Classroom Management Monday

"Today is Monday ....you know that that means...." Does anyone else besides me remember the Old Mickey Mouse Club? I am talking the black/white version, not the one that spawned the likes of Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguillera. Well they had this song called  "Today is Tuesday"....click HERE to see the lyrics.

So I am gonna steal that idea, sort of...each day of the week that I blog (and here's to hoping I can build my stamina to blog daily..at least during summer break) will be a specific topic...Classroom Management Monday ....Technology Tuesday...etc.

So today I am starting with Classroom Management Monday....my goal for Monday posts will be to reflect back on a specific "moment" (good, bad or ugly) from my classroom in the previous year where I had to pull a trick out of the old classroom management bag of tricks...I will unpack it, and decide what worked, didn't work, etc.  And the goal here is to get my followers to comment and share their sage advice about what they would have done if they had been in my shoes at that moment.

Get it?  Good....here we go.

For this first Classroom Management Monday ... the no-homework moment. I have had tons of these moments throughout my teaching career. Let me set the stage for you....kid comes in with no homework (AGAIN!!). What do you do? In my classroom, I  walk around and collect homework rather than have them put it in a basket. This way I know who turned it in and who didn't. When I get to one of my little friends who quietly (with eyes cast downward) tells me they forgot it or they don't have it, I don't make a big deal of it. I just keep moving, and collecting the work. They when I get back to my desk, I make a notation on my clipboard who did not turn it in.  I will then find a moment throughout the day and pull my little friend aside to talk to them about why they didn't turn in homework (AGAIN!).  The excuses range from I forgot...to elaborate, detail-filled full blown fibs.  I have some great storytellers in my classroom...especially when it comes to missing homework.  In the past, I have been guilty of not having a poker-face and my kiddos could tell right away that I was disappointed (and in some cases angry) that they had not completed and turned in homework. Eventually I discovered that this was not healthy for anyone involved and worked on my poker-face.

Consequences for no homework usually means moving a clip...and sometimes loss of recess (depending on if they are a habitual offender or not). Most if my students strongly dislike taking the "walk of shame" to the clip chart to move their clip so they are very good about turning in homework.  By my habitual offenders (and I had 5-6 of them between my two classes last year) need for me to ramp things up a notch....a phone call home may do it, but in some cases it has resulted in after-school detention to give them an opportunity to finish said work.

However, with my habitual offenders, they usually have several assignments missing at a time. It is a bit of work to keep track of all that (my clipboard gets a little crowded if you know what I mean).  So I ave been looking for a way to track it, and combine it with parental notification, record keeping for conferences, etc.  I saw a form on a fellow teacher's blog that I liked so I created my own...I have not used it yet, but plan on it for the upcoming school year. I want to look into getting it professional printed in a two-part format (I keep a copy and a copy gets stapled into the student's agenda for parent notification/signature). Here is a picture of what I created...please let me know what you think by posting a comment below. Also feel free to share any ideas you have about how to deal with missing homework. Thanks....

PS: I may offer this as a freebie this week (customizable)...on Freebie Friday!!