Seating Arrangement

There are many different ways to arrange a classroom's desks, and many teachers find an arrangement that they prefer over all others. There are excellent reasons for almost every kind of seat arrangement, but I want to talk about the one that I find works best, and why.

I always have my class sit in teams. Usually teams of 4, but depending on the class numbers, I have had teams of 3 and teams of up to 6 before.

The biggest reason that I prefer this seating arrangement is because I feel that working in a group and being social is easily one of the most important skills that kids learn in any given classroom. Of course the academics are important, and so is respect for authority, etc., but when you look back over your school years, you will most likely remember your friends in your class, not the dates you learned in history.

With my class in teams, it is easy for me to give a group project or a quick group assignment without assigning partners first. In teams, I can easily transition into a group competition game without having to discuss who is on what team first.

Many of my classroom structures revolve around the teams. I have a team leader every week (each child of the team is given the letter A, B, C, D, (E and F if needed) based on the alphabetical order of the first names of the children on that team). That team leader is responsible for getting the team's supplies, such as pencils and textbooks when we need them. Also, the team leader is the one who will share the team's answer on a group question.

During independent working time, while I am doing reading groups, students are instructed to whisper to their teammates if they need help. They have a specific order of who they ask first, and when they can ask the teacher for help. The teams are designed (by me) to be balanced with low and high students so that the low kids will be receiving help from high kids, and not by someone who will "help" them incorrectly. I spend a lot of time talking about coaching and how a coach won't kick the ball for you, but will teach you how to kick it, as an analogy for helping a partner with an assignment.

I also use the teams for behavior management by putting a globe on the table of the team that is doing the best at the moment. It moves around all day long, but whatever team the globe lands on gets a reward at the end of the day.

I am not too proud to admit that having my students in teams does come with some negatives too.

-It takes a great deal of class space to have the desks in teams, and it frequently doesn't look pretty and organized, because that is where I can fit the desks.

-Most of my students are not facing forward because of this desk arrangement. I ensure that they can all see the board by turning sideways, but they still need to turn to see the board.

-I have to have a tighter handle on classroom control because being in teams tends to make the kids more talkative. This is to my advantage on group work times, and my disadvantage the rest of the time.

Yet, with these negatives, I still keep the class in teams. Many times, on especially chatty days, I consider switching into rows or a horseshoe arrangement, but I never do. It is far more important to me to have the group work and group competitions and other group activities than it is for me to have a perfectly quiet class all day long.

I know that many of you reading this are already dedicated to a particular classroom arrangement, and another large portion of you won't change for another reason (space, required seating arrangement for your grade etc.), but if you can, I do encourage you to try putting your students into teams, if only for a few weeks. Try out a few team activities, and see how excited the students are about getting to sit that way. I hope you find it a rewarding experience, like I have.

Question of the Day

This teaching tip starts with something that I bought from really good stuff.

A picture of it, with a link to the item, is featured above.

As you can see from the picture, at its simplest level, kids can answer a question of the day with their name magnet. The kit includes many questions that you can ask such as favorite color, pet, etc.

I use mine in a slightly different way that I think makes it a more valuable classroom tool. I have the kids answer the question first thing upon entering into the room. Then when I take roll, I go over to the question. If a kid's magnet is not on an answer yet, I mark them as absent (of course spot checking the room to make sure that no one forgot).

Later in the day, I include this question as part of our opening. Part of my opening student's job is to read the question of the day, and tell the class which answer was the most popular, and also answer a few more questions about the chart which require graphing skills. For example, I might ask how many more students chose one answer than another, or how many students chose two answers combined etc.

While sometimes I choose a question that is just for fun, most of the time I choose a question based on what we learned about the previous day, or something we will be learning about on that day.

I really like having this question of the day because it is an easy way to take roll, it helps kids practice their graphing skills (which is a 2nd grade standard), and I can use it to do a quick review or pre-assessment of any curriculum that we are learning about during the day.

I encourage you to have a question of the day, in whatever form you choose to use it.

Class Money/ Store

I want to start by saying that I fully acknowledge that this is a somewhat controversial classroom practice. I am a huge fan of it, but if you feel strong personal convictions against it, then don't do it. My reasons for doing it are explained at the end of this post.

I have a classroom economy. I print up money for my class, and they earn money for certain things, and they lose money for other things, and they can go shopping with whatever profit they have every other week in our little class store.

My class earns money for the following:
- Homework. I pay 1 class dollar for each paper turned in, with a 3 dollar bonus if you turned in all of your papers for the week. This I do because I am not allowed to give a grade for homework, and I wanted them to have an incentive to do it.
- Working hard/ independently. During reading groups, my class aide watches the rest of the class while they do their seat work. I have some kids who buckle down and do it quietly, and others who goof around, or talk to their neighbors instead of working. To try to encourage most of the class to be in the first category, we randomly will pay for this good behavior.
- Good line behavior. Similar to the working hard reason, we want the kids to be good in line, so exceptional line behavior sometimes gives them a class dollar.
- Prizes for games. Educational games are a big part of my classroom, and part of the fun in playing is that some games earn prizes.(See Scattergories) The easiest and cheapest prize for me to give is class dollars.
- Good behavior during a certain event/ day. Some times of the year I use this more than others, such as the last week before Christmas break. On these crazier days I offer a big prize (5 or 10 class dollars) for whoever does the best all day long. I only give out one or two prizes, but I have 90% of my class under control on days that some teachers would just give up.

I am sure there are others, but those are the main ones.

The students can lose class dollars for the following offenses:
- Losing their place. During class reading, such as science or history, it is important that every child is following along while I or another student reads. So, I will occasionally pull class cards during the story, and if they know the next word on the page, I keep going, no consequence needed. If they don't know the next word, they pay me a dollar. Truthfully, most of the time, the threat is enough that I don't get any money by the end of the period.
- Bathroom use at an inappropriate time. The two inappropriate times are right after lunch and right after snack. Other times, they can go, and I just don't like it, but these two times, there is no excuse, they should have gone during their break. So they are charged.
- Bad line behavior. Just as you can earn money for being good in line, you can also lose it for being bad in line. Enough said.
- Forgetting materials. Mainly forgetting their reading book, which is brought home for homework and supposed to be back the next day for reading time.

I know there are more times that I charge fines, but I can't recall them at the moment, but you can decide what is worth a fine in your class.

The class store is mainly supplied by parent donations. I have been fortunate enough that I haven't had to buy things for the store for a long time. When I did, I would usually go to the 99 cent store, and buy party favor sets. This way I get 5 or 6 little items for a dollar. Garage sales usually have used toys pretty cheap as well. Every so often I also hold a garage sale in class, where every student brings their own toys from home that they want to sell, and then they can use that money to buy other toys that other kids brought. They are really happy after one of these days, the only problem is that the money doesn't come back to me (it is just exchanged between kids). I also sell things that are free to me but expensive to the kids, such as a lunch with me, or one seat work paper they don't have to do, etc.

I would like to take a minute to explain my rationale for this class system, and also explain why I don't consider it bribery.

It is not considered bribery when you get paid for your job. If you work hard, you generally earn more, if you are lazy, you earn less. You then exchange your money for other goods and services. That is all I am doing in my classroom. Some people say that kids just should be good and do their homework, etc. without any reward. I agree... but I am also practical, and I know that the majority of kids will not just be good. In the same way, there are amazing people out there who spend most of their time volunteering and helping people without any reward. I admire those people, but that is not the majority of people either. For those teachers who are able to get homework turned in, supplies always ready, and your classroom runs smoothly without any reward system, I applaud you. But for me, this method works, and my kids do great with my system in place.

Oh, and I should also mention that I rarely have cases where I always give class dollars. I want the kids to know that they will sometimes be rewarded for their actions, but not to expect it. I have long held the policy that if you ask for a reward, you don't get it.

My own personal opinion is that having class money and a class store is an easy, all inclusive system of class management that continues to prove successful in my class.

The most important class job- inspectors

Like many other classrooms, I use class jobs. Each student is assigned a job for the week that benefits the classroom in some way.

I have many of the same ones that I know every teacher has- door, lights, line leaders etc. But I have two jobs that might be more unusual, and are easily the most useful jobs I have.

They are both inspector jobs.

The first job is floor and desk inspectors. I assign two students this job for the week. After our clean up time, where every child is responsible for their own floor and desk as well as their assigned job (library, boards, etc.), I give the inspectors a minute to check.

Every piece of trash they find, either under or in a desk, they charge the guilty student a class dollar. Dirty/unorganized desks also can be charged the dollar fee. The inspectors get to keep all of the money they make inspecting.

This works great for many reasons. First, my students are diligent about checking the floor around their desk and keeping their desk neat because they don't want another student to get any of their money. Also, the inspectors do an excellent job checking (much better than I would do, or want to do) because they benefit from finding a problem. In addition, having the two inspectors means that no one is free from having to clean, because the inspectors can check each other's area. I encourage you to try it. It does take some training in what is a big enough piece of trash to charge a dollar for, and how big of an area each student is responsible for, but once the kinks are worked out, it works well enough that I couldn't imagine clean up without it. (the janitors have complemented my clean floors too, they said they almost never need to be vacuumed)

The second inspector job that I have is snack inspectors. One of our health units for the year is nutrition, and so I encourage my students to eat a healthy snack. Just one of the methods I use for this is snack inspectors. I have the class start getting ready a few minutes before recess and they stand at their desks with their snack. Then I have my snack inspectors go check everyone's snack. Healthy snacks- like fruit, string cheese, nuts, etc. can earn a class dollar from inspectors. Medium snacks- chips, cheese its, muffins etc. are allowed to be brought out, but don't earn a dollar. Desserts- cookies, candy, cake are not allowed to be brought out at snack time at all. These students are asked to bring out something else, and to save their dessert for after lunch.

Some benefits of snack inspectors is that every child learns what a healthy snack is, either by being paid for it, or knowing that you, as an inspector, can give a dollar for that snack. Frequently I am asked by my inspectors if ____ is a healthy snack, and I can answer honestly, and explain why it is or isn't. The students learn what snacks to pull out of their lunch bag, and also what snacks to ask their parents to pack, based on what they can be paid for. I, of course, have had some students who don't care about the dollar, and bring out chips everyday. I am not their parent, and so I don't push the issue more than simply rewarding the healthy snacks.

I recommend adding these jobs to your class job list if you haven't yet. You won't regret it.

Sign Language

This is a quick tip, well, relatively.

I think that sign language is a very useful tool in general. Playing charades with my husband to figure out what he wants me to bring out while barbecuing is only so helpful. I should teach him sign language...

Anyways, I think that many rooms use sign language to some extent. For example, kids that have to go to the bathroom. Having them raise their hand is only so helpful, and you don't want them to have an accident because you thought they had a question and it wasn't question time yet. I use the asl letter "r", (fingers crossed) sign for those kids who have to go to the restroom. I respond with the sign for yes, and then they can go without my lesson skipping a beat.

Another sign I use frequently in my classroom is the sign for clapping. It is hard for me when the kids are all excited and screaming when their team wins a point, because then the game takes a really long time as I refocus them after every point. Instead, they can do the silent clap, and then it stays quiet and we can continue, but they still have a way to vent their excitement. (See the last few seconds of the video below to see this).

I also use the sign for wait for when I am going too fast during test time. Instead of them raising their hand or shouting out that they need me to slow down, they do the wait sign. I see it, and pause for them, and then make sure they are ready before I continue.

I work sign language into spelling practice too as I have them sign the letters for the words that we are practicing spelling. I feel that getting to do the letters with their hand is more fun for them, will help them remember, and it is teaching them the asl alphabet as well.

There are 3 more signs that I teach my class, and intend to use a lot more than they are actually used. They are from Rick Morris' work, and it is having a sign for if they have an answer (letter "a"), a question (letter "i") or a comment (letter "c"). This is to eliminate the problem of the teacher looking for an answer to a question she asked, sees a raised hand and gets a question (or worse, a question off topic) or a comment (this weekend we saw apples, and we picked them, and they tasted nice...). While these work great in theory, and I appreciate the kids that use them, I honestly forget to enforce them, and some kids never catch on, or will do the wrong sign, which doesn't help.

To see deaf applause, watch the last few seconds of this video.


Also, check out this website for any sign that you might want to use in your class:
http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro.cgi

What Troubles Me Paper: How to deal with tattlers

I hate tattlers.

Not the kids themselves, because I have always loved all of my students, even the tough ones, but tattling drives me nuts. It takes soooooooooo much time to deal with all of the complaints to the tattler's level of satisfaction, and it frequently involves other students in other classes, and none of it matters (thus why it is tattling and not just telling me about a problem).

So... something had to be done about it.

My first attempt was to bribe the kids not to tattle. I issued a rule that if anyone tattled on someone else (I have very clearly defined rules of what a tattling is) the tattler would have to pay the "victim" 5 class dollars (a relatively high fine).

If you are wiser than me at that time, you will know the result of that... and why it was such a bad idea.

"Johnny did this" says the tattler... "He owes me 5 dollars" says Johnny... or even better... "Sam was going to tattle on me so he owes me 5 dollars and he won't pay..." you get the picture. Bad, nightmare bad idea. It didn't last long.

One day I saw this:

(Click on the picture if you want to buy that, I didn't, as I will explain in a minute)

I am guilty of frequently seeing stuff in stores or online, being inspired by them, and then using handy programs such as word and Microsoft Publisher to make my own (cheaper) version of the product.

This is no exception.


The idea of writing down the message instead of telling me sounded like an amazing idea. They get to voice their concerns, and I don't have to spend 20 minutes after recess sorting out all of the incidents that happened during recess. I, like the turtle poster, made sure that kids know that if someone is hurt, they can bypass this system, but otherwise, write it down, and put it on my desk, and I will deal with it when I can.

With a little bit of training (so that I don't get 5 papers from students telling me what 1 girl said to 1 other girl), it has worked GREAT!

The kids are satisfied that they get to tell their story, and frequently forget about what they wrote down (I know this because the ones that I read and think... this is absolutely nothing... I just throw out, and plan to deal with if it comes up again... and it doesn't).

Another trick with this is that I usually "don't have time" until their next recess, or P.E.. When faced with dealing with the problem that happened at snack or getting to go play, I have had many kids decide that it wasn't a big deal or they had already made up, and then I don't have to spend any time on the problem.

So... if you have tattling kid problems like I do, I encourage you to try this in some form. My principal, in hearing about this idea, really liked it too, and he hopes that more teachers in my school will adopt this idea as well.

Why I prefer Class Cards to Popsicle Sticks

Buy the book - Class Cards

My first experience with class cards was from a Rick Morris presentation. (He has many useful tips and tools, and I am sure more of his great ideas will show up on here later). He introduced the idea, and I have sworn by it since I started student teaching.

At its simplest, class cards is a deck of playing cards, with each card labeled with the name of one student (top and bottom).

This deck will become one of your best tools.

Have you ever had that moment where you can pick one kid to do something special, maybe do an experiment, or help you with something special (that doesn't fall under your regular class jobs), and all you see is tons of hands and you have no idea how to do it fairly?

If you are like me, if required to be done without assistance, you choose a model student. But don't they get picked a lot?

These cards can help. You shuffle your deck (of however many students you have) and pick one. You can feel confident that it truly was completely random, and the kids know that you aren't playing favorites.

Okay, another scenario for you, you simply ask a question that you want someone in the class to answer, because you have just been teaching the lesson. You could call on one of the many bright outgoing students who are desperately raising their hand to get your attention, or you could call on someone who is obviously out in space and has no idea what you are talking about, but you really just want to see if random kids in the class understand it. Pick up your deck of cards. I usually take the top one, and then call on them.

The nice thing about the deck of cards here is that if that student knew the answer, you can go to the next card, and ask another question. If they didn't know, put the card not at the bottom of the pile, but a few from the top, so they will get called on again shortly.

Now, I know what you are thinking, you are wondering why my post talks about why the cards are better than Popsicle sticks, and so far I am not convincing you. Yes, for both applications above, picking up a popsicle stick will work just as well.

The #1 reason why I don't like the sticks is portability. A deck of cards, I can easily carry with my teacher guide, or reading book, or any other thing I need while teaching. I can pick cards and put them back with one hand. With popsicle sticks I have to carry my jar, and then put the sticks somewhere after I use them.

The 2nd reason I don't like using sticks is that when we are doing group reading, I want to be able to keep giving turns, but in a way so that I know everyone gets a turn before we start again, and it is even spacing. So... I use my deck, I shuffle it once before we start, and then I go through it as many times as I need during that lesson.

If we need to vote on something, I use these cards. I call on the students in the order of the cards, and then I put them in piles based on their answer. It helps me decide which movie to watch during a rainy day, or to use student answers to build a class graph.

If kids are absent, I make their cards "wild." In other words, I am letting kids tell me what they would do if they were on the Mayflower. I am calling on students from my cards, and then I come across Suzie's card, and Suzie is absent, I will say, "wild" and then students are allowed to raise their hand to be called on.

For the record, I occasionally do have class activities where I don't use the cards. Sometimes kids like to be called on because they know it, not just randomly.

When you want the kids in groups, and the grouping doesn't matter (I group sometimes based on interests or academic ability as the case dictates), shuffle the cards, deal them into decks, and there are your groups. You want a class competition? Instead of boy/girl, deal the deck in two piles, and then tell the kids what team they are on. It keeps it interesting.

I hope I have given some useful tips for how to use class cards, and I think you will find that they are much better than sticks. If you have additional ideas on how to use these cards, please comment below.

Visit Rick Morris' website here