Reply To: Really frustrating 5th grade

[nafmeadmin]

This tip might help you deal with them coming noisily. I teach in a high poverty area, so disruptive behavior is normal for most of my classes. I started a ticket system, where I promote positive behavior. I see the same classes every day for a month, so this works well for me, but you could just use this for your very large class. I greet them at the door, and promise about 4-5 tickets for students who come in quietly, go directly to their seats, and put their hands in their laps, ready to learn. I usually model that behavior on the first day of class so that they know what I’m looking for. You could increase the tickets to 10 because you have so many. At the end of the week (you could do this at the end of the class), I pull any number of tickets, depending on what kind of class we had (great, good, okay, not so good). The students who get their tickets pull get to pick a pencil, a sticker, or a little trinket out of a large jar that I have. Sometimes I do candy, which is much cheaper than the pencils. This works like a charm for me, and I barely have to say anything anymore. They just automatically come into class silent. I have a hard time choosing people to give tickets to because of how well everyone comes in. I also use it to promote good behavior throughout the class. Sometimes I have to write myself a little post it to put on my stand because I’ll get caught up in teaching and forget. My classes are 50 minutes long, which is way too long for some classes, but I find that this system works for me. Good Luck! By the way, isn’t having 50-60 kids in one room against the law as it is probably a fire hazard? You definetly can’t do instruments and such with these kids and that’s one of our state standards. Maybe you can use these to your advantage for next semester or next year.