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"Students are a fickle population that tends towards ruin." -Brad Karpie
Managing a classroom is both an art and a science. I've found that the best way to manage a classroom is to set crystal clear expectations that define what success looks like for both yourself and your students, and then to measure the rate of success with incredible accuracy. When it is clear how to be successful, it makes it much more difficult to fail, whether behaviorally or academically.
Managing a classroom is both an art and a science. I've found that the best way to manage a classroom is to set crystal clear expectations that define what success looks like for both yourself and your students, and then to measure the rate of success with incredible accuracy. When it is clear how to be successful, it makes it much more difficult to fail, whether behaviorally or academically.
Student Testimonials
Student Testimonials
We start our school year out using this opening day Google Slides presentation. We'll identify roles in the classroom with a modified response card activity during which students point to themselves, the teacher, or hold up a fist for "everyone." Built into that slideshow, students will read testimonials from last year's students to share expectations from a student perspective. Teachers always prattle on about what they expect, but they are an inherently biased source about themselves. To eliminate this bias, on the last school day each year, I ask students to write down advice to next year's class of incoming 8th-grade students Then we do our first, modified close-read protocol using our opening year prose and opening year poems. That's right, already reading on day one!
NextGen Learning Standards: 8R1, 8R3, 8R5, 8SL1, 8L4, 8L5
Getting Gritty With It
Getting Gritty With It
Today, students will transition from yesterday's Karpie-specific expectations to learning how to learn. We'll watch a selection of videos about grit and growth mindset - two of the most important factors to being successful as a student, and as we watch, we'll respond to a Google Form to annotate our learning. Students can choose any two of the four videos offered to watch and reflect upon, but no matter which videos they watch, they'll need to answer a Google Classroom question, and respond to two other classmates' responses.
NextGen Learning Standards: 8R2, 8R3, 8R6, 8R7, 8W2, 8W6, 8L6
I "Sort" of Understand Grit and Growth Mindset
I "Sort" of Understand Grit and Growth Mindset
Today, students will engage with a new Google tool, Jamboard! They'll identify whether a statement or image reflects a fixed, or a growth mindset, by dragging it to one side of the screen or the other, and then demonstrate their knowledge by "translating" a final, fixed mindset statement into a more appropriate growth mindset through a Google question.
NextGen Learning Standards: 8R4, 8R9, 8SL5, 8L5
A Gritty Discussion
A Gritty Discussion
For our first, formal discussion, we'll have students connect the two mindset videos they chose with their own lives. Students will walk to one of four corners of our classroom, and receive full credit for the day by explaining their reasoning in three, clear, spoken sentences. Shy students will be offered sentence stems to ease their engagement, and we'll all learn a lot about each other while becoming comfortable with the kinds of mindsets that are proven to help students succeed. Responses are welcome in both English and Español.
NextGen Learning Standards: 8SL1, 8SL3, 8SL4, 8SL6
Additional Zen Classroom Materials
Additional Zen Classroom Materials
Classroom Management Reboot
Classroom Management Reboot
Sometimes during the year, a class, or team, or one of my colleague's classes need a little reminder about how to successfully function in a classroom. When that special time comes, I utilize this classroom management reboot protocol to set things straight again.
Restorative Justice Form
Restorative Justice Form
The form to the left is used when students get sent out of class. Removal from class doesn't do much good on its own. Sometimes, students prefer sleeping in ISS instead of working in class. To turn time outs into something productive, students engage with this form during their time out periods, and "earn" their way back into class with the successful completion of the form.
After seeing the start of our year, check out how we reflect at the end!
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