absolutely necessary, as I have a copy limit at my school. This system
puts the responsibility of getting make-up work on the student, especially
since I have a two-day limit. Be sure that you are clear about your make-up
policy right in the beginning of the year, and stick to it. I do not generally let
kids make up work two days before grades are due, and they usually see what
damage it does to their grades. The bind can be work intensive, so enlist the
help of a reliable student to copy notes, organize lessons, etc. There’s always
one who’s willing…

IV. Discipline and Behavior Management for Your Sanity and Theirs

A. Rules & Procedures: MODEL, MODEL, MODEL those rules and those
procedures. Quiz your students on them during the first week. Have them
make do and don’t skits. Remind them of the rules ten times a day. Point to
them wordlessly. Above all, make it clear WHY you have them in the first
place. Some teachers prefer to keep their rules fairly simple. I do add a few
specific details (like no cell phones), but you need to create rules that will work
for you. If you truly don’t care about gum-chewing, don’t sweat it. Likewise, if
getting up to sharpen a pencil drives you nuts, you should probably establish a
procedure. Keep in mind the age and grade of your students.

B. Discipline Log: It is absolutely ESSENTIAL that you document as much as

possible of what goes on in your class. This may be informally jotting notes
down on looseleaf as you go through the day, or it may be a more formal
record in the form of a log. This is actually pretty easy to keep going, as long
as you keep it on the clipboard. Try to keep all documentation in the same
format. Your school may have something specific required of you in this
arena, so be sure to check once you get to your site. I have a tendency to
write everything down, even if it seems small.

C. Detention: Detention should be a time of reflection, not simply a place

where students sulk and sit at a desk doing nothing. I have students fill out a
detention treaty explaining their behavior. I even have them write letters to
my family and friends, or to their own parents, explainin their behavior and
how they plan on improving their behavior to maximize their learning
potential. Your own friends and family will love getting letters, and I have
found that they usually write back to the students, providing some more
motivation and inspiration from adults.

D. Strength in Consistency:
1. You absolutely have the power to use your procedures and rules as a
management tool—and your students will be grateful if you do. More than
anything, our students crave consistency, consistency they may not be
receiving elsewhere in their lives. The look to teachers to create a safe,
welcoming environment that pushed and values them as people and as
learner. Even teenagers, whom people believe want nothing more than
freedom, truly just want a safe place to grow. You can provide them with this,
but you have to be consistent about your systems.

2. There are many ways to analyze your own behavior in the classroom to
ensure consistency. Carry around a seating chart and place checkmarks next
to students whom you reprimand. Is there a pattern? Do you pick on the
boys, or the kids on one side of the room? Have another teacher observe you,
or place a tape or video recorder in your classroom to watch for your patterns.

3. Be sure to call out every single behavior that you told them you would
call out. Do not relent just because you think that Suzie might have a temper
tantrum if you tell her to throw out her gum. If you truly feel that some
students need behavior modifications, work with the child and his/her parents
on creating one. But do not make exceptions for children without thinking
them through and organizing a system to do so. Follow through with your
 consequences. You will have days where you second guess yourself—just go
with it and analyze later.

4. Be familiar with your school’s discipline program and stick with it. Your
own management plan should coincide with that of your school. In addition,
make friends (allies) with teachers in neighboring classrooms. This is
important for many reasons, but in this case, you want to be able to remove
an extremely troublesome student and have them work silently in another
teacher’s room if necessary.

5. Call parents. Call parents whenever you can. Be sure to make initial
contact within the first couple of weeks of school (yes, for all 150 of your
students) so that the family has heard from you and knows that your main
concern is Johnny’s education, not getting Johnny in trouble. Keep them
updated about Johnny’s progress, and positive and negative things that are
happening in class. Keeping in mind all cultural considerations and being wary
of any and all differences, you still want to maintain contact with a child’s
family. In addition, DOCUMENT EVERY CONTACT YOU MAKE, even if you only
spoke to Johnny’s 3 year-old brother. Write it down.

6. Everything has its place. To make your life easier, try to keep
information about a student all together. In Louisiana, teachers have Form 44
cards for each student on which we record attendance, behavior issues, parent
contact, even grades if we want. If your district does not require such a card
from you, you may want to consider making up a folder or card for each of
your students. Although we have many more students than the elementary
teacher, this is not an excuse for not documenting and tracking every child.

V. Grading: You have the power to avoid the logistical nightmare that can be
grading. Here are a couple of rules to live by.
A. Don’t grade everything the kids do. Sometimes, a simple check is
enough.
B. Have them grade their own work as often as possible. They learn a
great deal this way.
C. RUBRICS
D. Get an electronic gradebook. I use Teacher’s Toolbox, but there are
plenty out there. Go to www.rredware.com. Talk to veteran teachers at
your school who may already have a disk somewhere that they could
lend to you. You can also just use Excel spreadsheets to calculate
grades. Electronic gradebooks generate progress reports and are
excellent for showing parents and students progress. They also make it
clear that grades are not subjective in your class, which is incredibly
important.
E. Give out progress reports. It’s not at all time consuming with the
electronic gradebook.
VI. For the Floating Teacher: As a secondary teacher, it is entirely possible
that you will be floating this coming year. The definition of a floating teacher
is roughly someone who does not have his/her own classroom and therefore
uses other teacher’s classrooms, usually a different one for each period. This
has advantages and disadvantages. On one hand, you will never have to put
up or take down a classroom. On the other hand, you never have your own
space and usually have to adjust your own plans to suit the teacher in whose
room you are teaching. It is definitely possible, however, to have a successful
year as a floater. Here are some tips:

A. The Cart: Get your hands on a rolling cart, shopping cart, or large
backpack to transport your materials. If you are a science teacher or use
many supplies for your lessons, there will be days when you will definitely
need a cart or some extra hands to help you move around.

B. Makeshift boards: Floaters often do not have complete access to a

teacher’s blackboard. In addition, because you come to a class right when
the bell rings, you usually have very little prep time, so things need to be
ready to go.
Office Depot sells folding dry erase display boards that can easily be used
as a traveling board. You can write your agenda, objective, etc. on one
side, and use the remaining sections for information that you need to travel
with.
Another way of saving money and materials is laminating several different
colored poster boards. You can use transparency markers or even dry
erase markers on them over and over again.

C. Filebox and File Folders: Organization is your number one defense as a

floating teacher. Get to school early enough (or stay late enough) to prep
ALL your materials, with enough copies. I would get a multiple pocket
plastic folder. Put all of your materials for each period into the various
sections so that you can just pull them out without fumbling around. Invest
in a filebox in which you can keep essentials like staplers, chalk, erasers,
student work, sponge activities, etc. Be sure to carry around extra pencils
and pens. Organize your student work into in/out folders by period to make
passing and collecting easier.

D. Student Jobs: Students can still be extremely helpful when you float.
Keep using them to help you pass and collect papers, stay on task, and
clean up the room at the end of the period so that the next teacher will be
grateful to have as neat a floater as you!

E. Good Rapport: It is essential that you maintain a positive relationship with

the teacher who has the classroom you float into. Offer to buy Kleenex for
the class or have your detention kids clean his/her desks. Also, if the
teacher seems hesitant to make a copy of the key to the room, offer to take
 it yourself to make a copy, or ask a custodian to help you out. Having a key
is important, but not vital. However, it may take you a couple of months to
earn the teacher’s trust required to give you a key.

REMEMBER: You do not have to introduce all of your systems at once.

Gradually ease into them and stick with them for a bit even if they don’t
seem to work at first. Everything takes time.
YOU ARE THE TEACHER. Create a world in which things are organized
and managed and your students will be grateful and much more eager
to learn.

QUESTIONS: