ESGI News - March 2009

Become a teacher, change the world - that's the ideal most men and women hold dear when they pursue a career in education. Yet one quarter of all beginning teachers leave teaching within four years (Benner 2000). The average length of a teaching career in the United States is down to eleven years (Stephens 2001), and the length of an urban teaching career is even less since fifty percent of beginners leave in five years or less (Rowan et al. 2002). Research says that educators who burn out but remain teaching have a negative impact on students, even more so than those teachers who choose to leave the profession.

What can be done to minimize the tiredness, frustration, exhaustion, and/or stressed

hopelessness that lead to teacher dropouts or ineffective teachers? Respected mentor teacher and national speaker Rick Morris says the answer is often better classroom management. "In my first five years of teaching I was lost and confused because no one showed me how to run the day," Rick says. "We have to stop doing things the way our teachers did them. We have to remove uncertainty from the classroom."

Morris recommends five core concepts for establishing classroom order, the first is numbering. "Assign each of your students a number. There is structure with numbers and no structure with names. Label their folders, their cubbies - everything associated with that student should have their corresponding number on it. Immediately you eliminate the guesswork." Even though many students come in without number recognition, they will quickly learn to recognize "their" number, both verbally, and written, and eventually, their classmates numbers as well.

The next classroom management technique Morris teaches is the use of sign language.

"We start off the year learning about five signs and by the end my students know 50 or more. I teach them a sign for "I have the answer" "I have a question," "May I use the restroom." By signing they do not interrupt the lesson."

Morris uses "class cards" to call on students during his lessons. This is a system similar to drawing from popsicle sticks labeled with students' names, only Morris's system is less random. Teachers pull student cards from the pile based on which children need to interact in the lesson most. The cards also serve as a visual reminder for the teacher. Set aside the cards of students who struggle with a concept and this reminds a teacher to shape his/her lesson accordingly.

Morris recommends a digital timer to help teachers track the time they allot to student/group tasks. The timer helps teachers to keep their own agenda on a tight schedule, which can be difficult with the many distractions in primary classrooms, but is essential to classroom management.

Morris also makes use of noisemakers including bells, chimes and squeak toys. squeaky toy

"The less I talk the more important my voice becomes," says Morris. "95% of what students do independently is left-brain activity. Your voice doesn't get through to them during these processes. A bell or chime cuts through verbal clutter and immediately calls attention to the teacher."

Morris should know, he spent decades in the classroom. He recently left his elementary school in San Diego, CA to devote his full attention to teaching classroom management to educators. small group

"It's all about building a relationship with the student. Every kid I know wants to do well. When your classroom is well managed you have more time to devote to building those relationships and 78% of student achievement is based on that child's relationship with his/her teacher. I'd say that makes this pretty important."

Rick Morris offers countless FREE resources on his website including a cool new concept called "Kcons," kid friendly images that help teachers communicate with students who can not yet read. To learn more about Rick Morris's classroom management strategies go to newmanagement.com.