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5 Top Management Tips in the 1:1 Classroom

With 1:1 technology access now the norm, classroom management around devices is another piece of the planning. We hope these top 5 tips will help you to maximize learning while minimizing distractions in your technology rich, student-centered classroom.

Focus on Relationships

The beginning of any classroom management plan should start with building positive relationships with students. Teachers who do this well create healthy and focused learning environments. All the classroom management strategies in the world won’t be effective if students don’t feel safe and respected. So greet students at the door, learn their names quickly, and focus on creating a culture of inclusiveness where all voices are valued and students feel safe. How will your students know relationships are your priority on day one?

Grab Students’ Attention 

When devices are being used effectively in the classroom, students are engaged in collaboration, creation, and communication. When the teacher needs to direct their class to the next task or provide large group instruction, it can be challenging to regain students’ attention. In order to avoid frustration and wasting valuable learning time, you’ll want to have both a signal for gaining student attention as well as clear expectations for what students should do when they hear the signal. What will be your “eyes on me” signal? 

Make Expectations and Procedures Visible

Having clear classroom expectations and procedures helps students be successful. Problems arise when instructions are unclear or students don’t know what to do. Display posters for common procedures, expectations, and mindsets. Consider making a visual reminder explaining to students how to proceed if they have a question, or what it looks like when a student is “ready to learn”. How will you help students take responsibility for their learning through clear, visible expectations this year? 

Need inspiration? Check out our free, downloadable posters at cmdigitalage.com/free-posters.

Get the Students Active

Say goodbye to being asked, “What are we doing today?” The beginning of the year is a great time to consider your “bell ringer”, “warm up”, or “activator”. Starting your day with an agenda, objectives, and actions posted in the same predictable place gives students an anchor for launching their days right. Along with a list of what lies ahead, you might share a prompt for talking, writing, drawing, or doing. Regardless of what your activator asks students to engage in, sharing out learning objectives, daily plans, do-nows, inspiration, and relationship-builders without the need for the teacher to provide the direct instruction is more than just a time saving strategy. You’ll get a few moments to connect individually, to take attendance, and to get the pulse of your students while they independently get oriented. Whether you choose to project a slide onto the screen for all to see or have each student access the activator in Google Classroom or another online learning space, this is a routine you’ll want to solidify in the first weeks of school. What will activate your students’ days?

Set the Students Free

But wait, isn’t management all about control, and isn’t that the exact opposite of freedom? Nope! Personalized and differentiated learning meets the needs of our students. When teachers establish strong structures, they create environments where students can then move in the directions they need. The powerful creative devices that students have access to, whether laptops, tablets or Chromebooks, make it possible for students to have deeper levels of ownership of the pace, the paths, and the products. When you have an effective classroom management plan (see items 1-4 above) you set the foundation for a truly differentiated classroom. We encourage you to consider ways that you might give students more ownership of their learning this year. How will you cultivate an environment for student directed learning?

Student directed doesn’t mean teacher absent. These five tips create a proactive scaffold from which your students can grow as learners and people in a technology-rich, relationship focused community. Wishing you a wonderful year ahead!

Want to learn more about effective practices in technology-rich spaces? Check out Classroom Management in the Digital Age!

About the Author: Patrick Green is the author of “50 Ways to Use YouTube in the Classroom”and co-author of  “Classroom Management in the Digital Age.” He is also Chief Adventure Officer at Raising a Maker. After two decades working with and learning from students, parents, teachers, and administrators in stateside and international schools, he is living location-independent in the pursuit of extraordinary personalized learning opportunities for himself and his family. A YouTube Star Teacher, Google Certified Innovator, and Apple Distinguished Educator, you can follow how work, school, parenting, and play blend for Patrick at @pgreensoup on Twitter and Instagram and can visit his YouTube channel for more tips and tutorials.

The Big Picture- Classroom Management in the Digital Age

Two things sent me searching for a great resource on classroom management in a 1:1 environment:

First, we went 1:1 Chromebooks in all of our junior highs this past January. In preparation, Instructional Technology met with the administration on each campus to discuss their plans for roll-out, implementation, and management of all the devices. Part of this was looking at how classroom management would be affected school-wide now that every student would have his/her own Chromebook. Not surprising, the first line of defense, if a student used the device for off-task behavior in class, was to take away the Chromebook. Yikes!

Then, I was asked to present on the 1:1 initiative at a junior high during a PTA meeting. New audience: parents. Many of them shared concerns that no real learning could possibly happen if students had a Chromebook in their faces every day in every class. They saw how their students acted with smartphones and tablets. It would be a distraction. It would be a lazy way for teachers to teach. It was also dangerous. Online predators are everywhere! Yikes again!

Both of these shined a light on the real concern here: have we properly prepared our teachers to strengthen and/or adjust their classroom management to integrate technology and these devices smoothly into their lessons and classrooms?

All great educators know that adding a device does not mean a complete collapse of the current discipline system. We work with it. We adjust. We are flexible. The next question becomes: how do we encourage and support teachers who currently struggle with classroom management? The challenges will continue and possibly be heightened with 1:1 devices.

I needed something I could recommend to administrators, instructional coaches, and/or teachers that would help with this.

I am a big believer in signs. How timely was it that this Tweet happened across my feed at just the right moment?

Let’s start with the fact it is a thin book. Perfect. I have a lot of things I would love to read but not the time to spend on tons of information. Next, there are only four chapters. Each one addresses a key component of classroom management including actual strategies and how to connect with parents. These are important factors when suggesting it to others. We know how busy we stay in education. Classroom Management for the Digital Age by Heather Dowd and Patrick Green is compact and to the point! So far, total win!

Cosmetics aside, I was hooked from the Introduction where it is explicitly stated, “Don’t Take Away the Digital Tool” and followed with a perfect comparison to the days of yore when students would pass notes instead of paying attention in class. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Each chapter has a focus that reminds and reinforces what strong teachers already know to be true about classroom management. The book simply adds a tech twist. In Classroom Procedures, the idea that “good teaching practices before devices were in classrooms are still good practices today” is emphasized by the idea that students should always know the day’s learning objectives and how those can be posted and accessed digitally. This also enables parents to see what students are focusing on day-to-day.

One of my favorite updates to solid strategies is the “Ask 3 Before Me” idea highlighted in Classroom Rules and Expectations. Instead of asking three classmates before asking the teacher, as it was done in the past, the new “3” include peers, Google, and YouTube. You can download a poster of this for your classroom. It is time we empowered students, with necessary support, to find and filter information for themselves!

This method appears again in Teaching Tips and Strategies where educators are encouraged to “give students the opportunity and responsibility to solve authentic problems.” This chapter helps with that by giving, well, tips and strategies. The best thing about everything suggested in this chapter? They are not new ways that teachers have to learn from scratch. Everything in here is what smart educators already know and do! It is just a matter of finding where technology/devices fit.

Before I speak about the last chapter, I want to revisit my first “Yikes” moment. The book calls it “techno-panic” when administrators and educators have knee-jerk reactions to behavior going awry with devices in the room. I like this term because it describes exactly what happens when taking away the device is the immediate consequence the first time a student is either off-task or using it inappropriately. Just because a kid is disengaged in one class, doesn’t mean he behaves the same in all classes. If that device is confiscated, both the student and his teachers are basically punished in every other class period. Not cool.

One of my co-workers pointed out that if a student was cutting her hair instead of the paper with scissors, then the teacher should take away the scissors. I agree. However, that is a different level of infraction. A kid checking her e-mail periodically in a new tab is different than one who is misusing the device to bully or spam or access inappropriate content throughout the day. It comes down to behavior, not the device.

The last chapter, Partnering With Parents, wonderfully addresses the “Yikes” I express when I hear the fears and misunderstandings that parents have when it comes to going 1:1. The important point is that parents are “[engaged] in conversations around the value of 1:1” in the classroom. Once they see why then it becomes a matter of continuously communicating and inviting them to be part of the learning process. I am starting to realize that parents are our forgotten audience. We spend a lot of time educating teachers on the importance of student inquiry and creation with technology. How often do we really reach out to our community of parents to answer their questions and ease their concerns? This book steps us in the right direction for this.

Overall, I couldn’t have asked for a better resource. I recommend this book every chance I get especially since we are currently planning with our high school administrative teams to go 1:1 in August. Classroom Management in the Digital Age is an informative, timely, and quick read. Get a copy. Have a book study. Spread the word!

 

 

Lydia Croupe
iTeam Lead-Instructional Technology
Richardson Independent School District
Richardson, TX

@EduCroupe

 

 

 

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