Top Five Rules for a Harmonious Classroom November 29 2011, 0 Comments

All teachers crave a well behaved classroom, where they are able to get on and impart all of their knowledge to a room full of interested students. However, keeping a class in order is one of the main issues that any teacher will face - be they a veteran of many years or a newly qualified teacher just starting out. Below we outline some key tips for making sure a classroom can be the fun and informative place it should be - these may be especially useful for those in the supply teaching industry, who often find that classes will try and be more unruly than usual.

Positive Reinforcement

Establishing a set of rules for the classroom is a very good idea, the list should not be too long - usually four or five will suffice - and most importantly they should say what pupils should do, as opposed to what they should not. For example, rather than saying do not shout out, a rule could say raise your hand and wait to speak. Praise good behaviour - but obviously don't go overboard - and when a rule is broken, remind the student about the rule and what it is they should have done instead.

Nip it in the Bud

If you can see that a class or individuals in a class are getting out of hand, then it is important to deal swiftly with a problem before it spirals out of control. This is important because bad habits can be hard to break, so if there is a particular problem - for example chatter when the class is supposed to be silent - you should ensure that this will not be tolerated, so the class know not to take liberties.

Be Clear with Consequences

Make sure that students know what the consequences of their actions will be. This could be a code where repeated bad behaviour will result in more serious punishments or making sure that adequate warning has been given, either verbally or referring them to the list of rules they need to comply with. A gradual escalation such as removing their liberties e.g. not letting them choose where they, to taking away their free time, can be a good strategy for demonstrating that actions do have consequences.

Establish Start and Finish Routines

Having a solid routine for the start and finish of a class is an extremely useful tool in any teacher's armoury. A good starting routine can be to set a class to work straight away such as silent reading of a text book, a dictation exercise or for something more light hearted a pop quiz to recap a previous lesson. All this can help avoid unnecessary distractions at the start of lessons and mean that pupils know that work has to happen in the classroom. At the end, always make sure you leave to time wind down, in order to be able to clearly state what homework is required and hopefully to be able tell the kids what a good lesson you have just had.

Be the Boss

The teacher is the adult in the classroom and you need to be in charge. Students will often think of numerous ways of getting out of doing work, showing off to their peers or otherwise not doing what is required of them. Therefore, it is important that you stand head and shoulders above them - like a boss - and that they know that you are the one who is in control but equally someone they respect and can be approached to help them.

These are just a few tips, there are undoubtedly many more but we think if you stick to these principals, you are sure to have a harmonious classroom.

Jonathan is a freelance writer with interests in the education industry, including supply teaching, primary and secondary education and education news.

Top Ways your Kids Get Around Your Computer Rules October 19 2011, 1 Comment

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If there’s one single fact that has stayed constant throughout time it is that children will always want to do what they are not allowed to do. This has never been more true than it is today, but it has also never been more dangerous.

Parents institute computer rules to keep their children safe from Internet predators and inappropriate material. They encourage them to focus on learning rather than chatting on Facebook with their friends. As children have grown up with computers, they can often be one step ahead of you when it comes to using technology and computers. Making sure they follow your rules can be difficult with all the tricks they use.

Here are a few so you can stay a step ahead and better protect your kids.

Deleting Browsing History

So, your child has been on the computer for hours, and when you ask them what they are doing, they innocently reply “working on my science project about a miniature load cell.” When they go to bed, you quickly check the search history and see nothing but Google searches and pages on “load cell calibration.”

This doesn’t mean that you have nothing to worry about – your child could easily have been on dozens of different websites and simply deleted the sites from the history. Look at the time-stamps of the visited websites – were they all opened at the start of the browsing session and there is nothing from the final two hours? Your child was probably breaking the rules.

You can find free software online that will help you recover deleted browsing history and see what your child has been up to.

Multiple Online Accounts

You may require your child to tell you the passwords to their email, Facebook and Twitter accounts so that you can make sure they are not saying anything inappropriate about themselves online. This does not mean that your worries are over.

Your child may well have multiple accounts for social media and email and give you the passwords to the one that is filled with innocuous, everyday material. Their private conversations with friends will be kept on other accounts that you have no idea even exist.

If you are concerned about this as a possibility, you could install a keylogger on the computer. This will let you see exactly what your child has been typing.

Disabling Parental Supervision Software

You may have installed a program like NetNanny to limit the kinds of sites that your child can visit. Unfortunately, a simple Google search brings up multiple sites that tell your child exactly how to disable or uninstall this software. Reinstalling your software every so often can set it back to your original settings, but the best way to make sure your child is not visiting such websites is to only allow them to use the computer when they are in a room with the rest of the family.

This is a guest post by James Tennant who blogs how to keep your kids safe while online, even if you think they are researching loadcell and miniature load cell developments.