Classroom Management

Classroom Management Quickies - Mistakes New Teachers Often Make, So Don't

New teachers often -

Have not figured out what exactly they want and don't want - a root cause of much of what follows.
Overpraise students for doing what is expected.
Don't know the difference between praise and acknowledgement and when each is appropriate.
Fail to do effective long-range and daily planning.
Spend too much time with one student or one group and not monitoring the entire class.
Begin a new activity before gaining the students' attention.
Talk too fast, and are sometimes shrill.
Use a voice level that is always either too loud or too soft.
Stand too long in one place (the feet of clay syndrome).
Sit too long while teaching (the posterior of clay syndrome).
Overemphasize the negative.
Do not require students to raise hands and be acknowledged before responding.
Are way too serious and not much fun.
Are way too much fun and not serious.
Fall into a rut by using the same teaching strategy or combination of strategies day after day.
Ineffectively use silence (wait time) after asking a content question.
Are ineffective when they use facial expressions and body language.
Tend to talk to and interact with only half the class (usually their favorites, and usually on the right)..
Collect and return student papers before assigning students something to do.
Interrupt students while they are on task.
Use "SHHHH" as a means of quieting students (one of the most annoying and ineffective behaviors).
Overuse verbal efforts to stop inappropriate student behavior - talk alone accomplishes little.
Settle for less rather than demand more.
Use threats to control the class (short term, produces results; long term, backfires).
Use global praise inappropriately.
Use color meaninglessly, even to the point of distraction (I know you've seen this happen).
Verbally reprimand students across the classroom (get close and personal if possible).
Interact with only a "chosen few" students rather than spreading interactions around to all students.
Do not intervene quickly enough during inappropriate student behavior.
Do not learn and use student names in an effective way (kids pick up quickly on this and respond in kind).
Read student papers only for correct answers and not for process and student thinking.
Ask global questions that nobody likely will answer.
Fail to do appropriate comprehension checks to see if students understand the content as it is taught.
Use poorly worded, ambiguous questions.
Try to talk over student noise (never, ever, do this, because when you do, you lose and they win).
Are consistently inconsistent.
Will do anything to be liked by students.
Permit students to be inattentive to an educationally useful media presentation (this happens a lot).
Introduce too many topics simultaneously (usually the result of poor planning).
Sound egocentric (if you have to get your jollies from your students, there might be a problem).
Take too much time to give verbal directions for an activity (an inability to focus and explain effectively).
Take too much time for an activity (usually the result of poor planning).
Are nervous, uptight, and anxious (if this is persistent, you need help).
Overuse punishment for classroom misbehavior - going to an extreme when other consequences work better.

Wireless USB 101

Wireless USB (WUSB) technology is a radio-based extension of the USB standard that allows for easy connection of computers, digital camera and other devices. The radio technology can broadcast across distance of up to three meters at transfer rate of up to 480 Mbps.
That corresponds to the speed achieved across cable-based USB connections. The transfer rates drop proportional to the distance, however; at 10 m it can only achieve 110 Mbps.

Adjust Graphics for Speed

Windows XP has a lot of new cool looking visual elements, however, those new elements take up more RAM and cause your computer to be less responsive. By tweaking your graphics settings, you can increase the performance of your computer.

To get started, Let's reduce the color quality. This setting determines how many colors are displayed on your screen.

1. Right click on your desktop and select properties.
2. Click on the settings tab and adjust the color quality drop down box to Medium (16 Bit).
3. Click OK.

Next, let's use the windows performance settings to optimize your computer for performance. This will revert back to the old Windows 2000 look as well as take away a lot of the fancy graphics effects. However, if you are really into performance, this is the price you have to pay.

1. Right click on the My Computer icon on your desktop or in your start panel and select properties.
2. Next, Click on the Advanced tab and hit the setting button under performance.
3. On the visual effects tab, select Adjust for Best Performance and hit OK.
4. Hit OK once more to exit system properties.

Now your computer will run slightly faster!

Delete files when the Recycle Bin is hidden

If you've got a bunch of floating windows open, however, it's possible to obscure the Recycle Bin and make it impossible to drag files and folders there for deletion. However, Microsoft must have thought of this event, because you can automatically hide all of those open windows during a drag operation.

Here's how it works: Make sure a bunch of windows are open on the screen, with at least one of them hiding the Recycle Bin. Then, find a file or group of files you'd like to drag to the Recycle Bin. Pick up the files with the mouse and move them to the lower right of the screen. As you reach the bottom area of the screen, pass the mouse cursor over a blank area of the task bar, hover there for an instant, and the open windows all minimize, leaving the Recycle Bin available to accept the dragged files. Good stuff. This tip also works when windows are maximized, assuming the file(s) you want to delete are visible in one of the available windows.

Windows Annoyances

The Annoyance: A text balloon repeatedly pops out of the system tray on Windows XP’s taskbar to warn you that an update is ready to install, or to provide some other nugget of information you don’t really need to address at that instant.

The Fix: This is another job for Tweak UI (make sure Tweak UI is installed). Open the program and select Taskbar and Start menu in the left pane. Then uncheck Enable balloon tips on the right, and click OK.

Effective Classroom Management

Make Your Expectations Clear
It is very important to have structure and clear expectations for your students. If they have no sense of your authority in the classroom you will be unable to effectively manage your class (and you will probably have a difficult time gaining respect).
In this case, "authority" means "person in charge," in the sense of having a leadership role in the classroom, but not to mean someone who is heavy-handed or strict.
In any case, it is reasonable for you to be the authority figure in the classroom in terms of setting the rules and organizing & guiding the activities of the students for the course. However, it is possible to have a good rapport with your class while still being "the person in charge." Setting clear goals and expectations, and writing and distributing them to students, will help you to avoid some of these problems by providing an objective source of the rules. If a student does not live up to an expectation or does not follow a guideline, the teacher need only refer to the written rules as the ultimate authority (with more power than even the teacher who wrote them). Even if the instructor is him- or herself tempted to bend or overlook a policy for the sake of a student, the written rules can serve as a reminder that these are policies that must apply equally to each and every student. Without these clear policies, the teacher will constantly be in a position of having to make quick judgments for every new student and situation that is causing a disruption in the teaching and learning process