Lately I have been trying out a few new classroom displays to help engage the students and set the climate for the type of learning environment that I want.
Pinterest has been a great help as I started following some educators and discovered some great ideas.
Firstly, we embed the Habits of Mind into our Teaching and Learning so I decided to create a Habits of Mind wall which displays photos of the students exhibiting the different habits during normal classroom activities
I also found this great chart to assist with Classroom Management. Students start the day all on the ‘Ready to Learn’ level (that is where I expect all students to begin when they enter my classroom). From there they can move up and down the chart depending on their actions and behaviour. This will also work in well with my online Classroom Management System (Class Dojo) which allows me to monitor positive and negative behaviour and produce reports to give students meaningful feedback.
I also found this helpful chart which assists students in knowing their noise level in the classroom. I have 3 of these charts displayed around the room and already after a couple of days I can say things like, “Dane – what level are you on? What level should you be on?” It has helped the students understand that there is a time and place for different voice levels and helping them to choose the most appropriate level for the activity they are doing.
