So What Does this Page Tell You?
1. How to beat that challenge of getting all of your content in before a state test.
2. Tips to answer the Classroom Management for this different environment.
2. Tips to answer the Classroom Management for this different environment.
The Content Challenge High School is a big challenge. You have massive amounts of content to get through before a state test that is not even at the end of the year. Many teachers think this warrants a sit and get lecture style. By using the lecture style you are constantly introducing new content ,but the question to ask yourself is, "are kids really learning?"
This is not to say direct instruction is dead. Students still need it! There are even a few teachers out there that can truly hold students attention with the sit and get instructional style. The true reality though is that those folks are few and far between. So if you are going to conquer the test, blend, and not constantly devolve into sit and get, you really need to schedule your content on in an intelligent way. Hopefully, the tips below will help you do it! Scheduling Tips
1. Take Your Focus off of District and State Content Maps and Just Focus on Standards
|
The Behavior Challenge Shifting to a blended learning environment can also bring with it shifts in how you manage your classroom. The whole goal of this environment is to truly personalize learning for students, and that means you are going to have students going in different directions. You have to be ready to manage that, and below you will find some tips to do so.
Behavior Management Tips
1. Don't be afraid, Take Risk
|
Tools for Classroom Mangement
'This is going to be a take it or leave it category for many. If you don't need a tool, it's certainly ok. Before you pass this off, though, just consider the teacher who has those students who hate learning, don't care about grades, and have no college aspirations. Those students are out there, and so these can be alternative ways to mentor them
Class Craft: classcraft.com
Have you ever wanted to turn your class into a game? Class Craft could be a way to do it. It basically takes all of the skills and things you ask students to do, and it turns it into a World of Warcraft style game. Students compete in teams, and they get awarded points based on the positive things they do in the classroom.
Class Craft has a whole Youtube Channel devoted to tutorials which can be found at this link. |
Red Critter Teacher: redcritterteacher.com
Red Critter is set up very similar to Class Dojo in the fact that you add classes and students and then award points based on soft skills. It also allows the teacher to implement badging. The downside is it does cost $4.99 a month
Red Critter has a whole Youtube Channel devoted to tutorials which can be found at this link. |
Class Dojo: classdojo.com
Don't laugh. Does Class Dojo look childish? Yes. Will certain kids give you a hard time about it? Most definitely. Just think about the real goal here. You need a way to provide an incentive to some of your population. You need a way for parents to see what is going on in real time. Dojo lets you do both of those. So if you're not into this, just think of it as an option for others! And yes, it has been successfully implemented in high schools...it just takes the right mindset.
|
|