Classroom Management

Classroom Management / Positive Incentive Plan

The end of the year isn’t easy for anyone. If the teacher feels “checked out” along with the students, this can be a catastrophe. It is so important, especially this time of year, to remain focused and excited about new lessons as well as established procedures. Weekly Newsflashes to parents is a good way to keep everyone in the loop with what’s happening in the classroom so everyone is on the same page. Until the last day of school, we need to stay on our game, and not let the kids feel as though there is nothing new to learn.

Active Engagement

I feel like if you aren’t excited about the lesson you are teaching, the kids won’t either. I’m lucky in this area. The Montessori materials used in so many of my lessons make it very easy to obtain and hold student engagement. One strategy I try to practice is always changing up the way I present a new lesson. My students’ love when I tell stories about when I was their age, a personal story about my family, or even about something I did over the weekend. It’s so important to keep that personal connection. I believe that maintaining a positive rapport with your students as well as using engagement strategies not only is more fun for the students, but it makes it so much more fun to teach.

Counselors in Schools

Last year I became the special education teacher at our Middle School. Even though I taught in the elementary grades for 12 years, I wasn’t totally prepared for some of the issues facing young teens these days. I was faced with a very difficult situation involving two young girls who had just moved to our school in the recent years. They both came from completely different schools and home situations, but the two were both dealing with forms of anxiety.

It was discovered on one of our 3-night field trips that the girls were both “cutting”. At first, I didn’t realize that this wasn’t a sign of being suicidal, so I kind of freaked out. I was able to call our school counselor while on that trip to seek advice. She was so helpful, and calmed me down. She explained what cutting means, and why people do it. She also helped me brainstorm the conversation I would have to have with the parents, and what words to use.  I am very thankful that our school has hired a group of people that work together so well as a team.

Common Core

I believe it was 2010 when I first heard about the Common Core Standards that were “going to change education as we know it”.  At first, I didn’t really know what to think about the idea. As the team leader for the six “Elementary 2” classrooms, I was sent to one of the first seminars that the AZ Dept of Education was putting regarding the new standards. I came back from that 3-day intensive training looking like a deer in headlights. The complexity of the questions and curriculum seemed much harder that I was used to, and I was so sick of hearing the word “rigor”.

As a Montessori teacher, I worried that the new standards were going to force a school like mine to dilute our program, and lose touch of our philosophy.

“Follow the child”

“Show them the why before you show them how”

These were the statements I was afraid we’d lose sight of.

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I signed up for another training the next fall, and that’s when things changed for me. I started to understand that what the Common Core is really trying to do is exactly what we’ve been doing for hundreds of years as Montessori schools. It is leading the students to really analyze information and “understanding the why”. We will still be able to follow each child.

So, as I hate the expression “teaching to the test” I do feel confident that what we’re already doing will ensure our kids do just fine with the Common Core Standards.