Classroom Management tips – 2 by 10

In continuing with the classroom management tips from the webinar by Rick Smith that I mentioned on my post on Sunday, today I’d like to talk about a simple but effective way to help with classroom management. Rick Smith called it the 2 by 10 strategy, not to be confused with a 2 by 4 strategy, which would be completely different.

The basic idea is that you ensure that you spend at least two minutes each day for at least ten days having a positive and personal (g rated) conversation with your most challenging student. He mentioned that it should be g-rated, and while he didn’t explain why, I think that it’s important that students understand what topics are acceptable to talk about at school with teachers and what are not. Research has shown that if you do this for ten days that there will be a huge improvement in your classroom environment.

I do try to have many little conversations with my students, especially first thing in the morning as they are coming in. I have been making more of a conscious effort to have these conversations with some of my more difficult students, both because of this webinar, and also a post by a blogger that I follow, Matt Ray. I have so many students who need that extra attention. It’s hard to pick one student who is my most challenging so I’ve been spreading out those minutes as best as I can. I hope that it will have a positive influence on my classroom.

Tomorrow I’m going out to another school to observe another grade 5 teacher teach his literacy block. I’m looking forward to this chance to see how someone else teaches literacy and gather up some ideas for my classroom. We also have an afternoon session with the other school that we are combining with when our new school is built led by our former principal. I’m looking forward to it.