Managing the Classroom

As we all know some classes are more challenging than others.  Here are a few tools which may help you to manage your classes:

• ClassDojo (There is an app now too!) - Makes it easy to keep students alert and on-task. This teacher does a nice job explaining set-up and applicaiton.
• Classroom Carrots (Here is a short video for Classroom Carrots) - Classroom Carrots is a site that reminds me of a cross between Class Dojo and Class Badges. This is done by using their educational portal to create a class and add students. Once that is done a teacher can then modify their rewards/stickers and start adding these stickers to students. This is used to manage behavior as well as increase student engagement. Also, they have a nice iPad app for mobility.
• Use a Door Bell for brain breaks and a little math - Read how this teacher used a doorbell to incorporate a brain break in her class.
• GroupMaker  - GroupMaker is the best app for quickly creating diverse groups. Organize groups based on gender, performance level, or ethnicity. You can also just randomly mix everyone up into groups of 1-20 depending on your needs. GroupMaker is a tool to help teachers organize their classes into diverse heterogenous groups.
• Heads or Tails - Best coin flipping and tossing.  Use it anytime you need to make some choices:)
• How about a sound gauge?
• Teacher's Assistant - Teacher's Assistant Lite allows teachers to keep track of student actions, behavior, infractions, and achievements in the classroom. The lite version allows you to use the app with 5 students with up to 3 actions per student. Try before you buy!
• Pick Me! - This app makes it EASY and FUN to Randomly Pick Students!
• Do nothing for 2 minutes.
• You Can Handle Them All - Based on a best-selling book, You Can Handle Them All, this is an app for any educator or parent who’s struggling to manage a student’s or child’s inappropriate behavior!  You Can Handle Them All is a quick-action resource for managing 124 student behaviors at school and at home.
  Categorized by the 4 primary causes of student misbehavior, this app:
  • Clearly describes 124 different student behaviors you may encounter.
  • Identifies the primary cause of each behavior.
  • Offers a number of quick actions you can take to manage each student behavior.
  • Reveals the common mistakes teachers often make when trying to correct behaviors.
  • Cross references related behaviors. 
• Monitor the classroom noise level and create a visualization for students with the Calmness Counter. 
• Create musical cues for your class.
• How about some fun classroom timers?
• Music has been known to have a calming effect.  Although students may think this is corny at first...it works! A musical realization of the motion graphics of John Whitney as described in his book "digital harmony"
• Stick Pick  - Pick a student at random just by giving your device a shake or tapping the screen -- but that’s just the beginning. Stick Pick suggests question starters for learners at different levels and also records how well students respond during classroom discussions. If a student is consistently scoring near the top or bottom, simply change the level so students aren't bored or frustrated. Depending on students' levels of English proficiency, they might be asked simple yes-or-no questions or to elaborate in longer sentences.
• Random Name Generator Tool - Did anyone not answer yet? Who still has a popsicle stick? Are you kidding me? Bring your classroom management into the 21 century with the Random Name Generator Tool.
• The TooLoud! app is ideal for the teacher who needs to limit noise in the classroom environment.  It records decibels, displaying the volume levels in numbers.  Use it to let the class know when they cross the auditory line.  Hook your iPad up to the projector and manage the working noise level in class by letting the students see the feedback for themselves.  The data is also visualized in a live graph and in a sliding bar that indicates the rising levels of clamor and babble.  Watch out for the red zone...time to bring the level down!
• A traffic light flash resource to control the volume the children in your class.
• Happy Class - HappyClass automatically creates classroom seating arrangements based on your students’ needs and relationships.
• Challenge your class not to make the balls bounce with Boucy Balls.
• Dart Board name selecting tool or even a Random Name Selector can add some interest.

Have you tried one of the ideas or tools from above. Share your feedback.

What ideas, techniques or resources do you have for managing your classroom?