New Teacher IdeasClassroom Procedures
| Setting Up Your Lessons | Expectations/Rules Classroom Procedures are defined as transitioning from one part of your lesson to the next. How do you want the classes to enter and exit the gymnasium? How you want your class to begin and how your lesson is going to end? What type of warm up activities are you going to use; the traditional exercises or a more modern approach? Also, getting the class from their assigned seats to their class line ready to return to class. An effective teacher has a classroom management plan in place when school starts. Having a good management plan, allows more class time for learning skills rather than listening to instructions. You need to teach the classroom management procedures at the beginning of the year just as you would teach them the skills. You can not expect the students to automatically understand and follow your plan. Learning your student's names is a very important part of teaching. The students will respond to you better when they feel that you know who they are. It is important to learn the student's names as soon as possible. One way to do that is to have a seating chart for the student's on the first day they arrive in your classroom. It will help at first if you have them sitting together by class. (For a seating chart template see the Templates section). To assist you in setting up a seating chart, set up your gymnasium like a grid. Place numbers and letters on the wall that match your seating chart. Another technique is to take a class picture and label the back of the picture with the student's names in the order they appear on the picture. Look at other classroom Teaching Strategies. In setting up your lesson here are some things you need to consider. Do you have the most students' possible participating during the activity? Does the activity allow for all student's to be successful as well as challenged? How will you plan for the different ability levels in your class so all student's will enjoy your lesson? Does your lesson call for different size, weight and shape equipment for the student's to choose from that fits their ability level? I have found that planning the school year ahead of time, ensures that I cover all the state requirements. Take the school calendar and write out beside each week what theme you want to focus on with the primary (K-2) and intermediate grades (3-5). By creating that list you will be able to see if you have covered all of the themes for that year. If there are extra weeks, you can fill those in with themes that need more coverage, used as free weeks to do a variety of skill themes, or use that time to review earlier lessons. One way to look at the school year is to teach new concepts in the Fall and review/re-teach in the Spring. Try to avoid only teaching the skill once during the year. By reviewing/re-teaching in the Spring the student's will have had time to grow and now are able to perform the skill that could not be performed earlier in the year. Another thing to keep in mind when setting up your lesson for the year is how often you have the student's in your classroom. How many days a week do you see them? How many classes will you have during one period? How long will they stay with you before returning to class? Do you have your own gymnasium, will you be in the cafeteria, on the stage, outside or in their classroom? All of those things will play a big role in what skills you teach and how you set up your yearly plan. A good way to set up your daily lesson is by making a lesson plan template or copying the one from the Templates section. Be sure to include: the over all theme or objective for the class, where the game comes from, what equipment will you need, what is the name of the activity, how will you assess the children to see if they understand your lesson, and what Physical Education Curriculum requirements does the activity fulfill? A good way to keep up with your lesson plans is to type them out on the computer and keep them in a binder or notebook. By having them on the computer you can copy other lessons and create a whole new and unique weekly lesson plan. Keep the instructions simple and as short as possible while still giving all the necessary information. Tell the student's "when before what". Telling them when to do an activity before telling them what the activity actually is. By doing so, you will have their attention for a longer span. For example, when I say "go" get into groups of four and sit quietly in a square. As part of your preparations for the first day of school, it will be helpful if you take time before school starts to write out what you are going to tell the students. Combine your classroom procedures, expectations, discipline techniques, sit up notes and what ever else you feel is important to the safety of your class. By informing your students of how your class will be run and the expectation that you have on the first time they visit your class, will help establish a positive learning environment. On the first day, tell the class what you expect of them and post it on a wall so they will be able to clearly see your expectations. Periodically take a minute out of your lesson to review your expectations. Have some common sense rules. For example, no sitting on the balls, treat others with respect, be good sports, encourage others and be good helpers. Establish your gymnasium signals early. Commands that every gymnasium needs are: to start the activity or getting into groups by saying "go or you may begin", to stop say "freeze" and have the class return to their seats by using your school name and mascot, "Lively Eagles". Example of Class Rules: A great teacher is someone who has established effective classroom management techniques. Each teacher brings his or her own past experiences into their teaching style. Having a "point's board" has been helpful to keep the class in order. The whole class has to work together to earn five points each class time. The class gets one point for each of the following: enters the gymnasium quietly, follows directions, shows good sportsmanship, no student has to sit out or signs the book, lines up quietly and is ready to go back to class. There is a bonus point for the class that has the straightest line. For the primary grades the class has to earn fifty points to have free day and the intermediate grades needs to earn one hundred points. It works out for the primary grades that every three weeks they earn a free day and the intermediate grades earns a free day every six weeks. After you have established your rules, now you need to set up the classroom consequences. Are you going to give the child a warning? Are you going to have the student sit in time out? If so, for how long? How many times does the child have to sit out before you send a note home, call home, schedule a parent conference or send the student to the office? Are you going to have a severe clause where the student goes directly to the Principals office? When sending a student to time out think about doing so discreetly. No one likes to be singled out for making a bad choice, so think about when and how you put a student in time out. Try to do it during an activity instead of when the class is stopped when everyone hears and see them going to time out. On occasion, a student might try to make a scene. When telling them to go to time out, try not to make eye contact with them. After you tell them, leave that student and continue with your lesson. By not making eye contact, your chances of an argument will diminish greatly. If they do not go directly to time out, have a preset consequence already in place. Example of Consequences: Check to see if your district has specific policies for students that bring sick notes from doctors or parents. If there are not any, you and the school nurse need to set the rules for your campus. Our district has rules in place. If the note is from home it must be dated, the reason for sitting out, how many days the student will miss and signed by the parent. The most days that they can sit out with a note from home is three days. More that three days requires a note from their doctor. In our school we make sure that the classroom teacher also signs the note. Sometimes the students will have a note to sit out of physical education class, but play at recess or at lunch recess. By having that teacher sign the note they will also have the student sit out all type of recess or free time. |