In order to survive teaching middle school you must, above all else, maintain classroom organization and routine at all times. If your room is unorganized then it will not be conducive to routine, expectations will be more difficult to establish and enforce, and chaos will ensue. The first area of the room I want to focus on is bulletin boards. It took me longer then it should have to realize that bulletin board space should be used for more then just displaying motivational posters (though motivational posters are not completely useless- more on that later). Depending on your space I suggest the following:
1. Voice-O-Meter: Post a voice-o-meter, there are many versions/variations of this online. Having this visual will prevent you from sounding like a broken record, constantly telling the students that they are being "too loud". Furthermore "too loud" is very subjective, therefore having this meter give specific feedback instantly. I suggest having two arrows, one to represent the expectation and one to represent the current volume. Use a chime or singing bowl to get students attention rather then shouting over them and then point to the voice-o-meter, no discussion needed.
As an alternative to the noise-o-meter create large magnet letters spelling "noise", display on the board and remove a letter each time the volume gets to loud. If all of the letters are removed then the students lose a privilege.
2. Twitter-Board: I think it is safe to say that all teachers have had a the phone debate- an uncomfortable power struggle with students regarding their use of technology. I suggest making a social contract with the students that specifically addresses technology use, in addition to posting a
twitter-board. This is a space where the students can "tweet" at the appropriate time and within an appropriate context. Getting to "tweet" could be an earned privilege, or a unique way to share out. The twitter-board could also be used for exit tickets.
3.Exit Slips & End of Class Routine: If you do not use your twitter-board for exit tickets here are a few additional ideas...
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Fancy
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Somewhat Fancy
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| Simple |
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*Be sure to post your beginning and end of class routines, and clearly label journal bins, turn in baskets etc.
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