Best back to school tip!

Hey, hey friends!! Thank for stopping by the blog!! Christina from Hanging Around in Primary and I are jointly hosting a Back to School tips linky!! We would LoVe if you would join us big and little fish bloggers. :)

My best back to school tip is have your classroom management system ready to go!! Know it like the back of your hand!! Be ready to answer parent questions about it and know your expectations of students (and consequences) right away. (Be ready to BE CONSISTENT!!)

I use a few different classroom management strategies in my classroom, and to tell you the truth the strategies aren't always the same....you have to mold and shape your management routine to each class, as you get to know them. BUT...I do consistently use the following:

Whole Class: 

We are a TCIT school. (TCIT stands for Teacher-Child Interaction Training.) TCIT is ALL about positive redirection and praise. You can read more about that here. TCIT doesn't require any materials printed or displayed in the classroom, but it does take some getting used to and training yourself to say the right things.

The other whole class management method I use is behavior bingo. It goes like this. I have hundreds chart and two buckets filled with the numbers 1-100. If the class is "caught being good" OR someone in class does something nice/respectful for someone else, or someone is caught bucket filling I will pick numbers out of the first bucket. I color that number in on the hundreds chart and put those numbers in the second bucket. (When there is a bingo I move all the numbers back to the first bucket.) Before we get a bingo, my class votes on their prize. I choose FREE prizes  mostly, hat day...eat lunch in the classroom...etc. I need to apologize for the pic below...from my old classroom in my old school, three years ago!! Another back to school tip:Take pictures!! #oops #wheresmycamerawhenineedit

I have a much more detailed post about behavior bingo HERE. Want a behavior bingo board FrEeBiE?? Click below. (If you know me, you know I am OBSESSED with birds...so of course I had  to put a little bird on it. :) )

Individual Management: 

I know some people won't agree with me...but I am a firm believer in the clip chart, and that is because I only use it in a positive way. In my classroom it is way more about the clipping up (WHICH CAN LEAD TO THE GLITTER CLIP PEOPLE!!!) than it is about the clipping down. If a student does need to clip down, I NEVER point it out to the whole class, sure a few kids might look over at the chart later and notice Bobby moved his clip down, but there is no public shaming. Also, I make sure to LAY THE PRAISE ON THICK the next day for a student who might have clipped down the day before...you cannot believe their giddiness when they make it off the chart the next day and I end up wearing their clip. There are TONS of clip charts available on TpT and online. Below is the one I use...#birdobsession

So...in the end...my tip is have your classroom management plan mapped out WAY before those first little faces walk in your door for Open House. If you are a new teacher, talk to your mentor teacher and see what works best for them...clip chart, class dojo, principal's office (hope not, haha!) use what is best for you!! AND...be sure to link up with us!! I can't wait to read your tips!

Thanks for stopping by,

An InLinkz Link-up