Badges and Recongition

Our second semester starts shortly, and I am eager to start working in some new programs.  I have behaviour and recognition programs in place, but I want to alter them to add some interest.  I have more research and planning to do, but I think that I'll focus on using Edmodo as mode of transmission for the rewards.  I'll put something up in class too, but Edmodo badges have an alluring effect on my students.  Having said that, I need to focus more on giving out badges for day-to-day and weekly things.  My students love them, and I want to give them more opportunities to earn them.

Just some things I have been thinking on.

Classroom Management

Reflection is a key component of an effective teacher.  This is a statement that has been bantered around for a while, and in my experience it is every bit the truth.  Moving to Kuwait last year, I had a difficult time always managing my students.  I struggled, but it wasn't a complete disaster.  Still, when I had some time over the summer I thought long and hard about it.  This year I have implemented many systems, but the systems are only as good as the person using them.  I had to enforce them and I had to get the kids behind them.

Hand signals is one of the best systems I have in place.  The older students have some difficulty getting behind this totally (I still have some rebels), but for the most part my students like this system.  In fact, I have had other teachers come to me and ask about it.  The students I teach had ask their other teachers to implement a similar system.  The signals themselves are pretty self explanatory.  The biggest hurdle involves practicing and reminding students about the expectations.  I have far fewer students yelling out in class, or wasting time while I am with another student.  If they need to use the washroom they will simply hold up their hand with two fingers crossed.  When I see their hand, I can give them a head shake for yes and off they go.  It is simple and effective.  You can download the PDF I made here and the header here.  The designs for the hands can be found on this site.

I also use an assertive discipline tactic where I write names on the white board for warnings and other actions. On the right you will see my white board.  Since we are a bilingual school, I have to get my students to use English as much as possible.  I will allow Arabic in certain cases, but usually when they come into my room they speak only in English.  This is easier said than done, but I strive to work on monitoring this everyday.  Under the Warnings header I write names of students who choose not to listen.  This is the key with this system: the students have auditory, proximity, and visual reminders for behaviour expectations.  The first warning is verbal, the second gets their name on the board, third a check and a time out, fourth another check and a lunch detention, and after that they get after school detentions and so on. 

This is a school policy at my school, but the key is following through with each step.  Kids are kids, and if they can convince you not to give them a lunch detention for their poor choices they will.  It is a system that allows some flexibility, though.  Students can earn back checks if their behaviour improves (if they haven't worked themselves to a detention).

Reflecting on the last semester, I can safely say that I feel a lot more comfortable with how my classroom works.  I can still improve, but I feel as though my students and I have a great environment where we can tackle the questions of the day in a safe, structured, and positive manner.

A Teachable Moment for Them and One For Me.

Today (September 21) is my birthday.  This year I am lucky, because it falls on a weekend day (school week in Kuwait runs Sunday-Thursday).  Amanda has some things planned for the day, but, mostly, I just want to relax.  I still have some work I want to get to, or September 22 will be terribly busy.

Yesterday, I came outside to greet my grade eights as I do every day.  We are still practicing routines and fulfilling expectations.  One of my expectations is that before class begins they line up outside my door in a single-file line and they are quiet.  This helps to calm down the noise before the enter the room, and it helps to start the class on the right foot.  This group was a much talked about group last year, because of the many behaviour and discipline issues that came up.  I only had them for homeroom, so I never really saw much of that.  I'll be honest, before this year began I figured they would still be a tough group.

I was wrong.  They are great kids, and they crave structure and routine.  To that effect, we had to practice entering the classroom a couple of times yesterday.  In both instances one or more students were far too chatty.  I was getting in a huff by the time I had everyone seated.  I lectured them on the importance of our routines, and then I had them take out their books to start on the bell work.  Many stared at me dumbfounded, and I felt like I had accidently brought the wrong class inside.  I asked again, and they slowly started to take out their materials.

I turned to the Smart Board and I drew the screen shade down, so that they could read the instructions.  We were going to do a rapid writing assignment.  I turned around to explain this, and I was met with every single student standing and facing me.  It was like something from Children of the Corn.  And then they sang.  "Happy birthday," came at me in force.

I felt low.  I just berated them for not following rules and expectations, and now they are happily wishing me a happy birthday.  They are kids, they do get excited, and I need to remember that.  I even got a sweet card from one student, and a bottle of cologne from another.  Unfortunately, I don't wear cologne and it is a staple for teacher gifts in Kuwait.  I have five or so bottles stashed somewhere.

As an aside: My grade 8s love the crafting folders.  I already have one student who is a Master Noun Navigator, and several others who are close.  The image is the badge that they receive on Edmodo.

First Week Down

This has been an incredibly busy first week back at school.  Last year at this time, Amanda and I were in a daze.  It was our first year with our own classrooms and we arrived the night before the first day of school.  That first week is a blur, and I have disjointed memories of it.

How I want my students to feel this year.

This year, though, is leaving an impression.  I feel a lot more confident this year (as all second year teachers to, I'm sure) with my procedures and routines.  I have been hammering home this sort of thing, so that my students completely understand my expectations.  We've had the odd blip in the program, but, for the most part, things have been running smoothly.  I'm ecstatic that my hand signal procedure is working so well.  I was a little hesitant, because it seems too juvenile, but my students are really using them.  The Eights have fully taken hold of it, and they use them outside of the classroom too.  The Nines are similarly getting used to using them.  The Tens are using them, but they are a bit infrequent.

The second week is where I think the test will come for the procedures.  Last week everything was new and interesting, but this coming week will be when the students realize they are staying here for another 9 months.    I just need to remember to remind them every time they fail to follow one of my procedures.

Outside of in-school hours, Amanda and I are already spending copious amounts of time preparing material after school and at home.  In fact, we just got back from the school an hour or so ago.  This was our modus operandi last year too, but I feel like I have even more to do this year.  Starting a gamified classroom (3, really) is an incredible amount of work.  Not to mention that I am trying to juggle 3 themes (fantasy, science fiction, and superhero) as well as creating uniquely themed assignments, bell work, etc.  For instance, I have written introduction stories to each grade's theme.  They are several pages long (I enjoy writing), and they are written specifically for each grade.  I wanted to create these as a way to immerse the students in the themed year idea, and to provide context for the gamified elements of the classroom.

One of the first battles/quests my students will go on is to create a back story for their character, and, in order to model what I want, I have created a character and a back story as well.  Of course this is best practice, but the increased amount of DIY stuff I'm doing this year has meant that my workload has increased a lot.  Oh well, I do enjoy it.

Back to figuring out my students' current levels (they love this).

The New Year

We just finished up our first week back in Kuwait.  We were flown in a week ahead of the start of school, so that we can get our classrooms ready for the new year.  Our school has grown by over 200 students this year and we have added several new classrooms.  I'm in one of the new ones, and, thankfully, it is quite big. There was a worry, see, our school is housed in an old government school building and we aren't really able to add to it at all.  Therefore, the classrooms tend to get smaller as we cram more and more inside the school compound.  Nevertheless, my classroom is starting to come together.  I'll be posting some pictures later, but I've got all my material up on the walls, the Smart Board is installed, and so is the whiteboard and cork board.  Unfortunately, our chairs haven't arrived yet so my kids will have to sit on banquet chairs for the first few days of classes.

My school

As I've mentioned before, our school week runs Sunday-Thursday.  My weekend starts tomorrow, when we will get some groceries, and then we will head back to the school on Saturday to prep for Sunday's first day mayhem.  This year I will be focusing on fostering respect and community thinking for the first few weeks, as that can be a problem here in Kuwait (in any school, I suppose).  To go along with that, I will be hammering home the routines and procedures I want to be followed.  Last year was my first real year in the classroom (I taught ESL communication in South Korea for a year, but I don't necessarily count that) and we arrived the day that school started.  That meant that the first few weeks were about survival, and not the proper establishment of routines and procedures.   I came out no worse for wear, but I began my summer vacation researching the procedures I wanted in place.  It is all pretty standard fare, but these are the things that will save me a lot of headaches later on.

I decided to laminate the procedures I have at the moment (I'm sure some more will eventually be added), and I have hung them at the front of the class next to the Smart Board.  We will discuss these ad nauseum for the first week, and I will consistently refer the students to the document if they forget the procedure for a particular action.  Similarly, I have created laminated posters for the levelling explanation and process (XP), as well as the Class Dojo behaviour management system (BP).  As I said, though, I will take some pictures this week of the classroom.

Also, I'm going to post the levelling profile chart I made and I'll go into more detail for the  levelling and behaviour systems I have in place.  It is an exciting time of year!

Jeff

P.S. I forgot a rather funny item.  I went to check on the books that were ordered for my students, and it turns out that somewhere along the line my grade 10 grammar textbook changed from an English with Arabic explanations one to an English with Thai explanations one.  Oops.

The Build-up

I've spent the last week, and I'll spend the next two, planning out more for the upcoming year.  I've been reading heavily into classroom procedures and management, as I struggled last year.  To be fair to myself, a lot of the new teachers (and some of the old) struggled with their students last year.  Kuwaiti kids are raised in a very different environment than we are used to in Canada.

That being said, they are still kids and I know that there are ways to manage their behaviour in my classroom. Amanda and I arrived in Kuwait the night before the first day of school last year, because of visa issues and a torn rotator cuff.  Amanda had her visa stamped and she was ready to go, but after a heated session of golf I tore the rotator cuff in my left shoulder.  I'm sure some of you are shaking your head right now and wondering how that is even possible.  Trust me when I tell you that if you swing hard and wild enough it is a very real possibility.  At any rate, we arrived quite late in the evening and had to get up and teach the next day.  It was a whirlwind.  As such, we have both spent considerable time looking back to last year and searching for ways to improve our classroom management out of the gate.

I've recently read a few books and articles that touch on the subject, and already feel like I have a better grasp on my non-existent classroom.  Hammering home and practicing procedures is going to be a huge focus during the first two weeks.  Similarly, we will work a lot on expected behaviour in the class, lunch room, and during transition .  We had a lot of transition issues with our middle and high school kids last year, so I want this to be a focus.  Add to that the gamification of certain elements of the classroom, and I will have a very hectic first month.  This is the life of a teacher, though.

This week will be spent packing, visiting with family and friends, and doing what planning I can get done.  Next week, Amanda and I get into our classrooms to set up and I am oddly excited.

Jeff

Guilds!

The Guild web series

A lot of the traditional teaching methods in Kuwait and South Korea revolve around the students sitting alone at their desk and facing the chalk or Smart board as a teacher lectures. I was guilty of this when working in Incheon, South Korea, because I had no teacher training. I knew it wasn't the best approach, but I didn't know how to adapt my teaching.

Since moving to Kuwait, I've noticed that my students have a lot of trouble working in groups. They have little prior experience with group work and they have rarely been held accountable for their own learning. I struggled with group work this year. It drained me trying to keep them on task. I had many failures, but many successes too. My grade 9s initially struggled when practicing their Shakespeare scenes, but with diligence from the ESL support teacher and myself the final products were very good.

This upcoming year I want to put more of a focus on group work. I think kids teaching each other is a fantastic way to solidify content, especially for students who are ESL and don't always understand the conversations in the class. To that effect I plan on weaving the groups into the class narrative through the guild moniker.

The guilds in my classroom will be organized first according the stream (I have academic students and applied students - an Ontario distinction) and second according to personality. Obviously some of the students will be moved around throughout the year as issues crop up, but I will try and keep the guilds intact as long as I can.  The notion of having them working for a specific guild gives each member a sense of community and cooperation from the outset, and it will fuel their desire to compete against other guilds.

In the guild format, group participation and accountability will be promoted throughout the year. I want the students to enjoy learning in that environment and I want them to see the benefits. One of the ways I plan on doing this is by having students create things like flags/symbols for their guild and having a point system that encourages them to help each other. I have a lot more planned, and a lot more I'm still planning, but I think that focusing on group work conventions from the get-go will help set the stage for the year.  

Behaviour Points Using Class Dojo

In a previous post, I wrote about how the students will be graded in my classroom next year.  I touched on the idea of XP, and how those experience points will essentially be their marks on assignments while the levels they achieve will be their grades.  In this post I am going to write about another point system I will be introducing next year: Behaviour Points.

In short, I'll call these points BPs.  Teachers all over the world use a behaviour management system that revolves around points and rewards.  I'm not reinventing the wheel by any means, but I will be integrating this management system into my class narrative and theme.

The Class Dojo homepage.

This past year I stumbled onto the classroom management system Class Dojo, and it was a stress-saver.  I implemented it into my grade 8 class in November, and they immediately loved it.  Their system is an avatar based reward and consequence system.  I can assign points based on defined actions (1 positive point for raising a hand or 1 negative point for coming in late).  During every class I would put the website up on the interactive whiteboard, so that students always knew where they were in terms of points.  I set up a system where if they got 10 points in a week they would get to choose a reward like sitting in the teacher's chair or eating in class.  If the entire class earned 75% positive in the course of a week we had a whole class reward like playing soccer for 20 minutes or having free personal activity time.  Only the kids with -1 or higher were allowed to participate in the whole class rewards.  This system worked wonders in my class, as I had kids invested in the game nature of the program.  They wanted to earn points, win the week.  Add to that the fact that kids can create their own avatars and I can e-mail parents beautiful behaviour reports. It is a fantastic free classroom management tool that I suggest every teacher try out.

I will be using Class Dojo next year, but I will be changing how I use it.  This year I reset the points each week, so that the students had a fresh start.  Next year I will use it more as a currency system.  Students will earn positive BPs for things like raising hands, completing homework, staying on task, helping others, etc.  They will earn negative BPs (and therefore lose points) for things like being late to class, not doing homework, speaking out, and using Arabic in class (a problem in a bilingual school, as the students have been caught saying some nasty things - also we are trying to promote their development of English skills).

An example of the point distribution for my grade eights.
Alaa has earned her reward!

At any time students will be able to spend their BPs on 'loot.'  For instance, 5BP would buy a student a pencil or pen, 10BP no homework for one night, 15BP a treat, 35BP 15 minutes of quiet free time, etc.  100BP would buy a student soccer for 25 minutes.  Obviously soccer costs a lot of points and an individual student would have to save for an entire semester to earn something like that.  However, I want to promote cooperation and group work.  Since the students will already be in guilds (groups) I will allow them to combine or donate points to each other in order to claim loot.  If Ahmed doesn't have a pencil and he has no BP left, he can ask Tom if he can spare 5BP from his cache of 30BP.  In order to get the soccer reward, my students will have to work together to combine their points.

As of right now, Class Dojo doesn't seem to allow for erasing a particular student's points (as in spending them on a reward), so I hope that they allow this in the future.  If not I'm sure I can figure out a work around to it.  I will be using Class Dojo simply because it is a clean and easy way to manage and track my students' behaviour.

What's worked and what hasn't

The last year has proved educational in a variety of ways. I've been learning on the go since we arrived, and now, as the summer approaches, is the time to start reflecting on the year.

My students are a frustrating bunch. We have had to deal with a lot of behaviour problems this year at my school, and a lot of that is due to where we live. The kids that attend our school are a privileged lot that have nannies and drivers. They don't even pack their own books into their bags. This reliance on others to do things for them has meant that our students often lack motivation and many of them have no respect for the classroom. Of course, it is not all students, and it isn't really their fault. They are a product of their environments. It is my job to try and give them a formative and positive environment to develop in.

Behaviour management is a difficult thing to master, and I am nowhere close to doing that. However, I did discover some things this year. Mainly, my students are interested in being good students but they have trouble knowing how to do that. The best tool at my disposal this year has been Class Dojo. This site turns behaviour management in a visual point-based system. The kids loved it. I had students actively engaged in trying to be good. It helped loads this year.

However, I want to use it in a slightly different way next year. This year the kids would earn positive and negative points based on their classroom behaviour, and we would reset the count each week. If they reached 10 positive points in a week they got to choose a reward. If the class achieved a 75% positive rating at the end of the week the whole class earned a reward (usually soccer).

Next year, I want to make the points continue from week to week. The students will be able to redeem points for rewards or privileges. As of right now I'm not sure that I can reset individual points using Class Dojo, but I'll figure something out (even if it means creating a hard copy point system modelled on Class Dojo).

As I've mentioned before, I have a lot of big plans for the next school year. I'll be blogging more about them soon in a series I've yet to title. Stay tuned.